RENEWABLE ENERGY

• The beginnings of the renewable energy revolution rooted in agriculture are taking shape in India, with the first bio-energy plant.
• It will produce Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) from paddy straw, converting agricultural waste into wealth.
• Disposing of paddy stubble & biomass by setting it on fire to prepare fields for the next crop, which has to be sown in a window of 3-4 weeks.
• This is spread over millions of hectares.
• The resultant clouds of smoke engulf the entire National Capital Territory which plays havoc with the environment & affects human & livestock health.

• The government of India has put several measures & spent a lot of money in tackling the problem.
• The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region & Adjoining Areas (CAQM) developed a framework & action plan for the effective prevention & control of stubble burning.
• The framework includes in-situ management i.e, incorporation of paddy straw & stubble in the soil using heavily subsidised machinery.
• Ex-situ CRM (Crop Residue Management) efforts include the use of paddy straw for biomass power projects & co-firing in thermal power plants & as feedstock for 2G ethanol plants, feedstock in CBG plants, fuel in industrial boilers, waste-to-energy plants & in packaging materials.
• Measures are in place to ban stubble burning to monitor & initiating awareness generation.
• Despite these efforts, farm fires continued unabated.
• Though paddy stubble burning has received a lot of attention because of its severity of pollution, the reality is that crop residue burning is spreading even to rabi crops.
• Unless these practices are stopped, the problem will assume catastrophic proportions.

• NITI Aayog approached FAO India, to explore converting paddy straw & stubble into energy & identify possible ex-situ uses of rice straw to complement the in-situ program.
• In technical consultations with the public & private sectors, the FAO published its study on developing a crop residue supply chain that can allow the collection, storage & final use of rice straw for other productive services, specifically for the production of renewable energy.
• The results suggest that to mobilise 30% of rice straw produced in Punjab, an investment of around ₹ 2,201 crores would be needed to collect, transport & store it within 20 days.
• This would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 9.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
• Depending on market conditions, farmers can expect to earn between ₹550-1500 per ton of rice straw sold.
• A techno-economic assessment of energy technologies suggested that rice straw can be cost-effective for producing CBG & pellets.
• Pellets can be used in thermal power plants as a substitute for coal & CBG as a transport fuel.
• With 30% of the rice straw produced in Punjab, a 5% CBG production target set by the government scheme, "Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation" (SATAT) can be met.
• It can increase local entrepreneurship, and farmers' income & reduce open-burning rice straw.