By IANS
New Delhi : Biomass is increasingly being used to light those Indian villages where supplying electricity from the national grid is still not feasible, Minister of State for Renewable energy Vilas Muttemwar said here Monday.
The minister was replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament.
The government is encouraging promotion of biomass-based off-grid small power projects to meet electricity demand in villages under various programmes like Village Energy Security Programme, Remote Village Electrification Programme and Biomass Gasifier Programme, he said.
A cumulative capacity of 1,140 MW of biomass power generation, including bagasse-based cogeneration, was added till March 2007, the minister added.
Muttemwar pointed out that sugar mills in the country had the potential to generate 5,000 MW of power through optimum bagasse-based cogeneration.
The ministry of new and renewable energy has proposed capacity addition of 1,700 MW of biomass, including 500 MW based on bagasse, during the 11th five-year plan (2007-12), Muttemwar said.