Biomass Power Potential of India
“Biomass power is a direct replacement for conventional fossil fuel energy plants. It does not have to be a clear sunny day (to work)” — Tom Amesbury
Let’s begin with some figures and facts-
India is one of the fastest growing countries in the world, with a GDP growth of 7.2 % (Jan, 2018). India’s energy demand is expected to be five times its current level in another 25 years (bridge to India). On the other hand, per capita electricity demand in India is very low, as compared to developed countries, at around 783 kWh/capita in 2013. In 2014, 19% of the population (244 million people), still had no access to electricity. Population growth, increased access to electricity and economic development are expected to result in a rapid growth of electricity demand in India. Over the next decade, India is likely to have the fastest-growing electricity market of any of the world’s biggest economies (IEEFA, 2015).
The power sector accounted for 38% of India’s total emissions (excluding LULUCF) in 2014. The emissions intensity of electricity supply in India is relatively high (812 gCO2/kWh in 2014). In year 2016–2017, coal remains the major source of power generation accounted for 68.4% whereas renewable energy source accounted for around 15% (annual report MNRE, 2016–2017) which comprises of 33 GW power by wind energy and only 8 GW power by biomass-energy.
While looking to reduce fossil fuel use to reduce GHG emissions, India faces a tough task in meeting its energy needs from renewable sources with other major issues such as poverty and population. India aims to achieve 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, however for next 20 years India will majorly depend on conventional sources of energy (coal and hydrocarbon) (world economic forum).
Too much of facts.. Lets get back to our initial quote by Tom Amesbury.
Why did I mention this quote ?? Because biomass power is carbon neutral electricity generated from renewable organic material, usually waste materials. And energy from biomass is reliable as it is free of fluctuation unlike wind power or solar power. Moreover, the great majority of energy investment into solar panels or wind mills comes during their manufacture, while the energy return is delivered slowly over the decades of their projected usefulness.
Still it is not the preferred renewable energy source, the primary reason may be the biomass supply chain. Biomass availability is not certain for whole year. Biomass from agriculture is available only after harvesting period which can stretch only for 2–3 months in a year. So there is a need to procure and then store required quantity of biomass within this stipulated time. Also not to forget the fact that bulk density of biomass is very low, thus, for example 1 kg of biomass occupies a lot of space.
Lets first see land use and available biomass resources in India to understand biomass energy potential with the help of the following map but before that lets understand what is biomass and biomass energy potential ???
Biomass can be explained as residue available by water based vegetation, forest or organic waste, by product of crop production, agro or food industries waste. And a biomass potential is defined as a resource which is generally being tapped and sometimes unused.
We can see most of the land in India is suitable for cropland (shades of brown) and is rich in forest area too (shades of green). Very less barren land can be seen at the northwest part of India (grey). More precisely, about 46% of land is the net sown area (absolute value of the area cropped), 23% of area is forest land, 14% of land is not available for cultivation and about 3.5% of land is pastured land. More details can be found here.
Due to dependency of large population of India on agriculture, cattle and livestock also survive on large scale. This makes the biomass potential availability of diverse kinds in Indian villages. Thus, biomass conversion to energy is quite rewarding in Indian scenarios. We have seen that India has high potential of biomass availability, now lets throw some lights on potential of bio-energy in India with the help of the following maps —
[2] This map shows state-wise estimated potential of bio-energy in India as on March, 2016. Widget at the right side of the map shows:
i) Total biomass power potential(MW)
ii) Total renewable energy potential, 2016 (MW)
iii)Total renewable energy potential, 2011 (MW) and
iv) Percentage Gross agro feedstock residue states of India
[3] This map shows state-wise potential of cogeneration bagasses in India as on March, 2016. Widget at the top right shows total estimated cogeneration bagasses (MW).
The concept of simultaneous generation of electricity and thermal energy is called cogeneration. It produces two forms of energy from a single fuel source. One of the forms of energy must always be heat and the other may be electrical or mechanical energy. Almost all sugar mills in India are using cogeneration by using bagasse as fuel. We can see that UP, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are among the leading states in cogeneration-bagasse.
[4] This map shows state-wise estimated potential of waste to energy in India as on March, 2016. Widget at the top right shows total waste-to-energy potential (MW).
Observations from the maps,
We can see that India has potential of about 17500 MW power can be generated by available biomass and additional power of about 5000MW and 1700MW can be generated from surplus biomass collected from waste of various industries such as bagasse in sugar mills (widgets on the maps).
States such as Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh have large feed-stock residue (gross) and we can observe that states leading with estimated potential of biomass power (map 2), cogeneration bagasse (map 3), waste to energy (map 4) are Punjab, Maharashtra, UP, Haryana, Gujarat. These maps let us compare land use and state-wise potential of biomass power.
As per ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE), it is expected that 73,000 MW energy will be produced by 2032 using biomass as well as bagasse cogeneration.
Ok, we have seen the potential of biomass power and what are the targets to be achieved, now lets take a dig at how much India has achieved in the generation of biomass power and what are its strategies.
Figure below shows the state wise installed capacity of grid interactive Biomass power (2016):
We can clearly observe that some of the Indian states leading the pack in establishing biomass-based power supply are Maharashtra (1220 MW), Karnataka (872MW), UP (870MW)and Tamil Nadu (641MW) and Andhra Pradesh (380MW) contributing to 25%, 18%, 18%, 13% and 8% respectively of the total biomass power (4450.55 MW) generated. Ironically, states having agricultural-based economy have not properly been able to utilise the opportunity and figure low on biomass energy utilisation. Only Uttar Pradesh has utilised large part of the biomass potential in north Indian States and that is mainly due to the sugarcane industry and the co-generation power plants. Interestingly Punjab and Haryana don’t have much installed capacity in comparison to potential.
Now, lets have a look at India’s steps in deployment of biomass power. As on 2013–14, India proposed to install bioenergy projects with the capacity of 1081 MW and India’s total biomass installed capacity increased from 2664 MW in 2011 to 4013 MW in 2014.
Map shows us the proposed bioenergy projects in India (2013–2014), which are under various stages of execution. Labels on the map shows RPO percentages across various states on India.
Map shows, projects which are under various stages of execution. We can observe from the map that Karnataka is leading with the total capacity of around 390 MW. Additionally, as per recent MNRE annual report (2016–2017), it has set to install bio-power 400 MW and waste to power 10 MW capacity. More details on energy targets and implementation can be found here.
RPO (renewable purchase obligation) is being implemented across various states to biomass power cogeneration and we can observe from the map (2) and the above map that Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra are among leading states in the cogeneration of biomass power with their highest RPO % . However, Tamil Nadu with highest RPO % still lacking in the cogeneration of biomass power.
Moreover, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) providing loan for setting up biomass power and bagasse cogeneration projects. Also, central financial assistance and fiscal intensives are provided for Biomass Power Project and Bagasse Cogeneration Projects by Private/Joint/Coop./ Public Sector Sugar Mills.
These maps allow us to visualise land-use, potential bioenergy and states leading in bio-power production. We could also able to see states lacking bio-power production, inspite of the fact that some of them have high potential and good CFA. If biomass could be sourced economically, the power generation could be cheaper than coal. But the reasons attribute to this may be —
i) Biomass prices increasing and therefore government tariff policies needs to improve
ii) Defragmented land holdings do not allow high mechanisation results in reduction in efficiency
iii) Needs to improve scale-up and biomass handling and storage
Bioenergy could contribute significantly to mitigate GHG emissions by displacing fossil fuels with better management of biomass resources, improved technologies, subsidies and policies.
How I built these maps-
I used CartoDB to build theses maps, which is an excellent tool to build interactive and creative maps. At first, I downloaded shape-file for state layer of India (with disputed land, had a hard time finding this), then I connected it to to my dataset. Here, is the screen shot —
Map 1 (Land use)
For map 1, I downloaded shape-file file for land use pattern in India from NREL (an excellent source of data for renewable energy). Then I connected it to my data set and created a map. I also added state layer.
Next step was, I kept opacity for polygon fill as 0(fully transparent) and for stroke as 3 (partially transparent) to show state boundaries. This allowed me to show land use pattern of India (which is a second layer).
Then I styled my map by making right choice of colours to distinguish between cropland (shades of brown) and forest rich area (shades of green). Then I labelled with state name and added legend to make map more informative.
I played around with base-map options which are already available in CartoDB. And finally picked “Voyager (lite) by CARTO”. Here is the screen shot-
And my product finally looks like (Map 1)…
Map 2–4 (State-wise bio-power potential)
I got state-wise estimated potential of bio-energy for 2016 from MNRE. I created data, by manually putting values to Indian state boundary dataset by “add-coloumn” option (top right, screen shot below). Next step was to create map and to style it. I also added widget to make maps more informative.
Map 5 (Proposed bio-energy projects)
For this map, I have showed proposed projects and RPO % on the same map. For that, I used SQL and here is my code-
This allowed me join two tables and project RPO % (where geometry was missing). Finally I styled map (using the steps above).
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More interesting maps coming soon…….
