The Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Power, Mr R. K. Singh shared in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha about the following details. First, for the Central Financial Assistance (CFA) disbursed for setting up of waste to energy projects under ‘Waste to Energy Programme’ from April 2022 to March 2023 are as given below:
Second, new biomethanation plants established during 2022-23 and 2023-24 (as on July 31,2023) which were provided CFA or granted in-principle approval of CFA under Waste to Energy Programme are as following:
Further, Singh informed that the Government of India has taken several initiatives to set up biomethanation plants across India. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) notified the National Bioenergy Programme in November, 2022 with budgetary outlay of Rs 17.15 billion for a period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2026 to be implemented in two phases. The first phase has a budget outlay of Rs 8.58 billion. This Programme supports setting up of Bioenergy plants by providing Central financial assistance.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has launched the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation initiative in October, 2018 which assures offtake of BioCNG/Compressed Biogas after purification through oil marketing companies for sale as automotive fuels. Under the GOBARDHAN scheme implemented by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, the CFA upto Rs 50 lakh per district is available for setting up of community biogas plants in villages, blocks / districts.
Under the Waste to Energy Programme guidelines, inspection of the plants for performance monitoring for a minimum of 3 consecutive months by designated inspection agencies is required before the release of CFA including a continuous operation of the plant for at least 72 hours, during which the plant must maintain an average operational capacity of 80 per cent of its rated capacity. In addition, developers are required to share generation data of the Waste to Energy plants through SCADA System or a remote monitoring system to the MNRE.
