Forbes Marshall and the Belgian energy company has formed a 50:50 joint-venture to form a new company Forbes Vyncke. It will undertake boiler installations and energy converters at bio-mass power installations which is estimated currently at Rs.10000 million. The newly formed company has already executed orders worth Rs.160 million for Pepsico, UB group and Divya Pharma in Haridwar. The new venture will also cater to neighbouring states Bangaldesh and Srilanka.

Collectively, Indian rural villages has potential to generate few mega watts of power. However, we see only few biomass projects, including the planned ones, we end up with 1000 MW of biomass power. When properly planned, these biomass projects could generate ample employment could sustain rural economy. One reason for failure is stupid policies in procurement of power by the state grid. A 10 MW biomass power plant will approximately cost Rs.500 – 600 million. Governments which spends huge amount for empowering villages can resort to setting up of renewable projects. This will also helps in reducing transmission losses and could power surrounding smaller industrial units. Planners have to think in these lines and provide a policy framework for action

Assocham, in association with Ernst & Young has conducted a study to understand the potential of urban wastes. According to them, around 1500 MW could be generated from urban wastes and another 1000 MW from industrial wastes with efficient technology. Currently, India do not have the technology, which can be acquired from Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia or China. The report says, these 2500 MW can be generated over a period of 3 years from wastes with an investment of Rs. 3000 million.

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AllGreen Energy India is planning to set up 10 biomass based power projects each with a capacity of 6.5 MW in the next 2-3 years. The first 3 will be set up in Karnataka, TN and in MP. The company will utilize e-choupal of ITC to procure bio waste, pulpwood and other commodities from farmers. The total likely investment for these projects will be around Rs.5000 million and it will operated on ‘build, own and operate’ (BOO) basis and will be commissioned by 2010. The plants will use (BIGCC) biomass integrated gasification combined cycle technology to facilitate production of by-products like activated carbon. Likely revenue splits for these projects are 70% from power, activated carbon 15-20% and the remaining from carbon credits and other facilities. The company will create a SPV for each of these 10 projects.