Nitin Gadkari for uniform policy on ethanol-blending with petrol

BJP President Nitin Gadkari today asked the government to implement the policy of mandatory 5 per cent blending of ethanol with petrol in all states to help farmers as also reduce India’s oil import bill. Gadkari made this appeal during a meeting with the officials of ministries of petroleum, consumer affairs and new and renewable energy here today.

The government has already made it mandatory for doping of petrol with at least five per cent of ethanol across the country to save around 100 crore litres of fuel annually. But the programme is not being implemented in all states as suppliers of ethanol, a by-product of sugarcane, are unable to meet the supply requirements.

States such as Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are the largest producers and can be developed as major suppliers of it.

National Biomass Mission on the cards

According to reports, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy seems to be impressed by the perceived success of the National Solar Mission, which has certainly helped to create solar awareness across the country. Now, the Ministry is working on a National Biomass Mission, and has asked the industry to prepare a mission document. This need not be anything more than an archive of informative documents. To recount, India produces 620 million tonnes of bio resources, and after allowing for fuel and fodder, the surplus comes out to be 150 million tonnes. This can support 18,000 MW of power, not counting another 5,000 MW of co-generation, against which the existing biomass power capacity is only 2,665 MW.

Biomass is ‘base load’, and firm power and needs to be encouraged over other forms of renewable energy. It is also the least expensive. To set up 1 MW of capacity, it takes Rs 5.5 crore, against Rs 6.5 crore for wind and Rs 9 crore for solar. Each MW capacity of biomass produces 8.5 million units of electricity a year, against 2.4 m u for wind and 1.7 m u for solar, under good conditions.