(a) whether the Government has formulated a National Bio-Energy Mission to promote
sustainable generation of energy;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the amount of biomass generated in the country annually and the amount currently
being used for electricity generation;
(d) whether the Government has taken any initiatives for attracting investment and
scaling up the biomass based energy generation; and
(e) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER FOR NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY (DR. FAROOQ ABDULLAH)
(a)&(b): No, Madam.
(c): It has been estimated that about 500-550 million tons of agro-residues are being
produced annually in the country. Projects based on biomass combustion and biomass
co-generation technologies with a total capacity of over 3,600 MW set up in the country
as on 30th June 2013 could be able to utilize about 28-30 million tons of agro-residues
and agro-industrial waste annually.
(d) & (e): Fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, concessional customs duty,
excise duty exemption, income tax exemption on projects for power generation for 10 years,
electricity duty exemption and preferential tariff are provided for biomass power projects.
In addition, the Central Financial assistance is also being provided by the Ministry of New and renewable energy for the biomass power projects.