The Hindu                                    05.03.2013

Coimbatore to go all out to tap solar energy

Karthik Madhavan 

The rooftops of all establishments in Coimbatore Corporation limits will soon turn energy generation stations with the civic body planning to install solar panels.

The civic body in a recent resolution said that based on a Government Order from the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, the civic body proposed to install solar panels on the terrace of all its establishments.

The Order says: “The Urban Local Bodies have buildings constructed and maintained by them. The energisation of these buildings using solar energy has to be expedited. Solar rooftops should be provided in the buildings as per the specifications and advice provided by the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency.”

The order was based on the Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Policy, 2012.

The Corporation resolution said that it would meet the expenditure required for the purpose from its General Fund.

According to Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu this was just one of the measures the Corporation had planned under the renewable energy project. The Corporation had prepared a comprehensive plan for renewable energy intervention in various sectors.

The total investment planned for the intervention was Rs. 1,329.17 lakh for a period of five years.

Cost

The State Government or the local body concerned would contribute 14 per cent of the cost, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy 24 per cent and the rest would by the user or beneficiary.

Mr. Sivarasu said that the Corporation, as part of the project, would also establish a Solar City Cell to create awareness and publicise the benefits of switching over to solar energy. This would be at Rs. 48.30 lakh.

Under the pilot project, the Corporation had planned interventions at various sectors.

It had planned to give solar lanterns for traders in markets, hawkers so as to replace their kerosene lamps.

Similarly in the residential sector, the civic body would encourage photovoltaic system for home invertors, photovoltaic system to replace generators at houses, solar water heating systems and photovoltaic power plants for residential apartment complexes.

In the commercial and institutional sector, the Corporation would attempt to introduce community solar cooker for mid-day meals at its schools, solar water heater for hospitals, biogas system for restaurants, solar water heater for restaurants and photovoltaic system for education institutions.

He said that in the industrial sector, the Corporation would encourage industries to go in for solar water heaters and solar steam generators.

And, in the government/municipal sector, the Corporation would work towards providing grid incentive for solar power plants, provide solar power plants and solar-powered water heaters at all its hospitals.

This would be in addition to street lights.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has accepted the Corporation’s proposal but has asked it to revise the draft.

This would be executed in the next couple of days, the Deputy Commissioner added.

The Hindu                01.03.2013

Support for waste-to-energy project

Dual benefit?:The Budget announcement is expected to help towns and cities in clearing garbage and also generating power out it.—File photo: K. Anantha.

 

Coimbatore Integrated Waste Management Limited has begun preliminary works for plant.

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s proposal to encourage municipalities to go in for waste-to-energy projects has come as a shot in the arm for the Coimbatore Corporation.

In his Budget speech on Thursday, the Minister said: “India tosses out several thousand tonnes of garbage each day. We will evolve a scheme to encourage cities and municipalities to take up waste-to-energy projects in PPP mode, which would be neutral to different technologies. I propose to support municipalities that will implement waste-to-energy projects through different instruments such as viability gap funding, repayable grant and low cost capital.”

According to sources in the Coimbatore Corporation the announcement has come at a time when the civic body has been planning a waste-to-energy plant at the waste management yard in Vellalore. The agency in charge of processing the waste, Coimbatore Integrated Waste Management Limited, is planning the plant and has begun preliminary works.

Sources say that the agency after assessing the refuse-derived fuel will go in for a plant to generate it. The fuel is the shredded and dehydrated solid waste. It has identified a Japanese agency with which it will enter into an agreement for the gasification technology.

The agency has submitted a proposal in this regard to the Corporation, the sources say and add that the proposal is for processing 150 tonnes a day. The Corporation collects and manages around 800 tonnes a day.

Aside from this, the civic body is also planning another waste-to-energy project under ‘Shunya,’ the zero waste management project that is funded by international agencies.

The sources say that in Ward 23 – the ward where the Corporation will implement Shunya on a trial basis – it proposes to set up a gasifier plant to generate electricity from the organic waste collected in the ward.

Another waste-to-energy project that the Corporation has proposed is power generation from the proposed sewage treatment plant in Ondipudur. With a slight modification in design, the Corporation hoped to generate electricity, the then Commissioner T.K. Ponnusamy had said.

The sources say that with the Corporation proposing all these projects on the public-private partnership mode, it was happy with the Minister’s announcement.

The city’s civic activists have also welcomed the announcement. R. Raveendran of the Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore says that the Corporation should grab the opportunity for two reasons: one, it will help in better waste management, and, two, it will also bring down Corporation’s expenditure towards power.

He suggests that the Corporation can tie-up with hoteliers association or fruit merchants’ association for a constant supply of organic waste to fuel the plants.