Cement, Energy and Environment

I The cheapest option is sanitary landfills with gas recovery, but such landfills require huge amount of land which is becoming scarce in most cities. MNRE has a scheme to give capital subsidies to waste-to-energy projects (see table 2: Financial assistance). MNRE also provides a 50 per cent subsidy for preparing the project proposal, subject to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per project." It also grants financial assistance on other expenses made by the state nodal agencies (SNAs) towards administrative charges and setting up training and awareness programmes. SNAs implement the schemes in the behalf of MNRE. TABLE 2: FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE Wastes/Processes!Technologies Power generation from municipal solid waste Capital Subsidy n.oo crore/MW (Max. ~10 crore/project) ---- Power generation from biogas at sewage treatment Plant or through biomethanation of urban and agricul tural waste/residues including cattle dung or production of b io-CNG ~2.00 crore/MW or b io-CNG from 12000 cubic metre biogaslday (Max. ~5 crore/project) Biogas generation f rom urban, industrial ~2.00 crore/MW (12000 cubic meter and agricultural wastes/residues biogaslday w ith max. ~S crore/project) ----------------------------· Power Generation from b iogas (engine/ ~~ crore/ MWor b io·CNG from 12000 gas turbine route) and production o f cubic metre (Max. ZScrore/project) bio-CNG for f illing into gas cylinders Power generation from biogas, solid industrial. agricul tural waste excluding bagasse ~0.20 crore/MW (Max. ~ 1 crore/ ' project) SO~J({t?' ArlOtl, 2012. Pfogr.:Jmmp Ofl Energy from Ut/xJ.'l, lndvStriiliO'JrldAgrl(u/t(H/JI W,t $!("$ /Rf!sidue~ dun'ng 12th Pl.tn petiod. UnioJ~ Miru.srty of New & Renewdb!e Enrttgy, Government of tnd:d. http 1/mnre govi ntfile– 'n<JMfil¥1offgnd·wa.stetoenPfCJYiprogramme _ energy·urban·mdusrn'dl•agrtculturP-was l (!S• 2013·14.pdf states on Despite being an expensive proposition, the MNRE outlay for promoting the waste-to-energy programme for 2013-2014 is a mere Rs 38 crore.12 And, MNRE proposes to use this small fund to support energy recovery from all three types of wastes: urban wastes, industrial wastes and MSW. are always budgetary constraints. Top priority is given to household biogas digesters. The allocation for medium to large scale plants is very limited. All applications have to be routed through respective SNAs and it is an open secret that things do not move easily. Genuine entrepreneurs suffer a lot," says Mural i Krishna, Chairperson, Village Vision India, an energy services consultancy. Krishna believes that, "Either the subsidy should be Sustainable financing and poor support from MNRE has been a persistent grouse of developers. "MNRE announces schemes but there TIPPING FEE IN SWEDEN AND THE US All applications have to be routed through respective SNAs and it is an open secret that things do not move easily. Genuine entrepreneurs Sweden has a financially viable model for t reating and disposing solid wastes. The model has been replicated in several countries in the European Union and countries like US to address the growing problem of wast e disposal. Economic incentives and taxation policies have also helped in. promoting good waste management practices in these countries. To begin with, a big driver for waste to energy faci lit ies to operate is t he high charge (gate f ee or tipping f ee), levied by landfills in order to dispose the waste.' The municipality or developer bringing in waste to landfills is charged on a per tonne basis. This fee helps cover the cost of landfill maintenance. These countr ies also charge a landfill tax . The idea of t his tax is to keep t he gate fee at the landfil l high in order to reduce the flow of waste to landfills, which may be owned by the private developers or municipatities.2 The high gate fees charged by landfi lls have led more than 8o plants in the US to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfills." In the US, the state of Washington charged the highest landfill gate fee: US $ 142 per tonne in 2013.4 The charges vary from state to state. Sweden charges much higher for landfilling because it has a landfi ll tax. which the US does not have. Sweden's average landfilling charge was equivalent to roughly US $21 2 per tonne (US $150 landfill fee and US $62 landfilling tax).s waste processing and treatment facilities like wast e to energy plants, compost plants and anaerobic digest ion plants do not attract taxes from the Swedish government. Developers charges tipping f ees to cover operat ing costs of their f aci lities. An average tipping fee of US $84 is charged in the Sweden for waste management faci lities other than land disposal. These projects generate revenue through the sale of electricity, and heat energy for district heating network. In countries, like Sweden, landfil ls are the most expensive method of waste disposal, while anaerobic digest ion is by far t he cheapest way to r id of wastes. 47