Cement, Energy and Environment

transfer as this will hurt their economic interests. These reasons have led to no successful agreement at Copenhagen and H has been decided to make another significant effort in this direction in November, 2010 at Mexico. (iv) Groundbreaking deal in COM project financing: Climate Change Investment II (CCI II), Luxembourg-based carbon fund advised by First Climate , announced an equity investment of 500 million Indian rupees (about EUR 7.3 mi llion) into the renewable energy project portfolio of the power provider Suryachakra Power Corporation Limited (SPCL) . This investment will be used for the development and maintenance of biomass, solar thermal, wind and hydro power plants. Courtesy: Productivity News, Jan-Feb., 2010, Pp 23-24. CARBON CREDIT EARNS PROFIT To keep afloat biomass plant owners have shifted their gaze to the international carbon credit market With so many contenders emerging for agriculture residue and fuel wood, biomass power plant owners are looking beyond national boundaries for viability. To make a profit they now look at carbon credits. ''They are the plant's lifeline," Ranjan said. His power plant in Kota uses 1.4 kg husk for each unit of power that is generated; and for each megawatt generated in a year the company gets upto 7000 carbon credits from the COM executive board, under the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Indian COM basket includes a number of biomass projects. One third of the 133 Carbon Credit Price Movement ,4 1 0 13.5 • ... ~ 13 t w .E 12.5 ~ 12 'C ~ 11 .5 11 I <:;:;o.J ...: " 'i " companies that earn carbon credits are biomass power projects. But they are small in size and add up to only eight per cent of the total Carbon Emission Reduction (CER is the unit for carbon credit) India earns. These figures are from the climate secretariat website giving record up to November 2009. The 133 projects have sold 4,994,670 CER at the rate of US $17.7 per CER about Rs.402.73 crore. The COM benefit from biomass projects, roughly 6,500 CER per MW generated in a year, would amount to about Rs 52.41 lakh. This means a 10 MW plant earns up to Rs. 5.24 crore in a year in carbon credits. The only hindrance to more biomass-fuelled projects getting COM benefit is that the raw material is not sustainable nor are the prices predictable. That is the reason the government has begun to promote biomass plantations. An official at MNRE said the ministry is implementing a UN Development Programme– Global Environment Facility– assisted project on Removal of Barriers to Biomass Power Generation in India. The aim of the project is to accelerate the adoption of biomass power technologies; it proposes removing barriers by promoting fast-growing trees and oil– bearing plants raised by local communities, he said. Taking its cue from the liSe study that mapped India's potential for biomass energy, the ministry aims to generate 45,000 MW with fuel grown on 20 million ha of wasteland. One hectare it is assumed will yield 10 metric tonnes per annum of woody biomass. Courtesy: Down to Earth, March 16-31, 2010. P29. INDIA COMMITS TO 20-25% CUTS Emission Mitigation Blueprint Sent to UN New Delhi: India conveyed on 30.1.2010 to the United Nations information on the voluntary domestic mitigation actions it will undertake to reduce its greenhouse gas em1ss1ons intensity by 20-25 per cent by 2020. The blueprint was submitted by India a day before the UN's 31 January deadline for submitting the climate change mitigation steps under the Copenhagen Accord. However, India made it clear to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that all its domestic mitigation actions were entirely voluntary in nature and not legally binding, a position it had maintained at last month's Copenhagen Summit. 45