Biofuel to electrify Chhattisgarh village

Bangalore, Dec 17: A tiny, obscure tribal village in Chhattisgarh - Bairakh - will soon shine bright across the world when it becomes the world's first village to get power supply through biofuel.

Thanks to Winrock International India, a non-governmental organisation, which had successfully completed the project within two years, the most ambitious Rs 40 lakh project would start generating electricity through biofuel from December 26. The Union Renewable Energy Ministry had sanctioned Rs 22 lakh for the project and the rest of the funds were borne by Winrock.

The village in hilly terrain, with 200 primitive tribals, was till now deprived of power supply as the grid could not reach there.

''There are about 1,000 people, all tribals, in the village...

they are extremely poor and find it difficult to make both ends meet,'' Winrock International India Programme Manager (Energy and Environment) Amit Kumar told UNI here.

''Immediately after getting the project from the Union Ministry for Renewable Energy in 2004, we swung into action and it took two months to survey and draw the plan. About 60,000 saplings were given to villagers to plant on the peripherals of agricultural fields and these plants have started bearing biofuel seeds. The seeds will be taken from the villagers and in return, electricity would be provided. This is the formula adopted, after convincing the villagers,'' he added.

Mr Kumar said after dividing the village into three clusters, diesel generators with 6.5 HP capacity each were installed in these clusters, poles erected, lines drawn and house wiring also done. All these works were done free of cost by Winrock. He said the plant had been constructed and bioseed would be directly used in the diesel engine. ''We are using biofuel instead of diesel and not producing biodiesel by using Jatropha seeds.

Extensive technical tests have been done on the engines to ascertain whether the fuel was technically feasible or not.'' Mr Kumar said to maintain the plant, a Village Energy Committee would be formed by the panchayat after an year. The Committee members would be trained by Winrock to maintain the plant.

The cost over and above the bioseeds would be borne by the villagers and there would be no interference by either the State Government or Winrock. Even the market fluctuations of the seed price would not affect the villagers as they themselves produce the seeds.

Stating that biofuel produced from the seeds could also be used for running irrigation pumpsets, instead of diesel, he said that as the village was situated in a hilly region, check dams were constructed to store water, which would be pumped to the field by pumpsets operated on biofuel.

The Centre had identified 40,000 such villages to be electrified through renewable sources of energy, he said, adding that Winrock was at present working on four similar projects in Hyderabad (two), Kurnool and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh.

Mr Kumar said the Japanese were evincing keen interest in investing in power generation in India, especially in South India, since the climatic condition was similar to their country. The Japanese team had a proposal to put up two mega power plants with 2,500 MW capacity -- one each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. However, the projects were in survey stage and had to be approved by the Centre.

He said Winrock was also working with 18 municipalities in Jamnagar, Shimla and Uttaranchal to utilise waste for producing power.

To a question, he said ''we don't go to any Government, but we are ready to work if they come up with a proposal. In all, 15 engineers are working in Winrock. A testing protocol has been set up in the headquarters in Delhi and working in consultation with the Indian Institute of Science, Institute of Petroleum, Indian Oil Corporation and other institutions involved in renewable energy.'' Mr Kumar said Winrock, set up in 1998, generated funds through donors from abroad and availed loans from foreign agencies at subsidised rate of interest. ''Winrock is a non-profit organisation.

Whatever we do is done free of cost. We are also a member of the Appellate Committee on Renewable Energy and we helped the Government draw the 11th Five Year Plan on how to utilise the resources available and create awareness about importance of renewable energy sources among the rural people.'' Stating that Winrock had helped many corporates reduce transmission and distribution loss, he said the Noida Power Corporation had reduced the loss by nine per cent in two years from 32 per cent.

UNI