Waste to Energy in India

With rising population and fast changing consumer habits giving constant boost to waste generation, scientific waste management assumes greater importance than ever before. Waste is thus increasingly being perceived as a resource, albeit wrongly placed. Not only reuse and recycling, but the use of wastes of one industry as inputs to another for further value addition is also being explored

Of late, rising waste quantities have been a cause of concern to developed and developing economies alike. An order of priority for handling wastes, as shown in Figure 1, is therefore gaining grounds in policy making and implementation circles. 

Figure 1: Order of Priority for Waste Handling

                                                            Source: Infraline Research

As is evident from the figure, non-generation of wastes is given highest priority followed by reduction in quantities of wastes generated. Reutilization of wastes as input to other industries like feedstock for energy generation comes next in order of priority. Treatment of wastes and their disposal in environment-friendly manner assume the least priority. Wastes, must therefore be reutilized as efficiently as possible.

In this context, the use of wastes for production of energy is also being explored. This option is particularly important for India, considering the rising demand-supply gap of availability of usable energy.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) estimates that India presently has potential to generate around 2,600 MW of energy from municipal wastes and another 1,280 MW from industrial wastes. The technology for waste processing and energy generation from wastes being essentially primitive, the successful installation of WTE systems does not pose much of a challenge. However, the sector being relatively nascent, the economics of each project would define its success.

With a number of policy level initiatives like the Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) Management and Handling Rules 2000, the National Master Plan for Development of Waste to Energy in India, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) formulated by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), the Programme on Energy Recovery from MSW formulated by the MNRE as well as state level policy initiatives for the promotion of alternative sources of energy; the Waste to Energy (WTE) sector in India has taken off well. An operational full scale commercial project at Timarpur-Okhla in Delhi using MSW as feedstock and a number of pilot projects operating across the country ensure the availability of replicable examples for the sector both technologically and economically. In addition, a number of facilitators and market based mechanisms like the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) make the sector well poised for forward movement.

Internationally too, the sector has received policy level attention. Countries like Sweden, Denmark and USA among others have implemented quite a few WTE projects with success. Sweden, in particular, recycles and reuses 100 percent of its wastes for energy production. The country currently falls short of wastes to be used as feedstock to its waste processing industry. Countries in the European Union, particularly the Scandinavian nations have also put in place a mechanism to facilitate cross-border waste trade.

However, a number of factors like lack of well established standards for feedstock and absence of a well organized waste value chain pose challenges for the nascent industry, particularly in India.

Exploring these and many more aspects of the sector, Infraline Energy has come up with a publication titled ‘Demystifying the Waste to Energy Conundrum: Potential and Project Opportunities in India’.

The report encompasses project opportunities in the WTE sector in India, with special attention on technologies, project economics, policy and regulatory landscape, incentive structures, financing mechanisms, national and international experiences, successful cases studies in India and across the world etc around MSW. A combination of thorough primary and in-depth secondary research, the compendium is designed to facilitate informed decision making for stakeholders across the WTE value chain in India.

                                                                                                                                                     

                    
       Infraline Energy Renewable Research Team