PEDA announced to stop buying biomass energy

The Punjab Energy Development Authority (PEDA) has announced that the state will no longer buy power generated from biomass, because it is too costly, as reported by The Hindustan Times. The Indian Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy set a goal for the state to generate 4.5% of the power with biomass until 2020. During the rice harvest, agricultural residues are mostly burned by farmers, which causes environmental hazard. For this reason, the state has 63 MW of stubble-fuelled biomass plants, with another 2 plants of 30 MW each being under construction. However, the PEDA wants to focus on cheaper solar and wind power. In total, Punjab has an installed biomass capacity of 435 MW.

Picture Credit: Augustus Binu, Mature Rice (India) by Augustus Binu, CC BY-SA 3.0