PANAJI
The Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) has sought details from all the industries regarding their present procurement of biomass briquettes and has asked them to register on the Biomass Portal to meet their briquette demand.
Also, to maintain traceability of the supplied biomass waste, all the panchayats are directed to register on Biomass Portal - https://geda.biofuelcircle.com- that will connect the panchayats and local plantation owners with the industrial end users of biofuels.
The decision was taken during the recently held meeting by GEDA with local bodies to join hands in the aggregation of biomass waste in the form of plantation and garden waste for the production of solid biofuels.
The briquettes are compressed and are a proven way of generating energy from waste. They contain various organic materials such as rice husk, solid waste, agricultural waste, etc., all commonly referred to as biomass.
Goa buys about 250 tonnes of biomass briquettes from Karnataka and Maharashtra. Verna Industrial Estate itself needs around 100 tonnes of briquettes per day after the prohibition of furnace oil.
GEDA managing director Sanjeev Joglekar said that under the initiative of “Swayanpurna Goa” the State has established 40 tons per day Biomass Briquette Manufacturing Plant facility at Saligao, which is operated and maintained by Punjab Renewable Energy Systems Private Limited (PRESPL) and presently produces about 10 to 15 tons of biomass briquettes per day.
The proposed biomass-based renewable energy project is the first of its kind in Goa, which will help reduce open dumping and burning of agricultural waste/green waste, etc and will help bring down the carbon footprint by replacing fossil fuels with biomass briquettes.
During the meeting, the Goa Waste Management Corporation informed that about 8 to 9 Tons per day of biomass waste is received at the Saligao Solid Waste Management facility. “Several panchayats and municipalities expressed their difficulty in stocking biomass due to a lack of space and difficulty in transporting it to the designated plant,” Joglekar said.
