Punjab Biomass to add significantly to biomass plant portfolio

Clean energy project developer Punjab Biomass Power says it hopes to establish a number of rice straw-fired biomass plants with a total capacity of 96MW by 2017, Bloomberg reports.

The first of these will cost 800 million rupees (€11.65 million) and is planned for the north of Punjab state. Punjab Biomass Power, 51% of which is owned by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services and 40% by Bermaco Energy, expects to have raised these funds by February 2012.

In addition to this plant, Punjab has seven more 12MW projects in the pipeline, all of which will sell power to Punjab State Power Corp.

India already generates 3,319MW of renewable power from biomass such as sugarcane bagasse but estimates this could reach 17,536MW.