'Power shortage, pollution becoming acute'
Due to the rapid industrialisation in the State, power shortage and environmental pollution have now become acute problems. If drastic changes are not made right now, the earth may be uninhabitable in the days to come. Power generation from non conventional and renewable sources like hydropower, wind power, solar power and bio fuels should be given key importance as alternative sources of fuel generation to meet the challenges of power crises. This is what the speakers observed in a seminar on 'Clean Green Energy' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here on Friday. Experts threw light on clean and green energy generation, green building projects, bio fuel and other alternative fuel for environment friendly power generation and distributed generation for rural electrification. In a keynote address, convener, Energy Panel, CII, Orissa said using coal as a main source of fuel leads to large scale emission of carbon dioxide and hence the power plants should be equipped with sophisticated technologies to reduce the carbon foot prints in the atmosphere. In Orissa, 260 sites have been identified with a total capacity of 217 MW for small, medium, mini and micro hydro projects, of which only six projects with 7.3 MW capacity are now in operation, he said. Citing the benefit of solar energy-turn-electricity, he expected the State Government to take a decision for supplying power to important Government buildings by installation of roof top Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) cells. Stating the success stories in the remote village electrification and village energy security programme in Orissa, chief executive of OREDA Ajit Bharthuar said agricultural waste like paddy or wheat husk, bio gas and waste wood chips can be used as a fuel for generating power through gasifier. Large scale plantation can generate huge amount of biomass that can also be used for this purpose, he added. Substantial reduction of power consumption both in domestic and commercial units can ultimately cut down the rate of green house gasses emission, viewed general manager of CESU MK Singh. Chairman of CII, Orissa, Santosh K Mohapatra, commissioner-cum-secretary of Energy Department Suresh Mohapatra, deputy director of energy management, NPC, Kolkata B Nath, director OHPC J Padhi, director of Verve Debasish Mohapatra were among others present and spoke in the seminar.
