The power plant has been set-up at the ‘Lok Sangrakshak Kshetra Sonaura’ training centre established by the Madhya Pradesh State Bamboo Mission. The electricity generated from the two-stage gasifier will be used to power the different bamboo processing facilities in the centre. The plant will provide reliable electricity supply to the training centre and production facility, which currently suffers from frequent and unscheduled power cuts. Dedicating the gasifier power plant to women entrepreneurs and bamboo cultivators, Ms. Macchi observed that “what makes this a genuine case of a win-win situation is the fact that the gasifier will be running on waste bamboo generated from the different processes of the training centre”.
The centre provides training to women self-help group members from the nearby villages for producing bamboo based products for their livelihood opportunities. The centre is also involved in providing training for making bamboo furniture. It has been included under National Skills Development Mission for providing advanced training to young women and men on design and production of bamboo based products.
Speaking at the event, Mrs. Mamta Pandey, Mayor of Satna, thanked the Government of Switzerland for supporting this project and said that “this clean energy power plant will be of great assistance to the city of Satna in its Smart City project”. She also remarked that this will support in “providing employment opportunities for women”.
The two-stage gasifier power plant is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) under its project on accelerated diffusion of biomass based clean energy systems in India. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is the implementing partner. Mr. Daniel Ziegerer, Director of Cooperation, SDC India, congratulated everyone involved in the speedy installation of the gasifier and recalled that the “development of the advanced gasifier system was the result of a twenty year partnership between SDC and TERI, in facilitating technology transfer, adoption and diffusion of clean energy solutions”.
The technologically advanced two-stage biomass gasifier system for power generation has been developed by TERI in partnership with the Danish Technological University (DTU) and “Effin’art”, a Swiss energy efficiency consulting firm. Under the project, support is also provided for installing three other such biomass gasifier systems in Odisha: one project each in Rayagada and Koraput districts, for reliable electricity supply to a micro-enterprise managed by a women self-help group and for improving electricity access to rural households; and one project in Mayurbhanj, which will bring electricity to a previously un-electrified village.
