“NTPC has been at the forefront of agro residue and municipal solid waste management, to give the capital and NCR cleaner air. NTPC proactively ran a pilot project to use bio- mass for power generation, which proved that bio-mass conversion into power is a viable solution to better air quality. The intent is to generate power while keeping India’s environment healthy while we contribute to the Swachh Bharat programme,” R K Singh, Minister of State Power and New and Renewable Energy, said, while speaking at the inauguration of NTPC’s two –day conference on ‘Agro Residue and Municipal Solid Waste to Power: Challenges and Way Ahead for India.’
He said, “Our long-term social objective is that of a healthier planet and there are costs attached to attain this objective. Our intent is to design policies so that our long-term social goals are met for clean India. Agro residue and municipal solid waste can both be used for power generation, we just need to address the challenges to optimally leverage this process.”
Speaking on the occasion, A K Bhalla, Secretary Power, GOI said, “NTPC is the flagship company of the whole country and I would like to complement the NTPC management for bringing in the spirit of innovation to tackle these issues for a clean environment. I believe this conference is an ideal platform for all stakeholders to collate and interact on imperatives and issues facing the sector and use them at power projects on Pan-India basis. The key takeaways from this conference are going to pave a path for progression and a change for the better tomorrow. We extend our full support for this initiative”.
Sharing his thoughts on the conference, Gurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC said, “This initiative was started sometime back when we faced an issue with the city’s air-quality last year in the month of October. Our ministry proactively came out with the policy framework where we worked cohesively to provide a viable solution towards segregating and optimally utilising agro residue and other solid -wastes.”
This two-day conference has been organised so as to precipitate issues which are required to be tackled to achieve triple objective of clean air, swachh bharat and employment generation. Converting agro residue and municipal solid waste into power is the ideal way forward. This initiative will also give a boost to economic activities and opportunities for the MSME sector.
