India Press Releases - 2004

19 November 2004

Microturbines To Produce Power From Biogas
US Company Signs MOU With West Bengal Agency

Calcutta, November 19: Representatives of Capstone Turbine Corporation of California, the world’s leading micro turbine company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA) to promote the use of micro turbine technology for rural electrification at a ceremony here today. The U.S. Consul General in Calcutta, Mr. George N. Sibley, was present at the signing ceremony along with WBREDA Director S.P. Gon Chaudhury, a signatory to the MoU. Mr. Andrew Wang, Sales Manager, and Mr. Rene Flores, Application Manager, Biogas, represented Capstone.

The estimated project cost is approximately $265,000. Of this, the U.S. Government is funding around $65,000 through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United States-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP). The remaining funds are being contributed by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) and the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, WBREDA, and Capstone. As part of the agreement, WBREDA in West Bengal will conduct a field demonstration project based on bio-gas from cow manure, involving two 30 KW micro turbines provided by Capstone. Capstone also specializes in waste-to-energy recovery from urban municipal landfills and other such decentralized energy generation applications.

In addition to the Capstone representatives, Mr. Robert Epler from Brown Vence & Associates, California, an environmental consulting company, is also visiting Calcutta. Brown Vence is exploring the options on recovering methane from existing dumpsites in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area in order to run a 30 KW Capstone turbine as part of a second demonstration project.

The Government of India has identified a policy target of electrifying 18,000 remote villages by 2007, for which decentralized power production based on non-conventional resources is the preferred option. The Kolkata office of the US-AEP and WBREDA have involved Capstone as the technology provider for the project. The technology is new to India and holds good promise for large-scale applications.

US-AEP has earlier funded a pre-feasibility study and organized a national conference in Kolkata in April this year to create stakeholder interest in micro turbine technology. Following this, a delegation led by West Bengal's Minister-in-Charge, Department of Power & Non-Conventional Energy Sources, and including representatives of WBREDA, the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, and the National Thermal Power Corporation, made a study tour to the U.S. with the support of US-AEP. During their visit they met with technology providers, visited micro turbine installations and participated in a number of consultative meetings with various agencies.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Education are sponsoring this annual event of the IEW. The IEW is an opportunity to promote and celebrate the benefits of international education and exchanges worldwide. First held in 2000, the IEW is celebrated in more than 85 countries worldwide. Nearly 600,000 international students from more than 200 countries study each year in the United States alone. Of them, nearly 80,000 are from India and the number is rising. According to a study, almost 90 per cent of American college students believe having international students on their campuses enriches their own learning experience, and 88% of them believe international education will give them a competitive edge in the workplace. Approximately 160,000 Americans study abroad each year.

USAID is co-sponsoring the project under its Greenhouse Gas Pollution Prevention Project (GEP). Working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, the GEP focuses on promoting distributed generation in India and providing policy support for the use of micro turbines for decentralized power generation applications.