Waste-to-Energy : Changing Perspectives

New Delhi is growing. Its population is burgeoning at a staggering pace even as its diminishing pool of resources paints a disturbing picture for the future. The National Capital Territory is home to over 14 crore people and this number is increasing rapidly. The city has seen a massive infrastructural and opportunity growth in the last decade which has led to untrammelled immigration to the capital. But along the way, the once self-sustained megalopolis finds itself heading towards an imminent resource –crunch which, if not accounted for immediately, may lead to dire consequences.

The per capita consumption of electricity in Delhi currently stands at 100Kwh which is about three times the national average. The 28.9 Lacs households in the city consume this colossal amount of energy year round. It’s not hard to foresee a time when this demand to supply equilibrium would be ruptured irrevocably. So what can be done to avert this crisis? As we certainly cannot constrict the exponential population growth, especially for a few decades to come, we may use the one resource that has been accidently made available to us. The waste. The most undesirable by-product of any process.

Waste can be broadly classified under four heads: 
1.  Urban waste
2.. Industrial waste 
3.  Biomass waste 
4.  Biomedical waste

By means of incineration, and utilizing various technologies like bio-chemical and thermo-chemical conversion, all this waste has a potential of generating up to 3000 MW of energy. Surely this is not the number that is an answer to all our energy needs, but if coupled with effective waste management, we may be creating something useful from something that is potentially hazardous. New Delhi has already taken cue from the bright prospects of waste-to-energy process and steps are being taken to make the energy plant more community-friendly. With proper technological corrections, waste-to-energy has tremendous potential in the capital city.

- Green Lantern

References :

http://www.eai.in/ref/ae/wte/wte.html

http://delhigovt.nic.in/newdelhi/dept/economic/empweb/summary.htm

delhiplanning.nic.in/Economic%20Survey/...02/PDF/chapter11.PDF

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