India-based green energy firm launches a Dendro power project in Vavuniya
Sustainable Green Energy (Pvt) Ltd, a Sri Lankan company headed by an Indian entrepreneur, has launched its ambitious industrial venture of going green with a bamboo cultivation project in the North last week. The company has laid the foundation stone for the factory site of the Dendro power project with an investment of US$20 million in a 2000-acre land in Kaththarsinnakulam in Vavuniya District under the patronage of Agriculture Minister Duminda Diassanayake , and Deputy Minister of Irrigation Vasantha Senanayake. The company will bring down the required power generator and machinery from Germany and France, he said.
He said that his company Sustainable Green Energy (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Aakash Groups, is promoting the cultivation of Beema Bamboo to be used as bio mass to generate electricity. This eco-friendly bamboo material can help the rural poor, generate income and employment opportunities for them and provide electricity to households in Vavuniya. The Project scope entails the cultivation of Beema bamboo in Sri-Lanka. It will be continued from North to South and East to West. Harvest of this plantation will be used for the “DENDRO power project” as row material. Also the plantation could supply to other boilers requirements Island wide, Chairman and Managing Director of the company,
S. Ramasubramanian told the Business Times. The company is planning to set up 10 MW X 5 capacity Dendro power in Vavuniya ,Trincomalee , Kurunegala , Hambantota and Moneragala Districts. Therefore, we need bamboo to run power plants from bamboo plantations in minimum 2000 acres and maximum 3000 acres in each District, he revealed. . The energy potential of “fast growing grass-bamboo” remains untapped due to lack of awareness of its potential. Bamboo has an energy value of 4000 Kcal, he added.
Today farmers are facing difficulties in continuing agriculture in many parts of the country due to several reasons such as increased cost of labour, non-availability of labour, perishable nature of the agriculture commodity, variation in the price, lack of assured and direct marketing of the product produced. Cultivation of bamboo is the best solution to address all these problems. It will certainly ensure a return of Rs. 104,000 per acre/year in the beginning, and it will increased to Rs.182, 000 which is lucrative than many other agriculture crops being cultivated in the island, he pointed out.
The average return per acre in farming is less than Rs.10,000/= per annum with many problems and uncertainty in the reliable income, he disclosed. Under intensive cultivation with the population of 1000 plants per an acre , the biomass yield starts from after 30 months from the date of planting the plant at 30 tons per acre and increases to 40 tons in the next years and stabilises at 50 tons from 6th year onwards. Also the yield could be obtained every year. Presently the company priced for a ton is Rs.2600.
Mr. Ramasubramanian said that his company plans to enter into the manufacturing of value added products such as clothing using bamboo fiber yarn, high quality yarn and fabrics, activated carbon, bamboo extracts and use bamboo veneers to produce bamboo computer keyboards and mouse as well as, mobile phone covers. He said that his aim is to popularise those environmental friendly degradable items making Sri Lanka as the launching pad for the benefit of present and future generations while earning carbon credits for the country.Traditional biomass currently accounts for nearly 52 per cent of the primary energy supplied in Sri Lanka while nearly 76 per cent of the country’s population still depends on fuel wood and other forms of biomass for household cooking.