[Reader-list] Energy Derived from Muncipal and Solid Waste is Not Renewable

[Kabir Khan]

Energy Derived from Muncipal and Solid Waste is Not Renewable
<http://wastenarratives.com/2015/09/14/energy-derived-from-muncipal-and-solid-waste-is-not-renewable/>

Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2014 introduced in the Parliament, last year,
leaves more questions than answers. The bill was listed for discussion in
Monsoon session. The logjam in both the houses i.e. Lok Sabha and Rajya
Sabha, resulted in a complete wash out; as a result the bill may resurface
in winter session. It is important to start the conversation on the given
bill in public, so that parliamentarians can have informed discussion.
There are certain flaws in the current framing of bill, which need to be
rectified and are presented in the post below:

The whole bill will not be reviewed in this post, inputs and reflections
will be restricted to the sections on ‘*renewable energy’*. According to
the bill, *“ renewable energy sources” for the purposes of this Act, means
the small hydro, wind, solar, bio-mass, bio-fuel, bio-gas, co-generation
from these sources, **waste including municipal and solid waste**,
geothermal, tidal, forms of oceanic energy and such other sources as may be
notified by the Central Government from time to time. *

Energy derived through the process of incineration of waste including
municipal and solid waste is categorised as *‘renewable energy’*. This is
not at all acceptable. It is a definition evolved for convenience purposes
and leaves the emerging discourse on ‘waste to energy’ at bay.

Let’s look at the internationally accepted definitions of renewable energy
sources:

As per United States Environment Protection Agency ‘*Renewable energy*
*includes
resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short
periods of time and do not diminish. Such fuel sources include the sun,
wind, moving water, organic plant and waste material (eligible biomass),
and the earth's heat (geothermal).*’ In this definition reference to *waste
material* is limited to eligible biomass and not extended to dry waste or
inorganic/inert waste.

International Energy Agency calls ‘*energy derived from natural processes*
*(**e.g.* *sunlight and wind) that are replenished at a faster rate than
they are consumed. Solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and some forms of
biomass are common sources of **renewable energy*.’

Texas legislature has further strengthened the framing by passing the
following definition in the state legislature: *‘**Renewable energy: Any
energy resource that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and
derived directly from the sun (such as thermal, photochemical, and
photoelectric), indirectly from the sun (such as wind, hydropower, and
photosynthetic energy stored in biomass), or from other natural movements
and mechanisms of the environment (such as geothermal and tidal
energy). **Renewable
energy does not include energy resources derived from fossil fuels, waste
products from fossil sources, or waste products from inorganic sources.’*

Henceforth, Indian understanding of ‘Renewable Energy Sources’ stands
against the internationally accepted and prevalent norms. It has been
widely agreed that inorganic/inert waste which includes plastic, paper,
clothes, rubber (the list is not exhaustive) is worth recycling, up-cycling
and down-cycling and should not be incinerated for energy recovery. There
are certain categories of waste which are not yet being recycled; they may
become valuable and useful in the coming years, thus there is no need of
shunting them to incinerators. *Continued here...*
<http://wastenarratives.com/2015/09/14/energy-derived-from-muncipal-and-solid-waste-is-not-renewable/>

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Regards

कबीर/کبیر

Phone:00-91-96-63-427-315

Email: kabir.postbox at gmail.com

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