Friday, June 9 2006 17:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hyderabad: Stressing the need for a comprehensive national bio-diesel policy, President A P J Abdul Kalam today(June 9, 2006) said efforts should be made, under public-private partnership, to achieve a target of 60 million tonnes of bio-diesel production per year by 2030 for meeting India's growing energy needs.

The price of the oil is on the rise and presently is over 70 US$ per barrel. In the present scenario of dependability on fossil material-based systems with its uncertainty, it is essential that an energy policy is evolved with new energy avenues, Kalam said after inaugurating a conference on Bio-diesel 'Towards Energy Independence' at Rashtrapati Nilayam here.

Stating that Bio-diesel has the potential to transform the oil sector, the President outlined a roadmap for achieving energy independence and asked the policy makers and researchers to focus on R&D both in production and processing of bio-fuel plantations, large scale involvement of private sector and self-help groups and hassle-free support from financial institutions.

"Our mission should be to realize 60 M tonnes per year of Bio-diesel by 2030. As a first step towards reaching this capacity, let us plan for 6 Million tonnes production by 2010 that is 5 per cent of the present import of oil. Progressively we need to aim at improving the plantation and yield towards achieving 30 million tonnes of bio-diesel by 2020", he said.

As India has nearly 60 million hectares of wasteland, about 30 million hectares could be made available for energy plantations with an aim to produce a minimum of 2 tonnes of bio-diesel per year per hectare, Kalam said.

Stating that the transportation sector in the country was consuming nearly 120 million tonnes of oil annually, accounting for 90 per cent of the total oil imports, Kalam said the strategic goals for energy independence by 2030 would call for a shift in the structure of energy sources.

"We produce only 25 per cent of our total oil requirement. The cost of the total oil import is over US$ 25 billion. First, fossil fuel imports need to be minimized and secure access to be ensured. We have three options of bio-fuel, solar and nuclear energy. The most significant aspect is that the power generated through renewable energy technologies has to be increased to 25 pr cent as against the present 5 per cent", he said.

Kalam also called upon automobile manufacturers to partner with laboratories and Universities to carry out research for determining the optimal blend of bio-fuel without modification to the engine and also the modifications required for the engine for cent per cent utilization of bio-fuel.

"The country needs to have a policy that will help introduce cars using 25 per cent blend of bio-fuel with the diesel and trucks with 100 per cent bio-fuel use by 2012. This would call for automobile manufactures to incorporate the appropriate design changes and development in future cars," the President said.

The aim, he said, should be to take short term and long term view of the economics of bio-fuel plantation and provide a facilitating environment to the farmer, bio-fuel enterprises, researchers, so that eventually the nation could move forward towards energy independence in a time-bound manner.