Security bodies plan for large biogas plants

Kathmandu January 12- Public institutions, particularly the security agencies, are planning a big move towards promoting large-scale biogas plants to cut dependence on imported fuel for cooking purposes.

Armed Police Force, the first public institution that came forward to set up a large-scale biogas plant, has already called tenders to construct the apparatuses in 20 potential sites across the country to generate energy from organic waste.

Nepal Police has also agreed to undertake 20 such biogas projects within its units across the country. Two other organisations—the Nepal Army and the Department of Prison Management that oversees prisons, are discussing with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) to install similar biogas units to ensure energy independence while managing the organic waste.

“The Centre aims to help various security agencies to install 100 large-sized biogas plants by the end of the current fiscal year,” said Prakash Aryal, biogas component manager at the AEPC. Biogas technology, a clean and home-grown technology that uses dung to produce methane gas, has been in practice in Nepal for more than six-decades, particularly in rural households. More than 300,000 houses have so far installed the units across the country.

“The success of the household biogas technology has led to the development of large-scale and commercially viable bio-gas plants, including by security agencies,” said Aryal. Unlike the technology that uses animal dung to generate energy, the one planned for security agencies could use alternative feedstock such as sewerage/night soil, kitchen and vegetable wastes, poultry droppings and other bio-degradable wastes to run the system. One of the incentives for installing biogas plants at the institutional level is to significantly cut dependency on imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

At present, the government provides 60 percent subsidy in construction, while 40 percent cost is borne by the respective public institution. In case of the private sector, the subsidy covers 20 percent of the total cost.