Waste-to-energy program: India's expensive policy failures

India's aspirational plan to emulate Germany's success in waste-to-energy has transformed into a costly undertaking. The government planned to build 400 waste-to-energy plants across the country, spending hundreds of crores of taxpayer money. Today, half of these plants have already shut down, and the remaining ones are struggling to survive.

Waste-to-energy plants work by burning trash to create heat, which then produces steam to generate electricity. But there's one crucial requirement: the waste must have a calorific value of at least 1,500 to burn properly and produce energy efficiently.

Here's where India's plan went wrong. The waste coming to these plants is of poor quality with low calorific value and high moisture content. While countries like Germany, Sweden, and Norway have waste with calorific values between 1,900 and 3,800, India's mixed waste barely reaches 1,400.

Why It's Failing

The root cause is simple: Indians haven't learnt to separate wet and dry waste properly. Severe contamination occurs during transport, and mixed waste with food scraps and moisture reaches the plants, making them inefficient.

Currently, only 10 waste-to-energy plants are operational in India, but they're facing two major problems. First, they're not getting properly segregated waste. Second, nobody wants to buy their expensive electricity.

The Economics Don't Add Up

The electricity from these plants costs ₹7 per unit, while coal and solar power cost just ₹3 per unit. For example, Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur plant cost ₹178 crores to build but produces only 10 MW of power. The Rewa plant cost ₹158 crores for just 4.5 MW capacity.

Despite government subsidies covering 40% of costs, free land, and a free waste supply, these plants produce the most expensive electricity in the country.

Health Hazards Ignored

Residents have protested these plants for years, complaining of respiratory issues and headaches, with accusations of increased miscarriage and birth defects. A New York Times investigation found toxic levels of lead, arsenic, and cadmium in the air around Delhi's plant 19 times higher than safe limits.

Internal government documents revealed that these plants emit ten times more dioxins than legally permitted; however, operations continue primarily due to poor waste quality rather than health concerns.

The closure of these plants isn't about protecting public health or the environment; it's purely economic. India's waste-to-energy experiment shows that copying foreign models without understanding local conditions leads to expensive failures.

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