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Conserve energy, says Governor

Special Correspondent

Two-day zonal seminar on "Energy Conservation with special reference to Energy Conservation Act, 2001"

CHANDIGARH: India can become the largest producer of paper in the world if paper mills reduce the cost of production and use bagasse, a waste of sugar mills, as raw material, said Haryana Governor A.R.Kidwai here on Thursday while inaugurating a two-day zonal seminar on "Energy Conservation with special reference to Energy Conservation Act, 2001".

Dr. Kidwai said that the paper industry had great potential in India.

At present India's per capita consumption was approximately 6 kgs. per year which compared very poorly with the corresponding figure in developed countries like the US, Canada and Japan where it exceeded 250 kgs. per year.

Even neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Philippines and China had a much higher per capita consumption figures.

He said that according to studies conducted by leading international consultancy organisations, the energy consumption figures of the paper industry in India were 800-1,500 KWH per tonne of paper as compared to only 400-800 KWH per tonne of paper in European countries.

Also, the cost of energy per unit in India was higher as compared to other developed economies because of diminishing resources of natural conventional energy like coal and significant dependence on import of crude oil.

He said that steps should be taken urgently to reduce specific energy consumption levels.

"No industry can afford to be non-cost competitive by consuming high cost resource inefficiently. The need of the hour is to adopt such techniques that would help in minimum consumption of electricity,'' he added.

Dr. Kidwai said that with depleting fossil and petroleum resources, solar energy was the ultimate source of energy as it was cheaper and available in abundance. He stressed the need for intensive research for tapping this source of energy to the optimum level.

He further said that power could be generated from the Himalayan rivers by

setting up hydro-electric units by signing a pact with Nepal. He said China had been producing power at every fall of the river to meet the expanding power needs.

Earlier, in his keynote address, A. Kaupp, a German expert on energy conservation, called for energy conservation and use of renewable energy resources. Dr. Kaupp further said that high cost of energy was a

worldwide problem. Concrete steps should be taken for tapping renewable energy as the petroleum and fossil stocks were limited.

The Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association President, Anil Kumar, said that the seminar had been convened to identify the basic issues before the industry as far as energy conservation was concerned and find solutions.

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