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NT Bureau
Chennai, Dec 9:

        Revenues generated from carbon credits by adopting Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could make green projects viable, said Pranav Nahar, director of Ecosecurities, a leading firm trading with carbon credits in the world.

        Addressing a press meet here recently, Nahar said Tamilnadu has seen rapid expansion of projects in sectors ranging from leather, wind and sugar to distilleries and biomass. All these projects have potential to generate a large amount of carbon credits which could be turned into revenues through adoption of CDM.

        The State already has six registered projects generating a revenue of over Rs 41 crore, he informed. Carbon credits were measured in units of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) where each CER was equivalent to one tonne of of carbon dioxide reduction and valued at Euros 3 - 5. Developing nations that exceeded their accepted levels of emissions could buy or borrow CERs from developed economies as agreed in the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997.

        Ecosecurities was in the process of developing two projects for Empee Sugars and Shriram EPC to expand CDM awareness among the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector in Tamilnadu with an aim to increase the registered projects by 50 per cent in the State.

        Empee Sugars would invest Rs 160 crore for biomass-based power plants. In the first phase a 7.5 MW plant at Pudukottai generating 40,000 CERs would come up by June 2007 at a cost of Rs 44 crore, said G Shankarraj, general manager, Empee Distilleries Ltd.

        N Ramkumar, general manager, Shriram EPC, said that in partnership with Ecosecurities the company would set up a cluster-based windmill project with an installed capacity of 42 MW at Tirunelveli at an investment of Rs 160-200 crore. It would consist of 166 windmills each having a capacity of 250 KW and the entire project would be completed by March 2007, which was expected to generate 200 CERs.

        Ecosecurities is a trading firm in carbon credits and handles diverse portfolio of projects in energy efficiency, alternative and renewable energy, agricultural waste and forestry.