Energetica India Magazine March 2022

Time to Focus on Biomass 22 energetica INDIA- Mar_2022 The Ujjwala programme has been taking cooking gas cylin- ders and stoves to rural households and all of them are ex- pected to be covered in the next 2 to 3 years. Those who can afford it are using only gas for cooking. The poor do have the problem of not being able to afford gas cylinders. There is, therefore, a strong case for subsidising supply to them to im- prove the quality of life and health of women. Democratic forces may well make this happen, sooner than later. As the use of biomass for cooking declines, there emerges the po- tential of using it in modern ways as a source of renewable energy. Biomass accounted for about 12% of total energy consumption in India in 2019. Converting biomass into commercial energy with modern technology should, therefore, become the focus of public policy. The goal should be to get usable commercial energy from the bio-waste generated in the country, including the rice crop stubble burnt in the fields in North India after har - vesting. This would need analysis of the different categories of bio-waste and new pragmatic policy interventions need to be designed to suit ground realities. India has the largest cattle population in the world and cow dung can be converted into gas, which can be used for cooking, transport as well as to generate electricity. Organ- ic manure would be a marketable by-product. In the late ‘80s a large gobar gas programme was run to provide piped gas in the villages for cooking. It failed. The gas pressure was not good enough for cooking. A viable business mod- el for collecting cow dung and running the plant was not designed and tested before launching the programme for As the use of biomass for cooking declines, there emerges the potential of using it in modern ways as a source of renewable energy. Biomass accounted for about 12% of total energy consumption in India in 2019. Converting biomass into commercial energy with modern technology should, therefore, become the focus of public policy. The goal should be to get usable commercial energy from the bio-waste generated in the country, including the rice crop stubble burnt in the fields in North India after har - vesting. This would need analysis of the different categories of bio-waste and new pragmatic policy interventions need to be designed to suit ground realities. Ajay Shankar Distinguished Fellow, TERI, and former Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India BIOENERGY