Energy transition through waste-to-energy projects in peri-urban and rural areas
Waste-to-energy projects in India have historically been city-centric. As cities are well-served by LPG and CNG distribution systems, the Bio-CNG produced has to be used for either fuelling urban public transport, or moved to rural areas at considerable cost. Distributed production and distribution of compressed biogas (CBG) from municipal organic waste in rural and peri-urban areas could be a cheaper option for local consumers. Such production and distribution of CBG would also address issues of household air pollution due to solid cooking fuels, and foreign exchange outflow on account of importing cooking fuel. This brief discusses two delivery models for CBG and argues that India is in a position to demonstrate its own model at scale to the world, towards accelerating energy transition.
