Prospects and challenges in biogas technology: Indian scenario

Abstract

Renewable energy technologies have started to play a major role in the global energy mix. India also has been encouraging renewable energy very aggressively and has large renewable energy expansion programmes. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set a target of 10 GW of bioenergy by 2022 and 100,000 domestic size biogas plants. India has been promoting biogas technology for the past three decades with several governmental programmes. Though India has favourable environmental and sociological conditions such as optimal temperature, high cattle population and a strong agricultural economy, the attempts were unsuccessful. Hence there exists a need to explore the reasons for failure of biogas in India and as well interrogate the specific interventions required to revive back the biogas market in India.