Against the backdrop of COP27 climate change meet which opened on Sunday in Egypt, the Government on Monday announced that it will continue the Bio Energy Programme till 2025-26, indicating its commitment to continue with the measures to mitigate its carbon footprints.

The Union Ministry of New & Renewable Energy said that a budget outlay of Rs 858 crore has been allocated for the first phase of the programme that will aid the use of huge surplus biomass, cattle dung, and industrial and urban biowaste available in the country for energy recovery.

On November 2, the National Bioenergy Programme was notified. It will include the three Sub-schemes: Waste to Energy Programme, Biomass Programme and Biogas Programme.

The Waste to Energy Programme (Programme on Energy from Urban, Industrial and Agricultural Wastes /Residues) will support the setting up of large Biogas, BioCNG and Power plants (excluding MSW (municipal solid waste) to power projects).

Biomass Programme (Scheme to Support Manufacturing of Briquettes & Pellets and Promotion of Biomass (nonbagasse) based cogeneration in Industries) will support the setting up of pellets and briquettes for use in power generation and non-bagasse-based power generation projects.

The biogas programme will also support the setting up of family and medium size Biogas in rural areas. According to a team of researchers from IIT-Delhi and Mumbai, clean energy transition via utilizing biomass resources has been projected as an important climate change mitigation strategy.

A vital characteristic of biomass is its localized nature; therefore, bioenergy utilization should follow decentralized planning. 

Agrarian countries like India can take advantage of its large agricultural biomass waste pool to produce clean renewable energy, they said in their study.

“Sustainable utilization of biomass resources for decentralized energy generation and climate change mitigation: A regional case study in India,” published in the journal Environmental Research.