Sustainability Assessment of Bioenergy Generation and Rural Development in Varlakonda, Karnata State, India:

Biomass based technologies are a very promising option for decentralised energy generation in India, particularly in rural areas, which suffer from constant power shortages or have no access to electricity at all. Such biomass based projects bear a great potential to trigger sustainable development in rural areas, both from a socio-economic and an environmental perspective. However, due to many different reasons such as lack of investment capital for rural development projects, biomass based technologies and biomass gasification in particular have not been able to achieve a market breakthrough comparable to other renewable energy technologies, such as wind turbines and small-scale hydro power plants. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to be implemented within the Kyoto Protocol as an instrument to reduce CO2 emissions and foster sustainable development is an interesting tool to overcome the lack of investment capital and implement decentralised energy projects in rural areas in India.

Main objective of this thesis is an assessment of biomass gasification as an option for decentralised electricity generation in the context of sustainable development in rural areas in India. The first part of the thesis consists of a detailed technological, environmental and economic analysis of an existing power plant in the south Indian state of Karnataka. The results of the first part are then used for a systematical sustainability assessment of the project based on the Multi-Attributive Utility Theory (MAUT), which allows for comparison to other CDM project proposals in India.

The conducted analysis and subsequent sustainability assessment of the project led to the conclusion that biomass gasification technology allows for a safe and reliable power supply and is ripe for a broad commercialisation. There is a great potential for improving the overall efficiency of the analysed power plant design by waste heat utilisation. Further investigation of the environmental performance of the power plant, in particular of the ambient air quality inside the power plant and the environmental impact of the producer gas cleaning system, are strongly recommended. Simple preventive measures have been proposed to minimise identified environmental hazards. From an economic perspective, it is recommended to shift from dual-fuel operation (diesel and producer gas) with diesel engines to pure gas operation with gas engines, which allow for a lower unit generation cost. In comparison to the analysed power plant design, generating capacities in the range of 100 kW and above have also been identified as more cost efficient due to economies of scale.

A reliable biomass supply, which does not compromise local biomass resources, is of crucial importance for the impact of such projects on regional sustainable development. The plantation of energy forests, as an alternative to common agricultural practices, provides enormous possibilities to improve the socio-economic as well as environmental conditions in rural areas. The costs and the managerial efforts to implement such energy plantations are, however, often underestimated. The main identified difficulty to implement energy projects in rural areas, which is also the case for the analysed power plant, is the lack of favourable load conditions and purchasing power in these areas.

Contact :
Patrick Bürgi
myclimate
Bluntschlisteig 1
8027 Zürich, Switzerland
Phone: +41 1 281 22 20
e-mail: patrick.buergi@myclimate.org
www.myclimate.org

Aklvya Sharan
DESI Power
139/B, 10th Main, RMV Extension,
Bangalore 560080, India
Phone: + 91-80-361 3585 / 361 3457
e-mail: desipower@vsnl.com
www.desipower.com