Biogas plants continue to be developed and to receive a good press. The take up level for simple domestic anaerobic digestion plants is good where the schemes are available, and reports suggest that once built small scale household and community digesters built by local labour are used well. (See Ashden Awards)
Reportedly small AD Plants are operated consistently once built, with very real benefits for those that use them. Three articles show this optimistic outlook as partially reproduced below:
Samruddhi Foods to Generate Electricity through Biogas
Pune, Mar 21: Samruddhi Jeevan Food India will generate three phase electricity for the farmers and locals of Malthan village in Daund taluka of the district by erecting a biogas generating plant there, in a bid to get over ever-increasing periods of load shedding.
Talking to UNI here today, Samruddhi Jeevan Foods chairman and managing director Mahesh Motewar said ''our company has started to generate our own electricity with the help of biogas and till the end of March, the company will generate three phase electricity power which is certain to guarantee the success.'' He further said ''We have submitted our proposal to be included in the Limca Book of World Record as it is one of the unique project.'' Along with the project of biogas, other projects like animal husbandary, organic fertilizers, milk and dairy products
SKG Sangha, India
Biogas for cooking plus fertiliser from slurry
SKG Sangha uses local masons to build a biogas plant in Bidadi, South India.
Although the state of Karnataka in South India has thriving, affluent cities like Bangalore, most of the rural population are subsistence farmers, growing rice, millet, vegetables and coconuts in the monsoon-watered land. The main fuel for cooking is firewood, which is becoming increasingly scarce and is hugely time consuming to collect. Indoor air pollution as a result of firewood use is responsible for the high incidence of respiratory and eye problems suffered mainly by women and children.
In 1993, moved by his own experience of watching his mother cook on an open fire and suffer from itchy eyes and a bad cough, Mr D. Vidya Sagar set up SKG Sangha with the express aim of providing rural women in Karnataka with an alternative energy source to firewood for cooking. After researching available options, Vidya Sagar chose the 'Deenbandu' cow dung based biogas plant as the most reliable and cheapest alternative and, with the help of a bank loan, began building and supplying these plants to rural households.
Since 1993 SKG Sangha has installed over 43,000 of these biogas plants, which is the highest number of plants installed by a single organisation, certainly in India and probably in most other parts of the world as well.
http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/skgsangha
Energy clubs planned in each panchayat
Express News Service 11 Feb 2009
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to take the energy-saving mantra to every household, Biotech- the Centre for development of bio-gas technology and other non- conventional energy sources - plans to start energy clubs throughout the State.
The project is expected to create a marked difference wherever waste and waste disposal pose a headache to the local bodies, Biotech Director Sajidas said.
As a first step, Biotech has called the attention of interested NGOs, engaged in energy-saving movements, to respond to the project. ``We will select one NGO for each panchayat, give them training and help them form the energy club, which will take forward the activities to the public,’’ Sajidas said.
The NGOs will be taught by Biotech members how to install bio-gas plants in households and convert waste collected in houses to energy for cooking.
The NGOs will be trained in setting up energy lamps in houses and also the maintenance works of the plant. Once trained, the NGOs will form energy clubs and will be allotted a panchayat each for carrying out their activities.
``The project is being undertaken with the subsidies granted by the Union Department for Energy Conservation and will be coordinated by our regional offices in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. Under the project, we plan to start 1,000 energy clubs throughout the State,’’ Saji said.
More here.
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