In Conversation with Sh. Dinesh Dayanand Jagdale

The energy transition journey in India is fast evolving. May of large Indian Corporates have announced massive investments in the renewable energy sector as they envision a low-carbon sustainable future. The country has been at the forefront of adopting innovative approaches and solutions to boost the prospects of its RE sector, spanning deployment of projects, procurement mechanisms, and electricity market platforms. As a result, India has more than 175 GW of non-fossil based electric in- stalled capacity in its electricity mix, which forms ~42% of its total installed electricity capacity. We have already deployed more than 12 GW of new Renewable Energy Capacities during the current financial year. The Government of India has set an ambitious target to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil based electric installed capacity by 2030.

India is set on the path to become one of the world’s largest economies. At this juncture, three critical objectives emerge — jobs, growth, and sustainability. For accomplishing these objectives, development solutions must be decentralised, inclusive, people-oriented, and environ- ment-friendly. There are many existing and emerging RE technologies which can help meet these requirements. Diversifying our mix with these technologies would not only offer flexibility and resilience to our power system, but also deliver the desired socio-economic benefits.

Large bioenergy feed-stocks are available in the country in the form of organic wastes. Energy recovery from these wastes can be a feasible solution for effective waste management, building a circular economy, and providing valuable fuel to meet the ever-increasing energy requirements of the country, especially for industries, transport, and do- mestic end-use such as cooking. From a sustainability perspective, Compressed Biogas Projects (CBG) have significant benefits in terms of environmental sustainability, energy security, and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Emissions reductions from preventing methane emissions due to unmanaged decomposition of organic wastes are additional benefits. India has a potential of around 62 million metric tonnes of CBG. This implies that substantial percentage of India’s natural gas imports could be replaced by domestically produced CBG, ensuring India’s energy security and protecting against volatility in international energy markets.

2. The welcoming news of the CFA revival is bringing fresh motivation to the entire Biogas fraternity, what are your thoughts on that?

The biogas/CBG sector in India is on the cusp of a large-scale transformation. The enabling environment is rapidly evolving, with financiers, supply chain actors, end-users, and entrepreneurs all realising the massive potential of the sector and the benefits of replacing natural gas with CBG becoming increasingly significant. Large-scale CBG projects with mature supply chains are emerging. There is a renewed focus on biogas, as put forth in the recent Union budget as well. The Ministry’s National Bioenergy Programme provides investors and project developers with long-term policy stability and highlights the government's commitment to support the sector. With a budgetary outlay of Rs. 858 crore under the National Bioenergy Programme under Phase-1, the CFA will provide crucial support to the sector to achieve the CBG targets. The CFA, coupled with the 5% mandate for CBG consumption for all OMCs and natural gas organisations should provide the right set of push and pull incentives to boost the deployment of CBG plants across the country. The processes for availing the CFA have also been simplified, further increasing the ease of availing the government support for project developers.

3. What specific, big changes need to be made in the renewable energy sector for India to reach its net zero goals by 2070?

As India pursues a net-zero emissions pathway, integration of RE with the grid would be crucial. Hybrid RE projects, diversified technology mix, new power market offerings and strategies to make grid-scale storage technologies affordable could help. Resources such as pumped hydro storage could serve as a crucial grid balancer in coming years. Efforts must be made to account for the costs and benefits of increasing RE shares, and to allocate them efficiently between the stakeholders. Innovation in tariff structures and optimising power procurement portfolios of distribution companies would be key. Finding new sources of capital and opening up the domestic bond markets to finance RE projects could be taken up immediately.

As we maximise and harness green growth opportunities, policies must pre-empt risks and support transition to a market-driven sector. Procurement methods must transform. The share of short and medium-term procurement by buyers under open access must increase. PPA structures must evolve. New financial models must enable investment in projects that are able to participate in flexible and market-based procurement.

Focus on institution building and bringing alignment, coordination, cooperation, and engagement between actors must enhance. Individuals and institutions across the value chain need to be trained for both technical and non-technical skills necessary for speeding up deployment, integration, and domestic manufacturing. We will need to take lead in forming multilateral collaborations on education and training, and partnerships between leading universities to build the workforces equipped with the desired hard and soft skills.

4. How can we reconcile net zero with the many other sustainability challenges? For example, how do we make circular thinking central to the net zero agenda?

India’s mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) stands out in utilising the collective wisdom and power to solve challenges that our planet faces today. It motivates the world to act and live in a way that is consistent with sustainable development. This goal is naturally aligned with the development of a circular economy, which also leads to robust and resilient supply chains for clean energy.

Taking inspiration from the Mission LiFE and keeping India’s commitment to clean energy transition in mind, it is imperative that we build domestic manufacturing capacity, diversify supply chains for critical components, and identifies alternate technologies and processes based on locally available raw materials. Introducing circularity in supply chains is one of the solutions to mitigate the risks associated with mineral criticality and supply chain vulnerability. Reduced mineral intensity, increased component and product utilisation, material recovery from waste, recycling, and reusing are some possibilities. Urban mining, a concept that recovers minerals from discarded devices, can also aid in supplying the world's mineral needs in the future. We will need to showcase our leadership in building a circular economy in renewables, efforts should be directed towards initiating an advanced research development and demonstration (RD&D) programme. The purpose of this programme must be to create and test alternative input materials, appropriate technologies, and models for effective collection, extraction, recycling, and utilisation of high-value materials and minerals.

5. In 2047, India will celebrate 100 years of independence, so as a measure towards attaining Atmanirbhar Bharat, what are your suggestions/opinion on making the CBG sector more robust?

CBG is an important sector in achieving India’s decarbonisation and sustainability goals. It is thus necessary to increase the productive utilisation of various biomass residues to achieve the SATAT target. Demand creation for bioenergy products will be vital in increasing the utilisation of surplus waste and increasing the use of CBG in power and thermal applications. It is also acknowledged that CBG projects will require financial support to become viable and scale-up in the coming years. Some measures that can be instrumental in scaling up CBG sector include:

● Advanced procurement pipelines: Oil marketing companies (OMCs) are already off-taking bio-CNG under the SATAT scheme. The industrial sector could be similarly targeted for large-scale offtake of bio-CNG and replace the current use of natural gas, while bio-CNG projects could be made eligible for city gas distribution (CGD) networks. Additionally, bio-fertiliser obligations and distribution networks can support assured additional revenue streams for bio-CNG project developers. The sale of organic fertilisers can strengthen the project viability, and their use can aid soil nutrition.

● Strengthening biomass supply chains through the efficient collection, aggregation, transportation, and storage of biomass residue is an essential requirement for scaling up bioenergy in India. New business models will be required to emerge to raise awareness about the social, economic, and environmental benefits of participating in the bioenergy supply chain. Identification, benchmarking, and successful business models in the supply chain can also help attract more players.

● Facilitating the development of waste management plans by ULBs and large RWAs. Model projects/ technologies could be demonstrated to showcase commercial applications in this segment. ULBs can be encouraged to identify such projects in large communities/ establishments that may self-manage their waste and become the off-taker of the gas produced. ULBs, horticulture departments, RWAs and managers of commercial spaces/ complexes may be required to procure bio-manure for maintaining urban green spaces/ gardens/parks etc.

● To prepare the necessary workforce required for bio-CNG plants in the country, it is imperative to develop the knowledge base, training capacity, and skilling infrastructure for the workforce. Expanding the ambit of BDTCs to include upto-date and novel technologies for bio-CNG in their curriculum can be an effective channel to create the necessary workforce. The Skill Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ) can provide additional support and critical infrastructure through a national skilling programme focused on the bioCNG supply chain.

● Benchmarking of best practices and efficiency improvements must be implemented right from the beginning in the bio-CNG sector. This can also help optimize resource allocation on a national scale and identify areas for improvement. Robust performance monitoring through real-time data and reporting, regular updates to a central repository, and environmental performance reporting, the industry can achieve high efficiencies seen in other industrial and energy sectors.