Bioenergy should have been India’s most logical renewable sector. It aligns with agricultural supply chains, industrial residues, sugar mill ecosystems, and urban waste management. Yet the MNRE Renewable Energy Statistics 2024–25 shows that bioenergy forms just 6.72 per cent of India’s renewable capacity, and contributes only 15.94 BU (Billion Units) of generation.
This stagnation is not the result of technological gaps. It is a policy design issue.
Biomass and bagasse cogeneration together account for over 84.79 per cent of bioenergy installations. But these projects depend heavily on seasonal residue supply, pricing disputes with farmers, and interstate movement restrictions. They are politically sensitive spaces, far more complex than solar, where the input is simply sunlight.
The numbers make the sector’s marginalisation clear. Over ten years, bioenergy generation inched from 15.29 BU to 15.94 BU, essentially flat. In contrast, solar jumped from 4.6 BU to 144.15 BU. Even wind more than doubled.
Waste-to-energy shows a 720 per cent rise, but from a tiny base. This highlights the central challenge: India has not integrated energy policy with waste policy. Without that integration, waste-to-energy will always be a niche, not a pillar.
The real risk is strategic, India is letting a potentially powerful decentralised energy sector stall at infancy. Bioenergy could anchor rural employment, farmer incomes, village-level electricity, and urban waste solutions. But without state-level coordination and pricing reforms, it will remain peripheral. Bioenergy didn’t underperform. It was never structurally supported to grow. |
