Sistema.bio, a global social enterprise that provides access to modern innovative biodigester technology, is eyeing a 20 per cent growth in its installations in the Indian market this year.
Last year, the company installed some 40,000 units of bio-digesters in the country, which enable smallholder farmers to convert animal waste into renewable energy and organic fertilizer, said Piyush Sohani, Managing Director, Sistema.bio India
The company, which has been operating in India for the past six years, has done some 75,000 bio-digester installations across 22 states in the country, treating about 7 million tonnes of waste and impacting the lives of 4.5 lakh people.
Subsidy-driven growth
Sohani said the market in India for biodigesters is very huge considering that there are some seven crore dairy farms that exist in the country. As per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, there is a potential to install some three crore biodigesters. The government in the past 30-40 years has installed some 50 lakh biodigesters. So there exists a huge potential for the biodigesters in India, he said.
“We are aiming for 20 per cent growth in installations this year,” Sohani said, adding that dairy farmers with 3-4 cattle heads were the potential targets. Better access to climate finance will help accelerate the adoption of bio-digesters in the country, which can help in carbon mitigation, sequestration, and climate change adaptation.
The growth in the biodigester market in India is largely driven by the subsidy and sponsorship models. Sistema.bio is getting some good response from the corporates in sponsoring biodigesters to farmers under their CSR programmes, he said.
Linkages with banks, FIs
Last year, Sistema.bio set up a pre-fabricated biogas manufacturing facility in Pune with an installed capacity of 1 lakh units per year. Besides addressing the local market, Sistema.bio is also exporting the biodigesters to the African market from India.
“Our ambition is to reach one million units per year in India by 2030,” Sohani said, adding that the company is looking at increasing its production capacity besides trying to reduce the cost to make the product more affordable to farmers. Sistema.bio is also looking at linkages with banks and financial institutions so that farmers can afford the product themselves, he said.
Founded in 2010 in Mexico, Sistema.bio operates in 33 countries and aims to reduce 1% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. India has been the largest market for Sistema.bio globally.