Household biogas capacity grows under MNRE biogas programme

India installed 35088 small biogas plants between 2022-23 and 2024-25 under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s Biogas Programme. These units range from 1 to 25 cubic metres per day and operate in 26 States and Union Territories. They support rural households with clean cooking fuel produced from cattle dung and organic waste. 

Small plants in this capacity band are household or small community units. They are meant for cooking use rather than electricity production. Most plants are about 2 cubic metres per day. This gives a national biogas generation capacity of about 70176 cubic metres per day. The plants fall under the National Bioenergy Programme’s Biogas component, which promotes decentralised bioenergy in rural areas.

The programme aims to replace fuels such as firewood and LPG. Each plant is assumed to support one household. This means 35088 households have gained access to clean cooking fuel over the past three years.

Installations rose from 9944 units in 2022-23 to 14413 in 2023-24 and moderated to 12079 in 2024-25. Maharashtra recorded the highest deployment with 14468 plants. Madhya Pradesh followed with 6260 and Gujarat with 3668. States such as Punjab, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Chhattisgarh also show steady uptake.

The distribution spans large agrarian states and smaller northeastern states. Some states began installations only in 2024-25, which points to a gradual expansion of programme coverage. The data also show that the volume of dung used in these plants remains small compared to national availability, leaving space for scale up.

These small biogas plants do not produce electricity. Electricity generation from biogas is linked to medium and large plants under the Waste to Energy component. The small units focus on thermal use for cooking. Programme metrics track households served rather than electrical capacity, reflecting their role as a clean cooking and waste management solution.

Table: Number of small biogas plants (1–25 m³/day) set up under the Biogas Programme of MNRE during 2022‑23 to 2024‑25: