Identifying and overcoming barriers to large-scale biogas dissemination in India through stakeholder-led SWOT analysis

Despite numerous government initiatives and policies, the dissemination of large-scale biogas plants remains slow in India. A social impact assessment is performed to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of large-scale biogas plants. Common strengths of biogas plants reported by owners, technical experts, and end users are efficient waste management, renewable energy production, biofertilizer generation, and reduced pollution and health risks. Social communities are found to be the least aware of biogas plant’s strengths. For biogas plant owners, high capital costs, gas grid networks, and academic collaboration represent key weakness, threat, and opportunity, respectively. For technical experts, lack of skilled workers, feedstock quality and cost, and carbon trading represent key weakness, threat, and opportunity. For end users, lack of awareness, CBG purity, and employment creation represent key weakness, threat, and opportunity. The weaknesses and threats act as market barriers and are categorized into four types. Economic barriers are the most significant, followed by political, technical, and social barriers. Most critical barriers are the nonexistent digestate market and access to the CBG gas grid, followed by the high capital and operating costs. Finally, short- and long-term recommendations are provided to different stakeholders to improve dissemination of biogas plants in India.