The Punjab Biomass Initiative delivers value on three fronts at once — a cleaner environment, a stronger economy and healthier communities.
In households that cook on firewood and dung cake, gathering and preparing fuel is daily, unpaid, physically demanding work — and it falls almost entirely on women. A household digester removes that task.
The Initiative estimates that 3 to 4 hours a day are returned to each household where a digester replaces solid fuel. It also removes a constant source of smoke from inside the home, where women and young children spend the most time. This is why the first year of household distribution prioritises female-headed households.
Manure left in the open releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. Capturing it in a sealed digester and using it as fuel avoids those emissions, and that avoidance is measurable and tradeable. The Gujjar Colony plant alone is assessed at approximately 36,000 carbon credits a year.
Explore how the Energy Department is opening the Punjab Biomass Initiative to private investment and partnership.
Investment & Partnership