Earlier biogas programmes in India have underperformed. Evaluate whether capital support combined with guaranteed offtake fixes the structural constraints of the CBG sector.

Compressed biogas (CBG) is a methane-rich fuel made from farm residue, dung and food waste. It promises energy security and better waste management, but delivery has lagged. SATAT (2018) aimed for 5,000 CBG plants by 2023–24 [2]. Only 80 had been commissioned by November 2024 [3]. The new ₹23,731-crore GOBARdhan push combines capital assistance with guaranteed offtake [1]. It fixes the financing gap, but not the supply-side gaps.

Structural constraints behind past underperformance

• Investment risk: high upfront costs and uncertain buyers kept lenders cautious, even after CBG was brought under Priority Sector Lending [4].
• Feedstock logistics: crop residue is available only around harvest, so plants must collect and store months of biomass.
• By-product market: income from fermented organic manure depends on farmers buying it, and they still prefer subsidised chemical fertiliser.
• Infrastructure: connecting scattered rural plants to pipelines and city gas networks is costly.

What capital support + guaranteed offtake fixes

• Lower financing risk: up to ₹30 crore per project, and ₹1.25 crore per tonne-per-day of capacity for greenfield plants [1].
• Demand certainty: an assured buyer makes projects easier to finance, so more letters of intent can become working plants.
• Scale ambition: output is targeted to rise from 0.4 to 4–6 mmscmd, backing the goal of a 15% gas share in the energy mix by 2030 [1].
• Co-benefits: projected savings of over ₹40,000 crore on imports, over 40 Mt of CO₂ avoided and over 1.5 lakh jobs [1].

What it leaves unresolved

• Supply, not demand, is the binding limit: a guaranteed buyer does not guarantee year-round feedstock.
• Capacity vs output: support is tied to installed capacity [1], so it may reward building plants rather than running them.
• Manure market: the projected benefit of about 250 Mt of manure [1] assumes demand that does not yet exist.
• Coordination: MoPNG, DDWS and the agriculture and fertiliser departments must work together.

On balance, the new design solves half the problem: capital and buyer certainty. Feedstock supply and manure sales remain open. The way forward:

• pay part of the support only for gas actually delivered;
• set up panchayat-level biomass collection hubs;
• have fertiliser companies co-market enriched organic manure;
• publicly track how many plants are actually running.

With these steps, farmers can move from "Annadatas" to "Urjadatas" [1], advancing SDG 7 and India's net-zero 2070 goal.