As discussed in Chapter 2, biomass based power generation can contribute in addressing the energy demand in India along with great sustainable development benefits such as reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, employment generation and income generation (Cushion et al., 2010; Elghali et al., 2007; Escobar et al., 2009; IEA, 2007a). Therefore for bioenergy projects, “it will be necessary to determine the contribution of the supply chain towards sustainable development policy objectives” (Elghali et al., 2007, p. 6076).
Bioenergy can have a greater prospect for positive sustainable impact as stated above, however:
A variety of different environmental, social and economic issues need to be addressed to ensure the overall impact of bioenergy is positive compared to that of fossil fuels. (OECD & IEA, 2012)
Poor bioenergy systems management can possibly create huge negative impacts especially when compared to the benefits it can offer. In some cases it can worsen the situation (OECD & IEA, 2012; Rossi, 2012; TERI, 2010; UNIDO, 2009) with potential negative impacts such as inefficient use of natural resources (Rovere et al., 2010), impacts on food production (Escobar et al., 2009; UNIDO, 2009), affecting local demand for biomass (Bürgi, 2003), land use change (Evans et al., 2010; UNIDO, 2009), land rights (Cushion et
al., 2010), water level depletion (Evans et al., 2010), water pollution (Allen et al., 1998), energy crops grown using high amounts of fertilisers (Evans et al., 2010), high fossil fuel use in the supply chain (Allen et al., 1998), high emissions (Allen et al., 1998), traffic generation (Allen et al., 1998), inappropriate working conditions (Escobar et al., 2009), health and safety issues (Allen et al., 1998), noise and visual intrusions (Allen et al., 1998), and low wages (Escobar et al., 2009).These sustainability issues, if not addressed properly, can create a bad perception and insufficient social acceptance (Eswarlal et al., 2013; Harrison et al., 2011; Rösch & Kaltschmitt, 1999). Whereas public perception can impact the success of the bioenergy industry and it has been one of the important challenges for the bioenergy industry (Buchholz et al., 2009b; Cherni et al., 2007; Eswarlal et al., 2011a; Eswarlal et al., 2011b; Eswarlal et al., 2013; Roos et al., 1999; Rösch & Kaltschmitt, 1999; Thornley et al., 2009a; Wegener & Kelly, 2008; Wright, 2006).
These sustainability concerns are also echoed by various experts in various forums (for example Renergy 2012 and EUBCE) attended by the researcher. Moreover, it was identified that sustainable development is one of their primary objectives of the action research case study project ARC. Due to the inherent nature of the Case ARC, which is led by researchers, there was a high emphasis on avoiding any negative sustainability impacts and achieving rural development (such as employment and income generation, supporting rural electrification and rural business) during the project implementation and operation. During the pilot visits to CasePCS1 and PCS7, even though there was not much emphasis on the sustainable development opportunities or potential negative impacts of bioenergy systems, they were viewing them as important promoters for bioenergy. Avoiding fossil fuels and effective utilisation of agro-residues are seen as some of the positive contribution of bioenergy by them.
Table 3.2: The important factors determining the supply potential of biomass
Bioenergy systems can also be directly influenced by the various sustainability factors as stated below,
Bioenergy systems are complex because their three components feedstock supply, conversion technology and energy allocation are influenced by environmental, economic and social factors. (Buchholz et al., 2005, p. 1)
For example, Table 3.2 (number of * indicates the importance of the factor) clearly shows the influence of sustainability factors on determining the supply potential of biomass.
The sustainability issues are identified as important challenge for the bioenergy systems (IEA Bioenergy, 2011; UNIDO, 2009) and it can limit the potential of bioenergy systems (Camerata & Bansal, 2011). Attributable to the bioenergy systems ability to impact and get influenced by the global sustainability issues (sustainable development). It becomes highly pertinent to consider the sustainability issues when the study conducted by the Smeets and Faaij (2010) reveals that it is feasible to produce bioenergy meeting sustainability criteria at reasonable cost, which is one of the main reservations by the companies about meeting the sustainability criteria. Therefore, it becomes important to take not only technical, but also environmental, economic and social parameters into account while assessing bioenergy systems for successful accomplishment of the projects (Buchholz et al., 2005; TERI, 2010; Thornley et al., 2009a).
The impact of sustainability issues can vary based on the supply chain, scale and technology used. For instance, a study comparing the various technologies and sizes of the bioenergy systems concluded that there is a substantial variation in land-use efficiency and cost for different systems (Thornley et al., 2009a). Whereas another study carried out by Gmünder et al. (2010) found that small scale bioenergy systems reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly when compared to a diesel generator or grid connection, but the environmental performance is only slightly improved mainly due to the poor pre-processing techniques. Therefore it is important that while making decisions “the whole life-cycle impact of bioenergy production needs to be carefully considered” (OECD & IEA, 2012).
Depending on the country and the rationale behind the use of bioenergy systems in that country, the sustainability issues and objectives can be different (Cushion et al., 2010) because:
In the context of developing countries such as India, bio-energy development must be viewed within the context of existing poverty and prevalent resource management systems i.e. the economic, social and environmental conditions and their interrelationship.(Tiwari et al., 2009, p. 4)
The sustainability issues also depend on the place or location of the plant because the impact on sustainability issues can vary based on that (Cushion et al., 2010). Therefore it is important to recognise the specific sustainable issues relevant to the Indian bioenergy sector in order to effectively manage bioenergy systems.
Taking into account the bioenergy system’s potential to bring benefits and/or negative impacts to the society and influence of the sustainability issues across the supply chain and on the success of the bioenergy system, it becomes important to consider the sustainability issues from the very beginning of the bioenergy projects.
Considering the variation of sustainability issues based on the country and system specifications in conjunction with its importance for the success of bioenergy systems discussed above, this research intends to address the following research objective:
To identify sustainability issues of the small scale bioenergy projects in India. (RO2)