In recent years climate change coupled with population pressures has made it increasingly difficult for the poor rural communities living in the SEDS catchments area to make an adequate livelihood. Unpredictable rain patterns have greatly disturbed the traditional dry land farming methods resulting in poor crop yields, increasing migration to the cities and a spate of farmer suicides. The first victims of such tragedies are the women, often left isolated after the collapse of the joint family structure.

 In such desperate times it seems only right that the benefits of the Clean Development Mechanism, which exists as a result of hard fought international climate change negotiations accumulating in the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, are allowed to reach some of the planets most vulnerable; the poor rural women.

This project plans to provide 5000 SHG member families with household biogas units across 200 villages in 5 Mandals of Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India.

A heavier reliance on natural resources caused by an increasing local population which relies almost exclusively on fire wood as a cooking fuel has resulted in the degradation of local forests. Over 90% of firewood collected in the area can now be categorised as originating from a non renewable source. The use of biogas for cooking and hot water heating will displace the burning of such firewood .The main beneficiaries of the units will be the women of the household upon whom the burdens of firewood collection and cooking in traditional unventilated kitchens fall upon. On average these women will spend 5 full years of a 40 year adult life preparing food/heating water for their families in miserable conditions. Through the introduction of biogas units the women will no longer be exposed to smoke inhalation and the negative health impacts associated (lung infection, eye infection, skin diseases etc), will be relieved from the drudgery of firewood collection, will gain pride in maintaining a clean soot-free home and be able to spend time with their family in a clean and safe environment.

The project plans to train 50 local individuals in biogas masonry by undertaking an apprenticeship programme run with the support of ADATS (agricultural development and training society, Karnataka state). Through this programme each of the individuals selected by their respective village organisation will spend 2 weeks working under a fully trained ADATS mason in order to learn the necessary skills and bring this knowledge with them back to their own community. After the construction of these 5000 units some of these masons will be selected to make up a biogas maintenance team who will be employed on a full time basis to ensure all units remain fully operational for the duration of the crediting period

An online digitised monitoring system is being designed specifically for the project in order that each individual unit can be monitored initially during the construction phase and then throughout its operational lifetime to ensure continual usage (and thus the generation of CER’s). The developer of this system has already designed similar monitoring tools for other CDM projects undertaken by grass root NGO’s and will design the system with field staff usability in mind on a permission driven basis.

A Gold Standard PDD is being prepared in line with methodology: Type I.E. Switch from Non-Renewable Biomass for Thermal Applications by the User, version 1.

The estimated CER stream that will be achieved by the project is as follows:

This is based on 1500 units being commissioned in each of the years 2009, 2010, 2011, and a further 500 commissioned in 2012, totalling 5000 units.

Initial budget calculations suggest that the forward sale of these gold standard CER’s at a rate of 12 Euro/CER would be sufficient to meet all implementation costs.

After the initial 7 year implementation period 80% of future carbon revenues will go directly to the women beneficiary of the household. The remaining 20% will be placed in a SEDS held long term fixed account and will be used to meet the cost of employing a full time maintenance team to ensure all units remain 100% operational. Any funds remaining in the account after the full 21 year crediting period will be distributed to the end users accordingly.    

Comments on this PDD are welcome on http://sedsngo.blogspot.com 

Introduction

The purpose of this Biogas CDM Project activity is to set up 5000 biogas plants (digesters) of 2 m3 capacity each for single households in the 5 Mandals of Anantapur District in which SEDS operates (Roddam, Somandepalli, Chilamanthur, Penukonda, Gorantla), and in this way replace Non-Renewable Biomass with biogas for cooking and hot water heating. Implementation of the project depends on the successful validation and registration of the project as a CDM project activity since the project will be financed completely from carbon revenues. There are social, environmental, economic and technological benefits which contribute to sustainable development.  

Avoided health hazards associated with unmanaged waste in back yards and village streets

Avoided health hazards from indoor air pollution; and reduced drudgery 

Environmental benefits

Avoided local environmental pollution through a better waste management system; and  soil improvement by providing high quality manure

Avoided global and local environmental pollution and environmental degradation by switching from non-renewable biomass to renewable energy, leading to reduction of GHG emissions

Economic benefits

Savings to national economy by providing renewable cooking fuel instead of fossil fuels

Higher productivity of workers as they  have adequate cooking fuel supply

Technological benefits

Better biogas digester models, thus improving biogas yield.

Training in chemistry of biogas for masons and users leading to improved scientific temper in community and more jobs.   

Household Eligibility

Any household situated within the 128 villages in which SEDS operates who owns at least one cow/buffalo, is prepared to collect the required amount of substrate to feed the biogas digester on a daily basis and has room enough to fit the unit is eligible to participate in this project provided they also: 

Agree to assist a biogas mason in the construction of the biogas unit

Agree to the proper use of the biogas unit and to utilize the SEDS biogas maintenance team to ensure their unit is kept fully operational for the duration of the project lifetime (3 - 7 year crediting periods)

Agree to stop burning non renewable firewood and kerosene to meet their cooking energy requirements as long as their biogas unit is kept in full working condition. 

Biogas Unit Design / Construction

Each digester comprises the following main installed components made of brick and cement:

A digester measuring 2.1 metres in diameter, and 1.545 metres internal height from bottom of digester to top of dome45 cm high mixing tank with internal wall length of 45 cm

An optional additional acidification tank for pre-treatment of substrate may be built

An outlet tank with an outlet opening of 60 cm and a height of 25.7 cm above the ground, covered by a cement slab of 7 cm thickness and area of 1 m x 1.17 m

A pipe of between 5 and 100 metres in length leading from the top of the dome to the stove  

A 2-ring stove inside the house   

Implementation and monitoring team

The project implementation and monitoring team will comprise of the following: CDM coordinator:

To be appointed by the SEDS board of trustees, and who will then manage the project on a full time basis.

Project Staff: 1 database manager, 10 biogas field workers. These will be appointed by the CDM coordinator.

Masons: 50 individuals will be selected through the village organisations to partake in an apprenticeship programme through which they will be fully trained as biogas masons. Each will then be contracted, on a piece-rate basis, for the construction of these 5000 units.

Village level volunteers: Each village organisation selects a village level volunteer on an annual basis. This volunteer will maintain a daily usage register for each unit built in their village and enter them into the digitized monitoring system on a monthly basis.

A maintenance team will be appointed post implementation to ensure that all units are fully operational for the lifetime of the project.  

Biogas Mason Apprenticeship scheme

The 50 masons selected for the apprenticeship programme will spend 2 weeks working under a fully trained biogas mason of the Bagepalli Coolie Sangha, in Kolar district of Karnataka state. The BCS already has 127 fully trained masons and will be building 18000 units as part of the Biogas CDM Project of Bagepalli Coolie Sangha from 2009 to 2012.

Financing of the project and distribution of future carbon revenues

The project will be financed by the forward sale of the certified emission reductions (CER’s) generated in the first 7 year crediting period to a carbon investor. This investor will only be identified once the project has gained full validation from the Gold Standard (an independent quality assurance standard for carbon credits) as this will put the project in a stronger stance when negotiating the sale price of the resultant CER’s. A price of 12 Euros per CER will be sufficient to cover the costs of building all of the units and ensuring a maintenance team is in operation to ensure all remain fully operational.   After fulfilling the initial 7 year crediting period 80% of all future CER revenues will be paid out to the each of the women running the biogas unit. The remaining 20% will be set aside in a long term fixed deposit account and be used to pay the salaries of the SEDS maintenance staff, to cover all costs of repair and to provide grants to end users facing a shortage of substrate. This could happen due to loss or death of cattle, temporary shortage of fodder faced by a particular family, etc.  

At the end of the project’s lifetime any funds remaining in the account will be distributed to the end users accordingly.