Legal Services
Introduction Compressed Biogas Plant Setup in India: A Complete Guide to License, Process, Cost and Compliance India generates huge quantities of agriculture residues, municipal solid wastes, and cow dung on a daily basis. All this waste when converted to generate pipeline quality fuel serves two purposes; one, to solve the issue of waste management, and second, to ensure an alternative supply of energy security. Compressed Biogas manufacturing Plant project in India is being increasingly favou+red by business organizations in recent times. CBG comes with the added advantage of having a structured government scheme, offtake guarantee from the oil marketing companies, and a subsidy structure that makes real improvements to project economics. It requires a lot of things including land acquisition, sourcing of raw material, numerous statutory clearances, and paperwork before the first cubic meter of fuel is generated for compression. This guide talks about all these things, starting from the licensing process until operating compliance post the plant setup. The requirements for setting up a CBG plant in India include Business Registration and GST Number; Environmental Clearance from State Pollution Control Board; Explosive Safety License from PESO for Gas Storage; Fire Safety NOC; Clearances for Building and Factory from Municipal Corporation; and Letter of Intent from Oil Marketing Company as per SATAT. Advantages of Setting Up of Compressed Biogas Plant Off take guaranteed through long-term contracts. Commercial contracts for a period of ten to fifteen years are entered into by the oil marketing companies like IOCL, BPCL and HPCL after setting up the plant. In case of a capital-intensive project like this, assurance of demand for over a decade removes majority of risks faced in a start-up project. Financial assistance and subsidy from Centre. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides financial assistance from Centre under National Bioenergy Programmes and there is availability of subsidy for biomass collection machinery. Both play a major role in bringing down the investment cost for the promoter. Status as Priority Sector Lending Scheme.CBG plants being part of Priority Sector Lending Scheme of RBI makes it easier to get finance from banks and non-banking financial companies. Second source of income. Digestate obtained after extraction of biogas can be used for manufacturing of Fermented Organic Manure, which has its own market among farmers who use it as an alternative to chemical fertilizers. Manufacture of this product serves as a second income source for the plant owners. Consequences for environmental and economic situation in rural areas. Along with economic benefits of running CBG plants, such plants eliminate agricultural waste that was previously either burned or decomposed and caused air pollution due to stubble burning. Further, CBG plants provide employment in the areas of feedstock collection, transportation, and running the plant itself, something that is quite relevant in rural and semi-urban areas. Eligibility to Set Up a Compressed Biogas Plant The SATAT policy framework, along with the related state level biofuel and bio-energy policies, appears quite inclusive regarding the list of applicants who could participate. The list of eligible applicant groups usually comprises: Single individuals Partnerships and LLPs Private and public limited companies Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) Organizations registered as cooperatives Municipal bodies and authorized private concessionaires, especially when dealing with municipal solid waste plants. Nevertheless, the legal format of the entity in question constitutes only a smaller part of the eligibility requirements. What OMCs and financial institutions pay more attention to is whether the applicant owns the land or has a long-term lease of it, whether it possesses a legitimate supply chain of feedstock materials, and whether it has enough financial stability to implement the DPR. An application which is legally qualified but cannot prove its capability of a regular supply of feedstock material will have little chance to be considered by an OMC. Documents Required for Compressed Biogas Plant License All parties involved in the approval chain, including the Pollution Control Board, PESO, municipal
