Biomass Stove In India Earning Carbon Credits

Climate Care, a UK based company has supported the Sanjha Chulha project, by paying upfront for all the carbon emissions each stove saved in five years.

In India, a Chandigarh based company, Nishant Bioenergy (P) Ltd manufacture a community chulha called “Sanjha chulha” which can be used anywhere in the world where crop waste is available. It runs on biomass briquettes which are much cheaper then LPG. It is also an environmentally sustainable alternative to LPG stoves. It was the winner of the 2005 Ashden Award.

Since the initial cost of the stove (about Rs 1.5 lakh) is too high the company has developed a unique Instal, Operate, Save and Pay mantra for the sanjha chulha. The company collects monthly installments which users pay from the savings they make in fuel costs.

The government-run residential schools like Navodaya schools have purchased 250 sanjha chulhas till now. The schools find that they save at least Rs 16,000 by switching over from LPG to briquettes. The smaller and cheaper versions of this stove are being developed now in the company. The most interesting thing about this biomass stove is that it is earning carbon credits. “Climate Care, a UK-based company has supported the Sanjha Chulha project , by paying upfront for all the carbon emissions each stove saved in five years. This roughly amounts to about Rs 10,000 per stove.

For people who do not understand how the carbon credit works here is a brief explanation. The carbon trade is possible under the clean development mechanism which allows institutions to buy solar and biomass-based kitchens and claim carbon credits. The Kyoto Protocol for climate change sets specific targets for developed countries to reduce their carbon emissions . Since cutting down emissions can be costly for them, many of them avail the option of providing clean technology to entities in developing countries such as India and get carbon credits in the process to meet the targets.

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