Overview

The Biogas Support Program Nepal (BSP-Nepal) 1 implemented by the Alternative, Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) aimed to promote biogas digesters (biogas units) to households in the rural areas of Nepal. The projects under the program activities were distributed in different districts of Nepal. The project activity reduced greenhouse gas emissions by displacing conventionally used fuel sources for cooking, such as non-renewable woody biomass (firewood) and/or fossil fuels (kerosene and/or landfill gas).

The project activity was a sub-project of the BSP-Nepal umbrella biogas program that aimed to install a total of 200,000 biogas digesters all over Nepal. Since it was the first sub-activity of the umbrella biogas program, the sub-project was named BSP-Nepal Activity-1. The umbrella biogas program was the fourth phase of the Nepali government’s biogas program at the national level. The key elements of the BSP-Nepal umbrella program’s approach are:

  • Financial support for end-users through micro finance institutions and cooperatives;
  • Uniform technical design of biogas units;
  • Thorough quality control and monitoring of the production, installation and after-sales services of the participating biogas companies;
  • Continuous research and development efforts to optimize the design and operation of biogas digester units and to tailor units them to the needs of the end-users;
  • Social marketing through outreach, awareness, and training programs;
  • Implementation of a fertilizer extension program to maximize the benefits of bio-slurry, a byproduct of the biogas;
  • Support to institutions servicing various functions of the biogas sector such as financing, construction, maintenance, manufacturing, training, and marketing, and
  • Installation of biogas units on a scale that demonstrates Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) application in the commercialization of the biogas sector.

Benefits

At the local level, the BSP-Nepal program had multiple social benefits. A major household benefit was the reduction in time and energy spent by women and children in collecting firewood for cooking. The project attached latrines to biogas units providing better sanitation to rural households. Resulting employment added more than 15,000 people-years for skilled people in the construction, maintenance, marketing and financing of biogas units. The use of biogas meant negligible smoke, hence better family health. Moreover, the residual biological slurry from the biogas units was used as superior organic fertilizers to enhance agricultural yields.

At the national level, the umbrella program supported the Nepali Government’s sustainable energy goals as laid out in 10th Five Year Plan to improve energy access for rural poor and to reduce rural poverty by providing high quality biogas units to poor households at an affordable price. Additionally, the project supported forest conservation goals by substituting the non-renewable biomass used as firewood, with biogas, the renewable source of energy.

Documents and project details

Technical documents related to the carbon standard can be found here - Activity-1 , Activity-2 .

Details on project preparation and implementation can be found here.