The independent panel of judges chose the SAEL biomass energy project in India to win the IJGlobal ESG Awards 2024 trophy for Power-to-X for the Asia Pacific region with one judge saying: “It’s great to see some focus on gender initiatives and skilled labour increases”.

The project – in the IJ database as SAEL Rajasthan Biomass Portfolio ADB Loan 2023 – involves the construction of 5x 14.9MW biomass power plants with total generation capacity of 74.5MW, utilising agricultural residue as feedstock, in 5 districts in the state of Rajasthan.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided long-term, local currency financing covering the entire debt funding needs for the 5 biomass power projects, and mobilised private sector insurance companies through risk participation since they cannot provide INR loans even if they have risk appetite.

ADB negotiated with SAEL to make the transaction bankable, including project contractual structure.

The DFI’s assistance to this project helped reduce the risk perception associated with biomass power projects in India and create awareness of the benefits of biomass power that can be applied to other rural communities and developing member countries.

The project’s outputs and outcomes are estimated at a minimum of 544GW-hours of energy produced annually, at least 650,000 metric tons of agricultural wastes treated annually, at least 487,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided annually.

The number of farmers supplying the new biomass power plants with agricultural waste will have increased to 20,000, and it is creating 2,750 jobs during construction, with 1,250 retained for operations.

The proportion of women in technical or management roles at the headquarters of SAEL Industries Group (the sponsor) has increased to at least 20%.

Added to which, the procurement of agricultural waste or other goods or services have been negotiated with at least 100 women-owned microbusinesses, and has launched the pilot for 10 women’s self-help groups.

The project promotes India’s energy transition and supports its emission reduction goals, diversifying the energy mix and reducing reliance on coal for base load energy.

The submission states: “The project will help avoid the emission of about 487,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide on average annually. It will not only increase the renewable energy mix of India through provision of a firm, reliable and dispatchable baseload power generation, but it will also reduce particulate emissions caused the burning of agricultural residue and provide additional income to the farmers through sales of the feedstock and measures to enhance gender inclusion are being implemented.”