Saran Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd.(SRE) is one of the finalists for the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, world’s leading green energy Awards to be announced on June 11.
SRE will compete to be the Ashden Awards’ Energy Champion, with prize money of up to £40,000; the Champion will be revealed at a ceremony hosted by the Prince of Wales in London on June 11.

Saran Renewable Energy has installed a new gasification system that generates electric power for eleven hours per day using locally-sourced biomass, providing a popular, sustainable, and cheap alternative to an unreliable grid supply. The 220 MWh of electricity produced in a year is currently sold to ten businesses which previously used diesel generators, as well as farmers, a school and a clinic.

The result is a better-quality and more reliable electricity supply that prevents the emission of about 200 tonnes/year CO2 from the 77,000 tonnes of diesel that would otherwise be used, and helps to secure income for the 100 local farmers who supply biomass.

Saran District is mostly rural. Farmers eke out a living from cash crops like maize and the area is plagued by electricity black-outs, sometimes lasting for days. Until recently, most local businesses and farmers have had to rely on noisy, dirty diesel generators for their power supply.

Saran Renewable Energy (SRE) was started in 2006 by a family-run agricultural trading business, in response to the severe shortage of electricity in Bihar.

SRE generates electric power for eleven hours per day by gasifying biomass, and using the cleaned gas, with about 12% diesel for ignition, to run a 128 kW dual-fuel engine.

About 70% of the biomass is ‘dhaincha’, a local woody plant which grows in water-logged areas that cannot be used for crops. The use of dhaincha as a fuel has been introduced carefully to minimise competition for land with food crops.

SRE’s customers include sawmills, welders, food millers, a cold store, battery charging stations and ‘generators’ supplying village lighting.

Electricity from the plant also powers borehole pumps which supply water to customers at half the previous rate.

Yogendra Prasad, SRE’s Chairman, describes some of the benefits to the local community of his scheme:

“We have been able to help revive small industries that had shut down due to unreliable and costly electricity, and to supply public enterprises, like the local clinic. We have also set up a study centre with free electricity to enable the children to study in the evenings.”

The company’s stated mission is to revive the rural economy and improve the standard of living of the rural folk. It aims to create an environment for entrepreneurship where the local people can participate in value creation.

SRE plans to set up small and large biomass based power plants in 4 districts of Bihar – Saran, Siwan, Bhojpur and Muzaffarpur. The company intends to cover eastern parts of the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh – Balia and Deoaria districts.