Wood energy in India: Status and prospects

Wood plays a key role in meeting energy demand in India, particularly in rural areas; its share in total energy consumption of the country is estimated to be about 18%. Traditionally wood is mostly used as fuel in household cooking; small quantities are also used in other applications such as restaurants, brick and tile manufacturing and agro-processing. The energy crisis of 1973 triggered interest in use of wood in modern applications, initially in gasifiers for pumping water and small-scale electricity generation in rural areas and later in power generation using steam turbines. Although installed capacity of biopower generation has been growing at an annual average rate of about 16% since December 2005, the sector appears to be facing uncertain future because of rising cost and lack of reliable supplies of wood. This paper presents a review of different aspects of wood energy in India and an assessment of wood energy potential in 2050 based on availability and productivity of different types of land for wood production; the potential of biopower capacity based on surplus wood after meeting demands for timber and fuelwood is estimated to be 180–260 GW.