SEDS Biogas Project
Social Education and Development Society (SEDS) is a grassroots NGO working on, among other activities, environmental issues for the past 44 years. They have technical expertise and proven credentials in watershed development and afforestation. SEDS is headquartered in a small village, 15 kms west of Penukonda town in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh. They cover 391 villages where they have an intimate relationship with 25,000 families. Click here to visit their website.
Immediately after the formation of FCN, SEDS decided to develop and register a Biogas CDM Project to build 5,000 domestic Biogas units for rural women. It got registered with the UNFCCC in September 2010. Click here for details.
Click here for complete details of services provided by the FCN Tech Team. FCN also prepared open and transparent financials to forecast the actual cost of construction, maintenance and monitoring, and project annual volumes they would generate. In December 2010, SEDS signed an ERPA with Brot für die Welt, Germany, for the forward purchase of 1,05,716 GS CERs for a total sale price of ₹ 8.96 crore.
With technical assistance from ADATS in the neighbouring district, local masons were trained and systems put in place to build 5,039 Biogas units by July 2015. But it was not a pain-free journey:
- Construction work was severely disrupted for 18 months due to the Telangana agitation when the district came to a virtual standstill. Overhead costs went up.
- The planned 3 years for construction was delayed to 4.5 years. Biogas units were not commissioned on time and Carbon Offsets not generated for 1.5 years.
- The drought put massive pressure on the project due to water/fodder shortage and distress sale of cattle.
In spite of severe odds, SEDS went ahead and UNFCCC accredited carbon auditors conducted 3 Verifications with 33,418 GS CERs issued and transferred to the Carbon Investor.
The daunting challenge they now face is that having utilised 98% of the ERPA remittance, they have delivered only 32% of GS CERs. This could rise to 60% with the next Verification, provided functionality is maintained at 80%.