Member - Grassroots Energy

There are millions of people globally with limited or unreliable access to clean fuel. The vast majorities are engaged in dairy or agriculture, their primary income generating activities. These farming activities have significant under-utilized agri or farm waste output. This waste can be processed into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG, enriched from Biogas), a high-quality clean fuel that can be used for cooking, transportation and agricultural machinery to improve the energy access. In rural areas, if high quality fuel like RNG is made available, it can provide access to clean energy for diverse applications to catalyze economic development. Grassroots Energy’s inclusive and integrated approach involves working directly with the communities to procure waste and generate value at the local level. Each installation can positively impact 750 families. At scale of 5000 installations, our solution can touch 3.75million families. The innovative small-scale system allows for distributed model, wide-scale adoption of RNG, only commercial clean fuel solution, economical over fossil fuels, is developed using low-cost biogas enrichment and compression technology. Requisite amounts of waste in rural areas across farm or agri feedstocks are widely available. A distributed energy model addresses all three issues providing value, economic opportunity and ancillary benefits in terms of organic fertilizer and remediated waste. The model creates greater economic value for farmers from waste, removes carbon emissions from decomposing waste, generates organic fertilizer and provides incentives for local farmers to participate that increase their incomes and farm productivity: Waste to Energy (Biogas): The approach processes farm and agri waste into low cost fuel, biogas. Untreated waste releases methane into the atmosphere, as GHG 25X harmful over CO2. Furthermore, waste attracts pathogens that spreads disease in the vicinity. The approach to convert to Biogas, solves a range of issues for local communities. Economical and nutrient rich organic fertilizer: The farmers use chemical fertilizer which erodes the top soil and yields of the farms. The short-term and quick-fix approach forces the farmers to depend on the fertilizers from the retailer. Grassroots Energy aims to process the residue from Biogas digesters into high quality compost available in solid and liquid forms.