Summary for app

The needles of pine trees that accumulate over time in forest areas inhibit the growth of other vegetation, creating a monoculture. These pine needles are also a hazard during the dry season, acting as fuel that can spark forest fires. But this problem can be part of the solution. In Uttarakhand, communities and entrepreneurs have come together to convert the destructive energy of pine needles into usable electricity. When heated, the resin inside pine needles produces gas that can power a generator. With the triple benefits of electricity generation, disaster prevention, and biodiversity conservation, forest-dependent communities are incentivised to collect the pine needles.

The problem

Pine forests dominate the middle ranges of the sub-Himalayan region. The needles of pine trees that accumulate over time in forest areas inhibit the growth of other vegetation, creating a monoculture. Moreover, these pine needles are a hazard during the dry season, acting as fuel that can spark forest fires and putting biodiversity and human settlements at risk.

The solution

The innovation is to address the problem of forest fires by turning the destructive energy of pine needles into usable electricity. The resin inside each pine needle is a source of fuel. When heated, this resin produces gas that can power a generator. With the dual benefits of electricity generation and disaster prevention, forest-dependent communities can be incentivised to collect the pine needles.
Production of electricity at the local level can power rural enterprises (generating employment and strengthening the local economy), and preventing forest fires will allow biodiversity to thrive.

The approach

We built small village-based power plants (six plants of 10 kW each and eight plants of 25 kW each) across Uttarakhand, India, by seeking investments from entrepreneurs. These small units are bundled together by setting up grid-connected power plants, facilitated by the Uttarakhand state government. We focused on generating power at the village level, involving locals in both the collection of the pine needles and the operation of the power plants. This (a) develops the locals’ ownership of the project, (b) builds their capacity in technology use and (c) provides a source of income from their contribution to the activities

A positive impact

So far, we have installed power plants with a cumulative capacity of 260 kW. Communities are experiencing different benefits through this solution:
• Built local capacities for plant operations and raw material collection by training and employing almost 300 local youth (including women)
• Exported over 500,000 units of clean energy to the grid
• Reduced over 8,000 tonnes of carbon emissions
• Incrementally enhanced biodiversity in 450 hectares of forest land from where pine needles were collected
• Replaced almost 100 tonnes of firewood with biochar briquettes for cooking (biochar is a by-product of gasification)