Sacred cow: coal-hungry India eyes bioenergy to cut carbon [Video]

Venerated as incarnations of Hindu deities, India’s sacred cows are also being touted as agents of energy transition by a government determined to promote biogas production to cut its dependence on coal.

It is an understatement to say that Nakul Kumar Sardana is proud of his new plant at Barsana, in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state.

Firstly, says the vice-president of a biomass joint venture between India’s Adani Group and France’s TotalEnergies, because it occupies “one of the holiest sites in the world”.

A four-hour drive south of the smog-filled capital New Delhi, among fields bristling with brickyard smokestacks, the small town of Barsana welcomes pilgrims who come to honour the Hindu goddess Radha.

But Sardana is also proud because his methanisation plant that opened in March is the “most technologically advanced and the largest biogas facility” in India.

It was built in Barsana to be as close as possible …