Biogas-Based Mini-Grids for Rural Communities: Energy Access and Environmental Benefits

Abstract

Rural electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa remains constrained by weak distribution infrastructure, high diesel logistics costs, and the limited ability of solar home systems to support productive loads. This paper examines biogas-based mini-grids as a dispatchable renewable option for rural communities with concentrated organic residues from livestock, markets, crop processing, and food waste. Unlike intermittent renewables, a properly sized anaerobic digestion plant can provide schedulable electricity while also producing digestate for agriculture and reducing uncontrolled organic waste decomposition. The paper develops a screening-level techno-environmental model for feedstock conversion, generator dispatch, reliability, and emissions accounting. An illustrative rural community case is used to show how biogas generation, modest battery storage, and demand-side prioritisation can support evening loads, small enterprises, water pumping, refrigeration, and institutional services. The results indicate that biogas mini-grids are most defensible where feedstock is local, collection is organised, methane leakage is monitored, and tariffs support professional maintenance. The conclusion is blunt: biogas is not a magic rural energy solution, but in the right agricultural and peri-urban waste contexts, it can provide a serious low-carbon alternative to diesel mini-grids.