India and Japan plan 1,000 biogas plants to turn cow dung into vehicle fuel

India’s 300 million cattle produce 15 to 20 kilograms of manure each, every day. That works out to something like 4.5 million tons of raw dung daily — sitting in fields and villages across the country.

Japan and India just announced they want to put it to use.

During the Japanese prime minister’s first official visit to India on July 2, the two countries launched the India-Japan Compressed Biogas (CBG) Initiative. The goal: build up to 1,000 biogas plants across India by 2030, fed by cow dung, rice straw, and sugarcane bagasse, producing compressed biogas that can directly replace natural gas.

Japan is bringing the purification technology — raising methane concentration past 95%, the point where biogas meets pipeline-grade natural gas specifications. India brings the feedstock at a volume no other country can match. The partnership also targets a 2.5 million-vehicle CNG fleet to run on the output.

The energy deal is part of a much broader economic package. The two countries agreed on 2 trillion yen (about $84 billion) in private Japanese investment spanning energy, AI, semiconductors, infrastructure, and critical minerals. A joint statement flagged five priority sectors — semiconductors, critical minerals, ICT, clean energy, and medical products — and expressed shared concern over economic coercion.

Between 120 and 130 corporate cooperation documents were signed during the visit.

On infrastructure, both sides reaffirmed the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project: 508 kilometers using Shinkansen E10 series trains at 320 km/h, cutting travel time from more than six hours to roughly two. Japan restated its target of commercial operations by 2027.

The idea of turning cow waste into energy isn’t new for India. Scientists have demonstrated cow-dung-derived materials for carbon capture. Suzuki is already working on biogas vehicle fuel. What’s different this time is the scale: a thousand plants, backed by Japanese capital and technology, with a dedicated vehicle fleet designed to consume the fuel. That’s an energy infrastructure play, not a pilot project.