Abstract :

Energy is the fundamental tool to attain minimum quality of life. It is also an indicator of the economic status of a region. One of the main concerns today is to meet the ever-growing energy demand in an environmentally sustainable manner. Bioenergy continues to contribute significantly to the total energy consumption. It plays a critical role in sectors such as domestic and rural industries. In this context it is necessary that the regional planning exercises formulate policies to develop sustainable bioenergy systems consistent with the objectives of ecodevelopment and environmental conservation. However, lack of adequate relevant information of different bioenergy resources in a regional planning framework, hampers effort to develop alternatives to achieve multiple goals set by environmental objectives and the energy demand on the resource. Hence, for sustainable development, there is a need to determine the inventory of demand and resource situation in a region. In this regard a study has been carried out in Kolar district to explore an environmentally sustainable bioenergy strategy by developing bioresource supply and consumption database. Our study shows that the bioenergy constitute 82-85% of the district’s total energy consumption. This paper provides insight to the bioresource inventory at district level, using spatial and temporal tools and implications on policy structures.