# Does waste heat recovery qualify for Verra credits in India?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/verra-waste-heat-recovery-cogeneration-ldc-default

Only some of it. In Verra's VCS Standard v5.0, waste heat recovery for combined cycle power, or to heat or cool through cogeneration or trigeneration, is limited by default to least developed countries (LDCs), so not India. Recovery outside combined cycle, such as an organic Rankine cycle, is stated not to be any of those.

## What is restricted

Table 1 in Section 2.1 of VCS Standard v5.0 limits recovering waste heat for combined cycle electricity generation, or to heat or cool via cogeneration or trigeneration, to activities in LDCs for new registrations and crediting period renewals. India is not on the United Nations list of LDCs.

## What the table says is not those things

The table adds a note: waste gas recovery and electricity generation using waste heat recovery outside of combined cycle applications, such as organic Rankine cycles, are not combined cycle, cogeneration or trigeneration. So a plain heat-to-power unit of that kind is not caught by the restricted row.

## What the table does not mention

A recuperator or air preheater that returns exhaust heat to the burner does not appear in Table 1. Not being on the restricted list is not an approval. The applied methodology's applicability conditions, the additionality test and the verifier's review still decide, and the methodology can set its own geography.

## Ask before you design

- Which methodology covers my set-up, and what geography does it allow?
- Is my set-up a combined cycle, a cogeneration or trigeneration unit, or neither?
- Does my project depend on credit income to go ahead? That is the question additionality asks.

## Example: three heat recovery set-ups (example plant)

- Set-up 1: exhaust drives a steam turbine in a combined cycle. Named in the restricted row, so LDCs by default.
- Set-up 2: an organic Rankine cycle unit makes power from exhaust heat. The table says it is not combined cycle, cogeneration or trigeneration.
- Set-up 3: a recuperator preheats combustion air. Not mentioned in Table 1; the methodology decides.

Example set-ups only. Table 1 sets a default; it does not approve any project.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. Fuel use before and after a recovery unit, month by month, is the plain evidence of what it saves. Eligibility is for Verra, the methodology and your verifier; credits come only from the registry.

- [Carbon credits](https://senseible.earth/carbon-credits)
- [Waste heat recovery and the CCP label](https://senseible.earth/answers/waste-heat-recovery-credits-ccp-label)
- [Can a small business generate carbon credits](https://senseible.earth/answers/can-a-small-business-generate-carbon-credits)

Sources: [Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025), Section 2.1, Table 1](https://verra.org/documents/vcs-standard-v5-0/)

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Section numbers are from VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025); re-check them when Verra publishes a new version. Table 1 is the default, and the methodology you apply can set its own geography.