India generates over 370 million tonnes of biomass every year. In addition to the direct harvesting from plants, biomass is also produced as a by product in many agro based industries such as rice husk from rice mill, saw dust from saw mill, bagasse from sugar mills etc. It has been estimated that about 17 GW of power can be generated through cogeneration, combustion and gasification routes from the available biomass. However, for this potential to be realized, data on production, present usage patterns, prices and seasonal fluctuation on biomass is essentially required. The present article is based on the resource assessment of non-plantation surplus biomass with a view to using it for energy production and its utilization in the state of Haryana, India. Being an agricultural state, Haryana has a huge potential of biomass availability in the form of crop residue and saw dust. In the agricultural sector, a total 24.697 Mt y(-1) of residue is generated, of which 71% is consumed in various domestic and commercial activities within the state. While in agro based industrial sector, a total of 646 kt y(-1) of sawdust is generated, of which only 6.65% is consumed in the state. Of the total generated biomass in the state, 45.51% is calculated as basic surplus, 37.48% as productive surplus and 34.10% as net surplus. The power generation potential from all these three categories of surplus biomass is 1.499 GW, 1.227 GW and 1.120 GW respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.