Indonesia has huge potential of agro-industrial waste for energy generation. These resources have not been fully utilized for power supply. On the other hand, biomass and biogas power plant can reduce energy consumption of fossil fuel which results in greenhouse gas emission reduction. Therefore, it is important to prepare a comprehensive and accurate data estimating the potential resources from agro-industrial wastes for electricity generation.
This study had been conducted by KOPETINDO (the Indonesian Renewable Energy Cooperative) for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) under GIZ-ExploRE. This study was based on the concern that some potential agro-industrial waste may be added into the RUPTL of PLN, increasing the potential sources for electricity generation. In this study, the focus of agroindustry is limited to the specific processing mills as follows: palm oil, sugar cane, tapioca, rice, pulp & paper, and wood mills.
In fact, some of the agro-industrial wastes from the processing mills had been used internally for power and heat consumption as in the palm oil, sugar cane, wood, and pulp & paper mills. While most of the rice husks from rice mills had been used for bricks making in Java Island, most of the rice husks at rice mills in other islands have not been utilized yet. While some of tapioca mills had utilized their biobased wastes, some others have not started yet. Unfortunately, the detailed data regarding the internal consumption of these mills is not available. Thus, these numbers had been estimated by expert’s method based on their experience in the specific processing mills.
Based on this study (see Chapter 3), the calculated technical potential of agro-industrial waste is achieving
15.6 GW. However, the current installed capacity (as in MEMR Data 2021) is recorded 0.2 GW (on-grid) and
1.7 GW (off-grid) only. Based on available data and few assumptions (see Appendix 1), it has been calculated about 6.4 GW is available as the feedstock for bioenergy power plants to generate electricity (so-called External-use potential). This calculation was based only from the processing mills and not including the on- farm side (i.e., plantations, fields, and forests).
Currently, the PLN’s target is adding 0.4 GW electricity from biobased sources (not include biofuel and municipal solid waste) as in the latest RUPTL (2019-2028), which is only 6.2% of the total External-use potential source that was calculated in this study. On the other hand, the Indonesian Government put a higher target for bioenergy development (5.5 GW in 2025). From 6.4 GW of agro-industrial sources from the selected processing mills, 1.3 GW can be used for diesel substitution and using scenario 2, 75% RUPTL target (0.3 GW) is achievable with current regulation framework. Therefore, there are 4.8 GW as the remaining.
Thus, there might be additional 4.2 GW can be added into RUPTL (see Chapter 5). Therefore, the RUPTL needs to be revisited adopting the targeted biowaste sources to support the national bioenergy target. Moreover, an adjustment of electricity tariff in specific locations will definitely speed up the bioenergy power plant development in Indonesia.
It is important to synchronize the MEMR and PLN’s target, as well as providing supportive regulations that allow boosting up the renewable energy development in Indonesia. In this study, policy recommendations also have been provided (see Chapter 5). It is expected that this comprehensive data will support the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEMR) for preparing plans and regulations to achieve the mandated bioenergy’s target as part of renewable energy target aiming 23% of energy mix by 2025 and 31% by 2050. Further works will be needed to disseminate the calculated data to PLN and other related stakeholders (e.g., associations, private companies, national & local governments, and academicians).