Taking Administrative Waste Utilization, Coordinating Ministry For Maritime Affairs And Fisheries Collaborates With PLN To Launch Biomass Supply Chain

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Kemenko Marves) together with PT PLN (Persero) Group launched a program to utilize agricultural and plantation waste for the biomass supply chain.

Programs called Socio Tropical Agriculture-waste Biomas (STAB) and Primary Energy Renewable & Territorial Integrated Wisdom of Indonesia (PERTIWI) were launched on the COP28 agenda in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Ad Interim Erick Thohir said the government wanted to show real action in pursuing the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target by 2030 and achieving Net Zero Emissions (NZE) in 2060.

"The Indonesian government has developed a strategy for implementing decarbonization policies and then ensures a smooth energy transition to balance economic and social interests," Erick said in a written statement, Saturday, December 2.

On the same occasion, PLN President Director Darmawan Prasodjo said, the launch of this program is in line with the energy transition roadmap. In addition, the use of biomass is also a tangible manifestation of PLN's commitment to increasing the EBT mix in Indonesia.

"Intensive biomass Co-Firing substitution policies are carried out in Indonesia as a concrete step in reducing carbon emissions to achieve the NZE target in 2060 or sooner. Co-firing biomass also has a vital role in accelerating energy transition in the country," he said.

Darmawan explained, Co-firing biomass has the lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) advantage compared to acceleration to other EBTs. Not only that, local communities will also play an important role in providing biomass raw materials.

Meanwhile, the President Director of PLN Energi Primary Indonesia (PLN EPI) Iwan Agung Firstantara explained, STAB is a type of biomass of agricultural waste, whose production will involve the farming community directly.

The raw materials from STAB can be in the form of waste or residue of agricultural or plantation plants, such as husks, rice straws, corncobs, bagasse, sugar cane leaves, palm waste, sago waste, coconut residue, empty palm oil bunches, plant plunging branches, and others.

According to Iwan, Indonesia is a tropical country with agrarian communities. Thus, a lot of agricultural waste was found which had only been stockpiled or burned so that the land was cleared again.

"Well, we see this great potential, so we continue to innovate how to use waste that was previously useless and disturbing can be utilized into clean energy and even able to create new economic value for farmers in Indonesia," he said.