Bioenergy has the potential to create 150,000 jobs and reduce 12 million tons of emissions

JAKARTA - PT PLN Energi Primer Indonesia (PLN EPI) assesses that the development of national bioenergy has great potential to support energy security, accelerate decarbonization, and create new economic opportunities for the community.

In addition to being able to reduce carbon emissions, the development of the biomass ecosystem is also projected to create up to 150,000 jobs in the next few years.

PLN EPI Hokkop Situngkir Biomass Director said that the massive use of biomass in the electricity sector will have significant economic, social, and environmental impacts.

"If the implementation of biomass reaches 10 million tons per year in the plant, the economic value can reach Rp. 11 trillion. The reduction in emissions is around 12 million tons of CO2 and the potential for creating jobs can reach 150,000 people in three to four years," said Hokkop, Wednesday, May 3.

According to Hokkop, biomass is one of the energy transition solutions that can be implemented quickly through the co-firing program at the Steam Power Plant (PLTU). Through this scheme, part of the use of coal is replaced with biomass based on agricultural waste, plantations, forestry, and other organic waste.

"Bioenergy is not to replace fossil plants completely in a short time, but rather to be a transitional solution that allows for a gradual reduction in emissions without disrupting the reliability of the national electricity supply," he explained.

Currently, PLN has implemented co-firing biomass at 52 PLTU in various regions of Indonesia. Throughout 2025, the utilization of biomass reached around 2.35 million tons with a contribution of emission reductions of 2.57 million tons of CO2 equivalent.

PLN has also utilized at least 14 types of biomass with an average calorific value of 3,152 kCal/kg, including palm shell, rice husk, corn cob, sawdust, wood waste, to household waste that has been processed into alternative fuels.

In his presentation, Hokkop revealed that Indonesia has a very large biomass potential, reaching around 83.4 million tons per year. This potential is spread across various regions, especially Sumatra with 42.8 million tons, Kalimantan 18.9 million tons, and Java 13.1 million tons per year.

However, the level of national bioenergy utilization is still relatively low. Currently, Indonesia's bioenergy consumption is only around 0.35 gigajoules per capita per year, far below the available potential which reaches around 6.5 gigajoules per capita per year.

"Indonesia has very large biomass resources. The challenge is how to build an integrated supply ecosystem so that this potential can provide economic added value for the community and support national energy security," he said.

PLN EPI, he continued, has also begun to develop the use of biogas and biohydrogen-based bioenergy. One of them is through the use of methane gas from palm oil liquid waste or Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) which can be processed into an alternative energy source to replace natural gas.

"Methane has a much greater potential for global warming than carbon dioxide. By capturing and using it as energy, we not only produce clean energy but also reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Hokkop.

PLN EPI is currently developing a digitalization system based on artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor the supply chain of biomass and co-firing operations throughout Indonesia.

Furthermore, Hokkop emphasized that the development of biomass is not only related to energy provision, but also opens up new business opportunities in the upstream sector, ranging from raw material collection, biomass processing, logistics, to the development of renewable energy technologies.