The potency of wood based electricity production from critical land in Indonesia

Abstract

Increasing demand for woody biomass as the fuel of renewable power plants must be anticipated by utilizing critical land through land rehabilitation activities using potential woody biomass species. However, there is a lack of information on the potency of such critical land. Therefore this study aims to explore the critical land area suitable for woody biomass cultivation and estimate the electricity production that can be generated from the utilization of the critical land. The study was conducted by determining the priority areas of integrated land to be rehabilitated, identifying the status and function of the critical land area, evaluating its suitability for the woody biomass cultivation, and calculating the potential output of electrical energy. The result shows that there are approximately 3.8 million hectares of critical land, which is suitable for producing woody biomass. This area consists of 2.3 million hectares of non state forest area and 1.5 million hectares of production forest area. The largest suitable area is located in the Sumatra region, while the smallest was in the Papua region. The suitable area potentially produces electricity as much as 102,953 GWh, should be able to supply electricity of 69.5 million households. Further, the biomass has the potential to be used as co-firing fuel in coal-based power plants to reduce the negative impacts of the use of coal.