Biomass for energy production can be cultivated on critical land, or so-called 'unproductive' land. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry estimates that critical land in Indonesia in 2016 was 24.3 million hectares (Times Indonesia, 2017). This is a very large area, and overall Indonesia's territory is large enough to provide biomass for renewable energy production.
Globally, the need for wood pellets is predicted to continue to increase. This is because in the current power generation industry, more than a third of global electricity production still uses coal. This portion must drop to 4% by 2030 and 0% by 2040 if the world wants to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and prevent the severe impact of the climate crisis. The world has 6 years from now to reduce the use of coal in power plants to less than 4% by 2030, this is also what makes a number of coal companies develop renewable energy, especially wood pellets from energy plantations.
However, in Java Island, the availability of land for energy crop development is limited because it conflicts with the need for agricultural land. The greatest opportunity for energy plantation forest development is on land owned by Perhutani which is categorized as 'unproductive land'. In some cases, through social considerations, land can be directed to programs that are in line with the objectives of social forestry in accordance with the Decree of the Minister of Environment and Forestry number P.39 / 2017 and P.38 / 2016. However, as an effort to develop the business, Perhutani can utilize its land to specifically produce biomass for energy.
In accordance with Perhutani's long-term plan, and in line with the company's business development plan, Perhutani has allocated a forest area of 116,372 ha or around 4.7% of Perhutani's total area in Java (2,445,000 ha) as a potential area for biomass plant development spread across 13 KPH (Forest Management Units) in Central Java, East Java, West Java and Banten provinces.
Throughout the Perhutani area, there are potential areas that have unproductive forest stands (open land or reduce forest potential, or tend to be unproductive in the long term) covering an area of 308,000 hectares, spread across 57 KPHs. This area is divided into 15% in Central Java, 34% in East Java and, 51% in West Java and Banten. Based on the unproductive area, approximately in 27 KPHs it is calculated to be around 229,286 ha or 74% of the total potential area for Biomass Energy Plantations.
Hundreds of thousands of sawdust are currently used for PLN's cofiring program in Java, disrupting the supply of raw materials for wood pellet factories. This is why the production of wood pellets from sawdust taken from the sawmill industry or wood industry waste in Java for large-capacity wood pellet production will be at great risk of disrupting the supply of raw materials. So that the wood pellet factory in Java can run well if the availability of raw materials can be maintained and this can only be realized in two ways, namely first using its own raw materials, this can be done by sawmills and wood processing industries that utilize their own waste for wood pellet production, and second with raw material sources from energy plantations. The area of land that can be used for energy plantations as described above is very potential for a source of raw material supply for large-capacity wood pellet production on Java Island and the availability of supporting facilities on Java Island which are more complete and better is an additional driving force.
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