Harvesting Energy from the Sun

The sun is crucial as a source of energy for living things, including plants, animals, and humans. It is an abundant, free, and inexhaustible source of energy, except at the time of judgment. The word "sun" is mentioned 25 times in the Quran and is the name of one of the chapters mentioned by Allah in the Quran. This suggests that Allah intended to signal that there is something for humans to explore through the sun (Asy-Syams).

An American Muslim and environmental activist, Ibrahim Abdul Matin (2012), in his book Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet, refers to renewable energy as energy from heaven. According to him, energy from heaven originates from above, meaning it is not extracted from the earth and is renewable. "Extraction causes imbalance (causes climate change), while energy from above is like energy from heaven." 

By 2024, solar power production will reach 453 GW. With wind power generation added, the two sources will account for 97.5% of the total renewable energy, making them the dominant renewable energy source. With wind power production reaching 114 GW, or about a quarter (25%) of solar power, solar energy is crucial due to its competitive cost and rapid development. China is currently the world's leading producer of solar PV. 

China's ambition is to build a "solar great wall" designed to meet Beijing's energy needs. The multi-year project, expected to be completed by 2030, will be 400 kilometers (250 miles) long, 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide, and reach a maximum generating capacity of 100 gigawatts. Currently, the project is reported to have reached a capacity of 5.4 gigawatts. Since 2024, China has led the world in electricity production from solar panels. As of June 2024, China led the world in operating solar power generation capacity with 386,875 megawatts, representing about 51 percent of the global total, according to Global Energy Monitor's Global Solar Power Tracker. The United States ranked second with 79,364 megawatts (11 percent), followed by India with 53,114 megawatts (7 percent). 

Even Elon Musk has been saying it for years, and it's something solar energy pioneers already know: the sun has enough energy to meet all our energy needs. The problem lies not only in ensuring that people have the technology to harvest the sun through solar panels, but in cities and urban centers, one of the biggest issues is storage and what to do with excess energy when the sun is shining, which is why batteries for storing that energy are so important. Consumers and businesses, when possible, typically feed energy back into the grid, where they receive cash or credits for their contribution.

But harvesting solar energy is of course not only done with solar panels (solar PV). Trees or plants also harvest solar energy and convert it into other energy sources, namely biomass-based. Renewable energy sources derived from plants (bio-energy) are also in line with QS. Yaasin (36): 80. To produce these energy sources, whether such as wood, fruit, seeds or other parts of the plant, plants carry out photosynthesis. In addition to water and carbon dioxide (CO2), this photosynthesis process requires sunlight. 

Plants, through the process of photosynthesis, store energy from the sun in the form of biomass, and this is likened to a battery. This green battery of plants can be used as a very large energy source; for more details, read here. Unlike harvesting solar energy with solar panels (solar PV), which is highly dependent on the weather, resulting in intermittent electricity supply, or likewise with wind, which sometimes does not blow, biomass energy from plants will produce stable electricity. Once converted into biomass and harvested as an energy source, the energy will always be available. And to generate electricity from solar panels (solar PV) to overcome weather problems and prevent intermittent electricity supply, very large batteries are required, and currently not available. 

Indonesia is believed to be a tropical country, the biomass heaven. This needs to be translated into more concrete terms so that it can be understood, implemented, proven, and optimally utilized. Its potential is immense and should be used to support the well-being of its people. The simple diagram below illustrates the many possibilities in this tropical "biomass heaven." 

The availability of raw materials is a vital and absolute must for various biomass processing processes to be carried out and be sustainable. On the other hand, there is a huge potential for land that can be utilized for this purpose, amounting to tens of millions of hectares, namely critical land / marginal land, dry land and post-mining land (coal mines, tin mines, nickel mines, copper mines, gold mines and so on). In more detail, it is estimated that for critical / marginal land reaches 24.3 million hectares (Times Indonesia, 2017), while dry land reaches 122.1 million ha consisting of dry acid land covering 108.8 million ha and dry climate dry land covering 13.3 million ha and post-mining damaged land reaching 8 million hectares. Energy plantations or biomass plantations need to be created in these areas and can even be used for various food crops. In fact, currently there are plant species that can only be economically viable in these lands. 

The Quran, as a source of knowledge, teaches how to obtain renewable and sustainable energy that will save humanity and the earth. By delving into and studying the verses of the Quran in detail, we will uncover various important guidance for navigating life. This should motivate and inspire humans, especially Muslims, to conduct beneficial scientific research. Applying existing resources, in line with Quranic guidance, and developing and refining efforts to harvest solar energy must continue. Furthermore, the Quran provides a solid moral, ethical, and legal basis for the balanced and responsible development of science and technology. 

The Quran explicitly emphasizes the importance of knowledge. This is evident in the first verses revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), which contain the command to read, and the story of Adam being taught the names of all things, signifying humanity's superiority through knowledge. The Quran encourages travel and observation, thus opening minds to scientific discoveries. The Quran provides guidelines to ensure that the knowledge developed is used for good and does not conflict with moral values. 

Turning on Indonesia's “Green Battery”

With its position on the equator so it has a tropical climate, it will receive sunlight all year round. Energy from sunlight should be utilized optimally in the current era of decarbonization. So that solar energy can be used at any time, this energy must be stored. This is like a battery mechanism for storing energy, so that the energy does not just pass through and disappear. Storing and converting solar energy has been done naturally since life existed, namely in plant biomass. With photosynthesis in plants, solar energy with water and CO2 is converted into biomass in the form of wood, fruit, leaves and various parts of these plants as well as O2 for us to breathe. Solar energy does not just pass and disappear but is stored in the plant as an energy source or "battery" that can be used at any time.

With this paradigm, of course efforts to maximize energy storage in "green batteries" must be maximized as an effort towards low or carbon neutral fuel. With the largest land area in Southeast Asia, of course efforts to maximize "green batteries" become more important and strategic. The use of fast growing species and short rotation coppice will be very suitable for converting and storing solar energy. Moreover, in tropical climates the wood harvest is also faster than in sub-tropical countries or cold areas, due to the abundance of solar energy.

The potential land area for making "green batteries" is very large, reaching tens of millions of hectares. In addition, reclaimed land reaches millions of hectares, more details can be read here. The "green battery" is in the form of an energy plantation whose wood is used for the production of wood pellets. In the form of wood pellet products, biomass energy becomes easier to store and use at any time. Unlike intermittent solar or wind or water power plants, biomass fuel in the form of wood pellets is not like that. It can be used according to your request and desired target, making it more practical and reliable. The reasons why the "green battery" in the form of energy plantations has not been developed can be read here.

Apart from "green batteries" from energy plantations, "green batteries" can also come from production forests in general. In these production forests, the main product is wood which can be used for various purposes such as building wood, furniture, plywood, flooring and so on. The wood industry waste is then used for the production of wood pellets. Wood pellet production basically has to use wood waste or wood that worth as wood waste such as wood from energy plantations, so that the wood pellet industry is economical and profitable. It is estimated that there is 25 million tons/year of wood waste that can be used for the production of wood pellets In Indonesia. And specifically from the plywood industry alone, wood waste is estimated to reach 5 million tons every year.

It is estimated that the Indonesian wood industry can actually be optimized until its production capacity reaches 91 million cubic meters per year, but in reality in 2022 the forest products industry will only be able to produce 42.19 million cubic meters per year or around 48.7% of its optimum capacity. There are 3 factors that cause the low realization of the wood industry, namely, efficiency of the wood industry, problems related to raw materials and market availability.

Research on batteries continues along with the global decarbonization trend and the energy transition is a necessity to achieve the decarbonization target. Large capacity batteries so that electrical energy produced from renewable energy plants such as wind and solar can be stored is the target of this research. This research costs a lot of money and takes a long time, it is estimated that in the next 20 or 30 years, these large capacity batteries will be available. Meanwhile, currently most power plants use fossil fuels, especially coal. Energy transition efforts at power plants can be carried out by substituting coal for wood pellets. Moreover, as a tropical area, biomass energy can remain as the main energy in the future non-carbon era.

Indonesia's "green battery" must be activated and developed, because apart from its function as an energy source, the "green battery" is also a CO2 storage or carbon sink. As long as the amount of wood harvested is smaller or the maximum is equal to the growth of the energy plantation or "green battery", the amount of CO2 absorbed by the plants does not decrease or the CO2 released into the atmosphere does not increase, and the same goes for production forests in general. When at a certain age the growth becomes saturated and begins to decline in CO2 absorption, meaning that the forest cannot permanently store CO2 in a fixed volume, so it needs regeneration/replanting. Meanwhile, in energy plantations, due to the characteristics of the plant species, regeneration/replanting is not necessary every time it is harvested, but can be done decades later. And furthermore, the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in power plants that use 100% of their fuel from wood pellets means that the CO2 produced is not released into the atmosphere or is carbon negative, which reduces the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.