Energy Plantations: Why Calliandra (Calliandra Calothyrsus) or Gliricidia (Gliricidia Sepium)?

Since 1937, calliandra has been planted in Perhutani and wider areas along with reforestation programs and supporting firewood and animal feed. And also since 1974, Perhutani has distributed calliandra seedlings to forest farmers and used them as boundary plants between forest areas and rural areas or agricultural land. Calliandra cultivation at that time was mainly aimed at providing firewood and animal feed for people living in the forest, and reducing dependence on kerosene for cooking. Calliandra is used as a terrace plant (erosion control) with high slopes to strengthen the main plantation, for example with teak plantations, and also for soil protection purposes, because it can increase soil fertility through the ability of its roots to absorb nitrogen in the form of root nodules.

While the type of gliricidia plant is widely used as an edge plant or hedge plant to prevent large livestock from entering the forest. The wood is used as firewood and the leaves are used as animal feed. The wood can be harvested quickly, and pruning is also done with a fast process. So it can be said that, it is not recommended to plant new species that have unknown characteristics until there is adequate research activity on the species.

For example, acacia species are relatively fast-growing species but it is not widely known whether they can be used and managed with a sustainable coppice system. And also these types are not like calliandra and gliricidia plants, although easy to cultivate and harvest, but have not proven to be suitable for the application of short rotation coppice systems, and are also rarely planted on a larger scale.

Although calliandra and gliricidia are not native tree species in Indonesia, they have long been introduced, and can be found almost throughout the island of Java. Calliandra and Gliricidia are very popular in agricultural areas in most parts of Java. In addition, there have not been many reports describing the presence of pests and / or diseases associated with either species. Wood produced from calliandra and gliricidia plants has relatively good physical and chemical characteristics to be used as firewood or as raw material for wood pellets. Its calorific value is high and its ash content is low.

Indonesia as a tropical country even with the largest land area in Southeast Asia will have great potential to develop the energy plantation. Energy plantations are essentially energy sources or likened to batteries, which store solar energy in plants, the energy plantation, for more details can be read here. Although the development of various types of renewable energy continues to be accelerated, to store energy in large capacities will require a very large battery. The battery research is also estimated to take a long time and high costs, so that in the context of decarbonization, biomass energy can be used for cofiring and even fulfiring until the time the large battery can be applied.