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.

Large Capacity and Sustainable Wood Pellet Production in Java Island

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.