Jakarta – Economic Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto has ensured that Indonesia is ready to fulfill the bioenergy need of Japan, which is seeking to increase the use renewable energy sources, including biomass.

“Currently, Indonesia is trying to increase the use of biomass as an alternative of primary energy sources to generate power. Indonesia is very happy being able to meet the biomass need of Japan, especially the biomass of palm kernel shells (PKS),” Airlangga said last week during a virtual meeting on initial work plan of Indonesian government and Japan.

Airlangga reminded the importance of communication among the stakeholders in fulfilling the market demand, especially to ensure that the standard of Indonesia’s bioenergy is compatible with the need of Japan.

Minister Airlangga, who is also the chairman of Golkar party, has also asked all of the industrial players of bioenergy to collaborate in determining the capacity or the requirements that should be fulfilled in order to maximize the sales of bioenergy.

“We need to strengthen collaboration among all stakeholders so that Indonesia can fulfill all varieties of biomass needed by Japan,” he said.

He said that as the world’s largest producer of palm oil, Indonesia has issued a number of policies to encourage the transition from fossil fuels to bioenergy. In addition to that, the electricity procurement plan (RUPTL) of the state utility PT PLN during the period of 2019-2028 sets the target of bioenergy development according to the market need, as part of the development of renewable energy sources set in the masterplan.

He said that during the meeting Indonesia and Japan are expected to reach an agreement regarding the quality of bioenergy that will be produced by Indonesia. “I hope this will result in a concrete resolution to make real steps to access the biomass energy market in Japan that will push up our national economic capacity amid the economic slowdown,” said Airlangga. (*)

Source: Liputan6.com | Image via goldenagri.com.sg