Potential of biomass as source for electricity at Pulau Panggang Village, North Kepulauan Seribu Subdistrict

Abstract

Biomass as energy source has been used extensively by people in remote areas in Indonesia, although limited to household level as fuel wood or charcoal for daily life. This study estimates the amount of biomass in Pulau Panggang Village, North Kepulauan Seribu District and its potential as fuel for a power plant. Vegetation analysis was conducted to find out stand composition and estimate biomass using allometric equation. Biomass conversion into electricity was done by assuming a power plant with 40% eficiency. Results showed most dominant species are Casuarina equisetifolia with IVI value of 138.65 and 123.73 for tree and pole level, followed by Leucacena leucocephala and Acacia crassicarpa. This study shows that there is 247.45 ton/ha, 986.13 ton/ha, and 798.59 ton/ha of biomass stored in Karya, Pramuka, and Ayer Island repectively. A total of 2032.17 ton biomass could be used to generate 2980.51 MWh of electricity. However, development of plantation forest as a source of renewable fuel for electricity is difficult because limited available land while electricity demand is high.