Biomass co-firing, which has been going on since 2020, is growing. PLN has carried out biomass co-firing at 32 coal power plants (CPP) until May 2022, and by the end of this year, it is targeting up to 35 CPPs. Until 2025, the target will continue to increase to 52 CPPs. The government claims that co-firing can contribute to reducing the rate of fossil energy consumption, reducing emissions, and meeting the target of 23% of the renewable energy mix by 2025.
So far, the biomass raw materials used for co-firing vary from waste made into pellets, rice husks, palm shells, sawdust, and wood pellets. In particular, wood pellets, PLN claims that low-emission wood pellets do not even contribute to emissions at the power plant so that they can strengthen efforts to reduce the impact of climate change.
Trend Asia’s latest research findings on co-firing wood pellet biomass in CPPs refute the claims of the government and PLN regarding reducing carbon emissions with the course of co-firing. The research results show that co-firing wood pellet biomass is not the real solution for accelerating the energy transition.
Photo by Melvinas Priananda/Trend Asia
