Risks, barriers and responses to Indonesia's biogas development

The document assesses the viability of biogas in Indonesia through two pathways: a low-cost household-scale option for cooking and lighting, and a high-investment large-scale option for electricity production. While biogas offers significant GHG mitigation potential—estimated at 6.4 million tons CO2/year for small digesters and 2.6 GW for large-scale production—its development is hindered by a lack of government priority, high initial investment costs, and competing fossil fuel subsidies. The report identifies critical risks including inadequate monitoring of household systems, bureaucratic distribution, and the unreliability of biogas-fuelled power plants. It recommends that the Indonesian government formulate clear renewable energy targets, strengthen monitoring standards, and introduce favorable feed-in tariffs to incentivize private investment.

• Indonesia's current energy policies are considered insufficient to meet its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets of 26% and 29% GHG emission reductions by 2020 and 2030, as coal capacity has grown by 12.2 GW while renewable energy increased by only 1.6 GW over five years.
• Biogas presents a significant mitigation opportunity in Indonesia, with the potential for two million small digesters to reduce CO2 emissions by 6.4 million tons per year and a large-scale biogas-to-electricity capacity estimated at 2.6 GW.
• The household biogas pathway for cooking and lighting can improve rural health by reducing indoor pollution from solid fuels and increase farmer resilience through the use of bioslurry as organic fertilizer.
• Large-scale biogas-for-electricity development is hindered by high initial setup and operating costs and a low feed-in tariff, which makes it difficult for biogas power to compete with heavily subsidized coal-fired electricity.
• Significant risks for household biogas include a lack of monitoring standards and a low sense of ownership among farmers who receive full subsidies, leading to the abandonment of digesters.
• Environmental and health risks exist for both biogas pathways due to the frequent absence of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) filtering and the potential for methane leakages.
• The transition to biogas in rural Bali may cause a labor imbalance in households, as substituting firewood with biogas reduces women's working time but increases the time men spend managing organic waste feedstock.
• Biogas development is not currently a government priority, resulting in uneven deployment across Indonesia and a lack of specific national biogas targets to coordinate efforts.

APA

Taylor, R., Devisscher, T., Silaen, M., Yuwono, Y., Ismail, C., Thamrin, S., & Takama, T. (2019). Risks, barriers and responses to Indonesia's biogas development. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/indonesia-biogas-development.pdf

Chicago

Taylor, Richard, Tahia Devisscher, Mariana Silaen, Yudiandra Yuwono, Cynthia Ismail, Syamsidar Thamrin, and Takeshi Takama. Risks, barriers and responses to Indonesia's biogas development. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2019. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/indonesia-biogas-development.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{taylor2019risks, author = {Taylor, Richard and Devisscher, Tahia and Silaen, Mariana and Yuwono, Yudiandra and Ismail, Cynthia and Thamrin, Syamsidar and Takama, Takeshi}, title = {{Risks, barriers and responses to Indonesia's biogas development}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2019}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/indonesia-biogas-development.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }