A program that provides biogas digesters for households in Bali will be expanded to all regencies across the island, thanks to strong support from regency administrations and local NGOs.

Gde Suarja, program coordinator of Yayasan Rumah Energi (YRE) for Bali--the foundation that implements the program, said recently that the foundation had targeted installing 500 digesters throughout Bali by the end of this year.

"As of now, 405 units have been installed in 39 districts in nine regencies. We have targeted installation of 500 units by reaching out to more villages in all regencies, with support from local administrations and NGOs," he said.

"We have also secured greater support from the ministry, which has provided a special funding allocation for various village-based renewable energy development schemes this year, including for this BIRU program. And since last year, the Environmental Agency BLH in Badung, Gianyar and Karangasem regencies have even provided full subsidies for some villages," Suarja said.

Having started in 2009, the program has benefited hundreds of families, especially farmers and breeders, as it allows them to turn their livestock waste into environmentally friendly gas for household use.

The program, called the Indonesian Domestic Biogas Program, locally known as ‘BIRU’ (an acronym of ‘Biogas Rumah’, or household biogas), aims to distribute domestic bio-digesters as a local and sustainable energy source for households and is expected to be a solution for better management of livestock waste.

It is being carried out in nine provinces nationwide: Bali, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Lampung.

The program is funded by the Dutch government and is designed and implemented in cooperation with the Directorate General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and YRE. With endorsement from the government, YRE develops partnerships with local administrations at the provincial and regency level, NGOs and the private sector.

In Bali, YRE has built partnerships with seven local NGOs: Bali Organic Association Foundation, Manikaya Kauci Foundation, IDEP Selaras Alam Foundation, Padma Bhakti Pertiwi Foundation, MUK Cooperative, as well as Tukang Abadi mason group and Dewata mason group.

Suarja explained that 405 households, all of which are farmers or breeders, have already had their biogas digesters installed in their backyards. To produce the biogas, they need around 20 to 40 kilograms of livestock waste, which is inserted into a container and then connected to the digester through a pipe.

Besides using the biogas to cook and provide light in their homes, they can also use the slurry (the residue resulting from the process) as organic fertilizer for their farmland.

In the early phase of the program, some households participated through a self-financing scheme. It cost Rp 7.5 million (US$771) to have the digester and all the equipment installed in their homes. They also receive technical assistance from YRE’s local partners in each regency.

However, since not all households could afford it, YRE worked together with the local administrations in each regency to provide subsidies to allow households get the facility under a cost-sharing system. Suarja said.

The foundation will also encourage cooperatives in villages to provide a credit scheme to support more households joining this program.

Under the program, farmers are assisted with access to micro-credit through cooperation with the banking sector, including Rabobank Foundation, which has committed to disburse loans at affordable interest rates.

The loans amounted to 1.5 million Euros and are for farming cooperatives and other lending partner organizations to invest in biogas plants.

Some villagers shared their experiences of benefiting from the program, both for their households and farms.

Mangku Sumantra, a breeder of laying hens in Pasedahan village, Manggis district, Karangasem, has been benefiting from making use of his livestock waste since October last year. "Our family can use the gas resulting from the digester for cooking and for electricity for up to 6 hours," he said.

Ketut Suwena, a cow breeder who also owns a fruit plantation in Payangan, Gianyar, said he was no longer dependent on non-organic fertilizers since he could now use the bio-slurry resulting from the biogas digester as organic fertilizer for his plantation.

"I can save a lot of money since I don’t have to buy fertilizers. And another good thing is that the bio-slurry can help the soil condition recover and thus enhance the crops."

Source: Bali Daily