Renewable energy plays a significant role in sustainable and inclusive economic growth. According to precedence research, the global biomass power market size is expected to be worth around USD210.5 billion by 2030 and expanding growth at a CAGR of 5.73% from 2022 to 2030. In 2021, Asia is the strongest region with a capacity growth of 1.6 GWel in 2021 followed by South and Central America and Europe, according to annual biomass to power report by Ecoprog. Looking closer to the region, the presents biomass sources and their energy potential in the Southeast Asian countries show that the total quantity of the residues from the agriculture and forest sector is estimated at over 500 million tons per year. Additionally, the total biomass energy potential in the countries has over 8000 million gigajoules according to ASEAN research organization.
Further research by ASEAN organization, among the Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia has an abundant growing stock in its 94,432,000 hectares of forest area. It is estimated that Indonesia produces 146.7 million tons of biomass per year, equivalent to about 470 million gigajoules per year. The Indonesia government has issued Energy Law in 2007 to achieve the target for biofuels use of 5% by 2025. The neighbouring countries like Malaysia’s palm oil industry also contributes to about 8% or over RM80 billion to the country’s gross national income with the total installed capacity potential from biomass is estimated at 29,000 MW. Another agricultural country, Thailand has a huge biomass energy potential for fulfilling additional energy requirements and could cover up to 15% of the energy demand of the country.
