Mangroves for the Community

Cirebon, 26 January 2024 – South Kesunean is one of the coastal areas in the Kasepuhan Village area, Lemahwungkuk District, Cirebon City. Located on the coast, the South Kesunean area experiences threats in the form of abrasion or tidal flooding. Realizing this, people of Kesunean Selatan started planting mangroves to prevent this abrasion.

The need to maintain mangroves is not running smoothly considering that some of the local people have a habit of piling up rubbish and turning it into waste land. Emerging land is a phenomenon where residents deliberately collect rubbish, then pile it up on the coast until it becomes solid and forms new land to be used as a residential area.

Considering its location on the coast, a number of residents who are members of the RW 09 Kesunean Selatan mangrove Working Group (Pokja) have made various efforts, including educating local residents not to pile up rubbish and make land emerge again in the area around the mangrove forest. Even though public awareness is starting to awaken to no longer hoarding rubbish, there are still people who cut down mangrove trees for firewood, and step on small mangrove trees when going to sea.

Pepep Nurhadi, Chair of RW 09 South Kesunean and administrator of the Kesunean Mangrove Working Group, hopes that the South Kesunean mangrove forest can survive and even develop further.

“We hope that this mangrove can develop into a kind of ecotourism site so that the surrounding community can directly benefit socio-economically,” said Pepep.

For this reason, the South Kesunean Mangrove Working Group is open to collaboration and assistance from various parties. Since 2023, the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) through the Generasi Energi Bersih (GEB) community has carried out collaborative observations and assessments that can be carried out with the residents of South Kesunean.

After discussions with the local community, several things were identified, namely planting mangrove seedlings and caring for them, making a mangrove track (a kind of bridge) so that fishermen going to sea no longer step on mangrove seedlings, as well as increasing the capacity of local residents through training in ecoprint batik with dyes, mainly natural mangroves resourced.

To invite the involvement of more people, the Generasi Energi Bersih community is opening donations for the development of the South Kesunean mangrove area to become an ecotourism area via the following page.

Building a Framework for Understanding Mutual Cooperation on Renewable Energy

Bekasi, 23 January 2024 – Human life cannot be separated from various types of energy use. Starting from the household scale for cooking, to the utility scale such as power plants with a capacity of hundreds of megawatts. Even though energy utilization activities are carried out every day, understanding and literacy about energy still needs to be built, especially regarding the use of renewable and cleaner energy sources.

The Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) actively collaborates with various parties to continue to build understanding and capacity regarding the energy transition, one of which is through the Jelajah Energi program. Jelajah Energi is initiated by IESR, as an effort to document various good practices for using renewable energy in society and in the industrial sector.

Deon Arinaldo, IESR Energy Transformation Program Manager, in the introductory workshop on Jelajah Energi Jawa Barat (Jelajah Energi chapter West Java), stated that a deep understanding of the energy transition and its benefits for the environment as well as socio-economic benefits is the motivation to drive community participation in the energy transition process.

“It is hoped that proper public understanding of the use of renewable energy can provide full support in implementing clean energy-based solutions,” said Deon.

In the same forum, the Head of the West Java Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Office, Ai Saadiyah Dwidaningsih, said that the Jelajah Energi Jawa Barat activity was a relevant relevant to the current situation in West Java which had recorded 23.41% of renewable energy mix by 2023.

“West Java has a renewable energy potential of 192 GW, ranging from solar, biomass, geothermal, hydro and wind. However, of this 192 GW potential, only 3.41 GW or still around 2% has been utilized,” said Ai.

Ai added that the activity will provide an experience to understand and know the development of this energy transition in Indonesia, especially in West Java, so it is hoped that cross-sector collaborative initiatives or input will emerge after.

After the introductory workshop, the Jelajah Energi trip began with a visit to the Bantar Gebang Waste Power Plant (PLTSa) unit. PLTSa Bantar Gebang is located at the Bantar Gebang Integrated Waste Disposal Site (TPST) and is one of the largest waste disposal sites in the world.

The Bantar Gebang PLTSa unit is a pilot project belonging to the DKI Jakarta Regional Government. Currently PLTSa Bantar Gebang produces around 750 kWh of electricity per day. The electricity produced is used for the operations of PLTSa and Bantar Gebang TPST, and uses around 300-450 kWh.

Harun Al Rasyid, Deputy Operations Manager for PLTSa Bantar Gebang, stated that there is a lot of excess power so it is necessary to think about options for using this excess power.

“Because we are not connected to the grid, now excess power is wasted,” explained Harun.

Apart from being used as PLTSa fuel, waste from the Bantar Gebang TPST is also used as refuse derived fuel (RDF). Ari Prihantono from the Nathabumi PT Solusi Bangun Indonesia Tbk team, said that RDF is a cost-effective alternative fuel.

“Waste sorting is the biggest challenge in the RDF supply chain process. Improving this sorting process is the key to improving the RDF supply chain. If we can sort from the start, we can cut the costs of centralized sorting,” said Ari.

PLTSa Bantar Gebang also produces paving blocks from Fly Ash Bottom Ash (FABA), the combustion residue from PLTSa. From 100 tons of waste per day, 10 tons of usable FABA can be produced.