Seeking Alternate Sources

Cattle farming is proving to be very profitable for Karjono, a 45-year-old farmer from Lembu village in Central Java. Besides providing him with a regular income from the sale of beef, their dung is the main source of energy for his household. Since 2012, an eight-meter cubic biogas digester installed in his backyard has been processing his livestock's manure into green energy, lighting up his kerosene lamps and burning his gas stove. He saves around Rp80,000 (about US$6.18) per month, normally spent on cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) gas. "Whenever there's a big celebration in my house, I don't need to buy additional firewood anymore," he said.

His village was one of the locations selected by Indonesia's Domestic Biogas Program (Biru) pilot project, an initiative of Hivos, a Dutch NGO cooperating with the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and SNV Netherlands Development Organization. Since May 2009, villagers from nine provinces have built 14,107 units of bio-digesters. "We want to increase people's access to energy in remote villages, and empower them at the same time," said Dadan Kusdiana, bio-energy director at the Energy Ministry.