Environment watch: ‘Blue house’ aims for energy independence

Darmanto is no longer concerned about his family potentially suffering a lethal gas tube explosion when his family cook.

The 48-year-old said the family now used a biogas installation as a fuel alternative. The biogas comes from manure produced by his two cows.

“Using a gas tube worries us, not only because of the danger it poses but because of the uncertainty of its availability and high market price,” said the head of Tangkil village in Pundong district, Bantul regency, in Yogyakarta.

Cow manure is abundant in the village as most residents, many farmers, breed cows to earn additional income. He said one of the problems in setting up biogas installations was it required special expertise and huge funds.

“It’s impossible for the villagers to build on their own. I happen to have supervision and financial aid from Hivos,” he said, referring to an Indonesian-the Netherlands institution focused on humanity activities.

In cooperation with Dutch development institution SNV and the Indonesian directorate general of Electricity and Energy Usage, Hivos is developing 8,000 units of the so-called “blue houses”, which are cow manure biogas installations. The ¤11 million worth project is funded by the Dutch Embassy.

“The installation at the Darmanto’s is a pilot project,” said provincial coordinator of Hivos’ Indonesia domestic biogas program, Maria Epik Pranasari.

She said Hivos had trained workers for the projects. “Only certified workers are allowed to build the installations,” Maria said.

She added that a single installation with a capacity of 4 cubic meters of gas needed between Rp 4 million and Rp 5 million.

To create a sense of belonging among the project’s recipients, Hivos provides Rp 2 million for each installation.

“We need active participation from the community, especially in terms of financing,” Maria said.

Active participation, she added, was hoped to encourage people to take good care of the installations since they had shared building them. Maria also expressed confidence that although the people must have their own financial share for the installations, the target of building 8,000 blue installations would be fulfilled by 2012. Of the installations, she said, 200 were to be built in Yogyakarta province.

“About 1,000 dairy cow breeders in East Java, the production center of dairy milk, have also expressed interest in installations,” Maria said.

In Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces alone, she said there were more than 500,000 cows. Altogether they can produce a combined 150,000 cubic meters of manure every day, as three cows could produce a combined 1 cubic meters of manure a day.

“If a cubic meter of manure can produce energy that can be used to cook for four hours, you can imagine how much biogas can be produced in both provinces every day,” Maria said. “By having a blue installation, each family can save up to Rp 60,000 per month and improve their wealth.”