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Indonesia behind in exploiting its geothermal resources

Alexander Richter 10 Mar 2009

"Indonesia still has yet to increase the exploitation of its geothermal energy as a source of electricity, director of the Center of Public Policy Study, Sofyano Zakaria, said here on Monday.

An article in TradingMarkets today was talking about “Indonesia still yet to exploit its geothermal energy sources”. This is indeed true with a potential of 27,000 MW. The country “still has yet to increase the exploitation of its geothermal energy as a source of electricity, director of the Center of Public Policy Study, Sofyano Zakaria, said here on Monday.

He said the country had abundant geothermal reserves but they had not yet been exploited optimally as a source of electricity.

“Indonesia cannot as yet optimize the exploitation of its geothermal energy sources to produce electricity,” he said.

He said the government had to seriously exploit the energy sources because of its abundance and because its price could be competitive compared with that of other energy sources.

He said so far geothermal energy in the country was produced by state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina and therefore its supply could be assured compared to the supply of gas or fuel oils which had also been exported.

“So, it is time now for the government to ask state-owned electricity company PLN to optimize its use of geothermal energy to operate its power plants,” he said.

Investors from the Philippines meanwhile have expressed interest in building a geothermal power plant in North Sumatra. The investor delegation, led by Dr Guillermo R Balce, offered plans to build geothermal power plants in several locations in North Sumatra, at a meeting with the province’s governor Syamsul Arifin last Wednesday.

Balce who is also chief of the Energy Development Corporation visited the region along with Philippine geologist Jeffrey A Caranto. Governor Arifin welcomed the offer and supported the investors’ idea.

“We hope the plan could be realized as our region indeed needs more electricity. We indeed have sources of geothermal energy in several districts,” he said. He said the sources were abundant and the operation of geothermal power plants could increase electricity supply in the region.

According to data there are around 16 locations of geothermal energy reserves in the region such as Karo, Langkat, Samosir, Taput, Madina, Tapsel and Simalungun.

Balce who is also a former minister of energy said his side was very serious with regard to the offer. He said he had visited several locations such as Pusuk Buhit in Samosir, Sorik Marapi in Madina and Sipoholon in Taput, and saw the encouraging potential.

“We are dealing with large-scale geothermal projects of at least 100 MW capacity,” he said.”

Source: Trading Markets

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