Kamojang was the first field to be developed in Indonesia where, from 1926 to 1929 five exploration wells were drilled at that area. Until now, one of them still can still produce dry steam. All activity was stopped probably because of war but in 1972, with grants from the governments of France and New Zealand, Pertamina, Indonesia’s National Oil Company, the Directorate of Volcanology started to conduct preliminary surveys. Today, the tasks are handled by the Centre of Geology Resources-Geology Agency. From their last surveys in 2006, Indonesia has 257 geothermal prospect areas and most of these are categorized as high temperature systems (> 225°C), well-suited for generating electricity. The potency is more than 27,000 MW or equivalent to eleven billions barrels of oil.
From all prospect areas, there are some that have been developed large scale to generate electricity with a total capacity of 852 MW, namely, Sibayak-Sinabung (2 MW), Awi Bengkok-Gunung Salak (375 MW), Wayang Windu (110MW), Kamojang (140MW), Darajat (145MW), Dieng (60MW) and Lahendong (20 MW).
Three main reasons Indonesia should develop geothermal are: abundance of the resource, it is a viable form of alternative energy, and it is a promising form of energy for the future. Indonesia claims to have almost forty percent of the world’s geothermal resources, which makes sense since Indonesia is the world’s largest “ring of fire” country and most ring of fire countries have geothermal resources. Geothermal is an alternative energy to suited to replace fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. Nowadays, worldwide energy use from fossil fuels shows a declining trend. There is a strong movement to use green energy, which is energy that will not produce CO2 and others gas as by-products which contribute to the greenhouse effect. In this sense, Geothermal developers can earn carbon credits and it is logical that Indonesia should follow the such trends where geothermal energy is positioned to become a promising and viable energy source for near future.
At least four interest or activity areas must be considered when developing geothermal energy: government, private, academic and society. While the government’s activity carries most responsibility, all four activity areas must be considered collectively – no single activity area can be considered in isolation from the other the other three. Government has the fundamental role as a regulator but the inputs of the other three partner activity areas are relied on. The government’s regulatory tools, which ensure appropriate laws are made, are needed to endorse geothermal development. The academic area, as the center of education and research, ensures suitably trained professionals and experts are prepared for this industry, to work in both the private and government sectors. The private sector activity area has responsibility for optimum Geothermal Mining Business Activity (GMBA). Society, as an activity area, has the important role of consumer and has greater applications for geothermal direct use. Without the co-exiting support of all four activity areas, it will be difficult to develop geothermal energy in Indonesia.
Geothermal power plants can replace the function of fossil fuel-powered power plants to save and add foreign exchange. According to figure, Indonesia actually is not exclusively an oil exporting country because it needs to also import oil to satisfy its domestic energy requirements. More than fifty percent of Indonesia’s natural gas production is for export purposes and this is exceeded by the production of coal where more than seventy percent of that energy resource’s extraction is intended for export.
Direct use and indirect use of geothermal in Indonesia must be developed in parallel. Law 27/2003 says that the managing of geothermal resources must produce added value for the wealth and prosperity of society. The aim is that all resources, whether used for generating electricity or not, provide some other additional benefit. Besides direct use applications, used for developing small-to-medium scale plants are no less important. Inventorying resources for direct use applications will be a good first step.
Geothermal should get priority to be developed in regions that have an abundance of geothermal potency but less in other energy resources. Geothermal in the remote regions like Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku should be given more attention to fulfill energy demand, which should take energy accessibility into account as well. Developments in Java and Sumatra should not be overlooked, because they still experience ongoing electricity crises. These remote areas must be treated differently from Java because of their incomplete structure and infrastructure. Greater incentives need to be provided for geothermal developers to match correspondingly higher electricity/steam geothermal produced prices.
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