PAPUAAROUND – Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif said the government will utilize New Renewable Energy (EBT) in Papua, apart from Kalimantan.
He revealed that currently the government is pushing for a program to utilize EBT for hydropower, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydrogen power.
“Apart from the development of a green industry in Kalimantan, Papua has great potential for the development of a green industry in the future. There is a potential for EBT of 383 gigawatts (GW), especially solar and hydro which can be an EBT-based green energy capital,” he said in the Green Economy Forum 2023 which was broadcast on Bisnis Indonesia’s YouTube channel, Tuesday (6/6).
He said the development of EBT must be massive because Indonesia is haunted by the threat of an energy crisis. Moreover, the country’s current energy needs are still supplied from fossil energy.
Arifin detailed that 42.4 percent of the country’s energy is supplied by coal and 31.4 percent from petroleum. In fact, the potential for EBT in Indonesia is very large, penetrating 3,000 GW with utilization that has only touched 12.5 GW.
“Opportunities for developing EBT are increasing along with the cost of constructing PLT EBT which has decreased quite sharply, accompanied by a decrease in the price of lithium batteries by up to 97 percent in the last 30 years,” he said.
In addition, he emphasized that the development of EBT generators is carried out evenly throughout the existing electricity system by considering supply and demand.
In this case, business entities are also asked to contribute to work on the economy and green energy. Some things that need to be done are;
First, mining and energy business entities (BU) are asked to contribute through developing EBT power plants, implementing energy efficiency, utilizing flare gas, building green divinery, and utilizing Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies.
Second, BU mineral and coal (minerba) must carry out reclamation of ex-mining land for the needs of solar power plants (PLTS), replacing fuel with biodiesel for mine transportation. Then, procure EBT power plants to supply smelter electricity and carry out energy conservation.
Third, Arifin expects the electricity BU (gatrik) to utilize green coal technology alias CCS and CCUS, implement co-firing, develop EBT power plants, convert diesel power plants (PLTD) to PLT EBT, retire PLTUs, and energy efficiency.
Fourth, he said that industrial PCs can move towards a green economy by installing rooftop PLTS. Arifin also mentioned the use of EBT, the application of thermal energy efficiency, and electrical energy efficiency.
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