House set to draft geothermal bill<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives has formed a team to draft a bill
\non geothermal energy as part of its efforts to boost the
\ndevelopment of energy resources, according to a leading
\nlegislator.<\/p>\n
Irwan Prayitno, the head of the House's Commission VIII for
\nenergy, mineral resources, environment, science and technology,
\nsaid Thursday the House had taken an initiative to propose the
\nbill to the government because it deemed geothermal energy as a
\nsustainable alternative energy source that the country could
\nbenefit from.<\/p>\n
\"We have a great reserve of geothermal resources which remain
\nlargely untapped,\" he told reporters on the sidelines of the
\nfourth national meeting of the Indonesian Geothermal Association
\n(INAGA).<\/p>\n
Irwan said that the team that is working on the geothermal
\nbill is comprised of three members of the House who are experts
\non energy. One of them is Tunggul Sirait, a noted lecturer on
\nenergy at the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology and
\nalso a member of the Love the Nation Party (PDKB).<\/p>\n
There is no deadline for the team to finalize the draft, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Irwan noted that Indonesia needed a maximum strategy to boost
\ngeothermal energy development as an alternative energy.<\/p>\n
Geothermal resources were, in the past, put under the
\nsupervision of state-owned oil company Pertamina, but the
\ngovernment transferred the supervisory rights to the regions in
\nMay 2000.<\/p>\n
Thus far, there is no law regulating the energy source.<\/p>\n
Minister of Energy and Mineral Sources Purnomo Yusgiantoro, in
\nhis written speech read out during the gathering, stated that a
\nlaw on geothermal energy was needed in order to boost the
\ndevelopment of the energy source.<\/p>\n
The government will also withdraw its involvement in
\ngeothermal business to allow for fair competition in the
\nindustry, he said.<\/p>\n
A number of geothermal power plant projects had been shelved
\nsince the 1997 economic crisis because they are expensive. The
\ngovernment is unable to finance projects that require foreign
\ncurrency.<\/p>\n
Prior to the crisis, there were 22 geothermal power projects
\napproved by the government, but most of the projects had been
\ndelayed or shelved by the government in 1997 as part of the
\nretrenchment efforts to cope with the economic crisis.<\/p>\n
According to INAGA, Indonesia, potentially, has one of the
\nworld's largest supplies of geothermal resources. There are more
\nthan 244 geothermal energy fields across the nation with a
\npotential power generation capacity of 20,000 MW.<\/p>\n
All the resources are, however, located in remote areas, where
\nmodern infrastructure is almost non-existent. That is why the
\ndevelopment of geothermal resources is expensive and the price
\nfor power from geothermal steam is more expensive than that of
\nother energy sources.<\/p>\n
Currently, Indonesia has a number of geothermal power plants
\nwith a combined capacity of 747.5 MW. The power plants are
\nlocated in Kamojang, Salak, Darajat and Wayang Windu, in West
\nJava; Lahendong in North Sulawesi and Sibayak in North Sumatra.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/house-set-to-draft-geothermal-bill-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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