Govt backs alternative energy use
Govt backs alternative energy use
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In response to an energy crisis caused by soaring global oil
prices, the government is rushing to issue three regulations to
promote the development of alternative forms of energy.
State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman
said on Tuesday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was
expected to sign three presidential decrees later this week to
support the development of alternative energy sources.
"Hopefully after returning from Aceh, he will sign the three
documents," Kusmayanto said after a meeting with Austrian
Minister of Education, Science and Culture Elisabeth Gehrer at
his office in Jakarta.
Susilo returned on Tuesday evening from a three-day visit to
Aceh and Nias, North Sumatra, to commemorate the one-year
anniversary of the tsunami and to celebrate Christmas.
Kusmayanto said the three presidential decrees covered
national energy management, the development of biofuel and coal
liquification.
The new decrees are meant to help minimize the use of fossil
fuels in the country, which reached a total of over 60 million
kiloliters this year.
"After these regulations are issued, all the work to develop
alternative fuel sources, such as planting the crops needed as
raw materials, will start early next year," the minister said.
Kusmayanto told The Jakarta Post earlier the decree on
national energy management would provide a road map for the
utilization of different alternative energy sources from 2005 to
2025.
He said the decree aimed to create a "balanced energy
mixture", comprised of 30 percent oil, 30 percent natural gas and
coal, and the rest from alternative energy sources such as
biodiesel, biomass, geothermal, wind, solar and nuclear plants.
The government hopes to begin operating nuclear power plants
by 2017.
The two other presidential decrees -- on biofuel and coal
liquefaction -- will support the decree on national energy
management, the minister said.
Gehrer, the visiting Austrian minister, said Austria would
support Indonesian initiatives to develop biodiesel as an
alternative fuel source through exchanges of researchers.
"Indonesia has taken a very good step forward in biodiesel and
we could work together in developing biodiesel in the future,"
she said.
Bernd Michael-Rode, the European coordinator for the ASEAN-
European Academic University Network, said this bilateral
cooperation could take place at several levels, including joint
research and business-to-business cooperation.
"First, we will help test Indonesian crops to determine the
suitability of their use as biodiesel. Second, our industry will
cooperate with the Indonesian government and private sector to
install facilities to produce biodiesel from Indonesian crops,"
said Michael-Rode, who attended Tuesday's meeting with
Kusmayanto.
"And by these (measures), Indonesia will gradually reduce its
need to import oil," Michael-Rode added.