One million homes to get solar power generators

One million homes to get solar power generators

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto launched a project yesterday
to provide solar power to one million homes in remote areas in
the next five years.

"Electricity is an absolute need of an advanced society,"
Soeharto said. "The system is very simple, easy to operate and
maintain. It does not require fuel, does not pollute the air and
is not noisy.

"Therefore in regions where electricity is not expected to be
installed in at least the next five years, we will overcome this
with the Solar Energy Electricity Program," he said at Merdeka
Palace.

He said that 44,000 of the country's 62,000 villages enjoyed
electricity. "That shows our achievements in electricity
development."

Soeharto was accompanied by State Minister of Research and
Technology B.J. Habibie, Minister of Mines and Energy I.B.
Sudjana and Minister of Cooperatives Subiakto Tjakrawerdjaja.

The launch was followed by a seminar on solar energy featuring
Feisal Tamin of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Endro Utomo
Notodisuryo of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and Mamiet
Marjono of the Ministry of Cooperatives.

Other speakers included Arung Sangvi of the World Bank and
Ashwin Sasongko Sastrosubroto of the National Institute of
Energy.

Habibie said in his speech that the project's first stage
would provide 36,400 solar power generators for homes in 150
villages in nine provinces of Southeast, Central and North
Sulawesi, East and West Nusa Tenggara, East Timor, Maluku,
Central Kalimantan and Irian Jaya.

The World Bank's acting representative, Ben Fisher, told The
Jakarta Post yesterday that the bank was planning to finance part
of the project to provide solar energy to 200,000 households in
Lampung, Sumatra, West Java and South Sulawesi.

He said solar power would be provided to another 800,000
households thanks to government agencies, including the state
electricity company PT PLN, the Agency for Assessment and
Application of Technology and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Fisher said the project would cost US$118.1 million, with $20
million provided by the World Bank, $24.3 million by the Global
Environmental Facility, $1.5 million by the Indonesian government
and the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology, $5
million by participating banks and $67.3 million by households as
potential consumers.

"The program provides consumers with energy for three to five
lights, a television, a cassette radio," the World Bank's
principal energy specialist Arung Sangvi said.

Additional funding in technical assistance worth $6.3 million
would be provided by banks and the government, he said.

Habibie said the project aimed to provide a "stand alone"
energy system for villages. One million homes will receive 50
megawatts of electricity.

Habibie, also head of the technology assessment agency, said
that unlike diesel and coal burning, the stand alone system was
environment-friendly and used a renewable resource.

He said consumers in remote areas could have solar energy for
Rp 7,000 ($2.85) a month plus Rp 1,000 for services and Rp 2,000
for batteries that had to be replaced every three years.

During the one-day seminar, Habibie opened an exhibit for
Australian, French and German companies which provide solar
energy equipment through the agency. (01/06)