PGE Kamojang Rebuts Forest Damage Concerns with Zero-Waste Operations

Bandung (ANTARA) - PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy Tbk (PGE) Kamojang is challenging claims that geothermal projects cause environmental damage by implementing an environmentally friendly, zero-waste operating system.

“Speaking of Kamojang, our concession area is now 45,000 hectares. We currently use approximately 110 hectares. That means only 0.2 per cent for five power plants with a combined capacity of 235 megawatts,” PGE Kamojang Area General Manager Albertus Novi Purwono said in Kamojang, Bandung Regency, West Java, on Tuesday.

The very limited land use has been made possible by directional drilling technology at dozens of production wells.

“On the surface, the distance between wells is about seven metres. But underground, they do not go straight down only; they extend in every direction, towards all points of the compass,” Novi said.

Using this drilling method, 98 geothermal wells in the Kamojang area have been grouped into just 38 clusters, greatly limiting the forest surface area that needs to be cleared.

“The cycle is closed. Water is heated into steam, the steam turns the turbine, and is then cooled and reinjected into the injection wells,” PGE Operations Director Andi Joko Nugroho said.

Andi explained that all drilling mud is collected in ponds for reinjection, while drilling cuttings are repurposed as building materials.

The company is also required to reforest land, replacing every hectare cleared with new land elsewhere that is restored as forest.

Once drilling is complete and the steam wells are operating, PGE will seek to restore the forest function of the well areas, so that growing trees can help absorb rainwater.