News Focus: INDONESIA TO MAXIMIZE USE OF ITS GEOTHERMAL RESERVES By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, April 27 (ANTARA) - In order to reduce the use of oils for its power generators, Indonesia, host to 40 percent of the world's geothermal reserves, aims to use this clean energy to generate electricity up to 9,500 megawatts and to cut emissions by 16 percent in 2025.

With its geothermal reserves able to generate electricity up to 28,100 MW, Indonesia now still uses only about 4.2 percent of the reserves to fuel its 1,198 MW power plants. This encourages the government to increase further the use of the country's geothermal reserves to produce electricity up to 3,977 MW in 2014.

The country's ambition to maximize the use of its geothermal reserves as fuels for its power generators was expressed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when he opened the 4th World Geothermal Congress (WGC) at the Nusa Dua resort of Indonesia's tourist resort province of Bali on Monday.

"Indonesia now only uses 4.2 percent of its geothermal reserves to generate 1,100 MW of electricity. Indonesia's geothermal reserves account for 40 percent of the global geothermal potentials," President Yudhoyono said.

Therefore, the president said, Indonesia aims to become the world's largest geothermal energy user. Indonesia now ranked third in terms of geothermal energy consumption after the United States and the Philippines which used geothermal energy to generate 4,000 MW and 2,000 MW of electricity respectively.

To accelerate the development of geothermal power plants the government could not work alone but would cooperate with international financial institutions and donor countries, he said. After all, Indonesia has enough potential.

According to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia's geothermal potentials have increased and been able to generate 28,100 MW. These reserves are found in 265 different locations.

The ministry's geological agency reveals that the potentials are based on an operation period of 30 years, or equal to the consumption of 12 billion barrels of natural oil.

"Compare this to the present natural oil reserves of only 6.4 billion barrels," Suchyar of the agency, said. He said ten years ago, the geothermal potential reached only a capacity to generate 27.000 MW.

In 2009, eight new geothermal locations had been found, namely Kebar in Manokwari, West Papua with a potential of 25 MW, Tehoru 75 MW, Banda Baru 75 MW, Pohon Batu 50 MW, and Kelapa Dua 25 MW in Maluku, Lili 75 MW, Mapili 50 MW, and Alu 25 MW in Mandar, West Sulawesi.

At present, only about 4 percent of the country's geothermal reserves --which are able to generate 28,000 MW-- are being used are now generating only 1,198 MW.

Under the National Energy Policy, in 2025 the use of geothermal energy may reach 9,500 MW.

Suchyar added that the government until 2014 planned to build geothermal power plants with a total capacity of 3,977 MW under the second 10,000 MW power crash program.

"If combined with the existing power plants to 5,000 MW, it would be equal to the use of 2.4 billion barrels of natural oil," he said.

In line with its roadmap for the development of the energy sector in the 2004-2025 period, the government has made a number of policies on the development of geothermal energy.

"We have set ourselves the target of fulfilling 5 percent of the national energy needs in 2025 from geothermal energy," President Yudhoyono said.

To achieve the target, the government had launched a number of projects including four projects between state electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) and PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy for the development of geothermal power plants in Central Java, North Sumatra and West Lampung using World Bank loans.

The projects which would cost US$8.6 billion were expected to generate 2,885 MW of electricity to overcome the current power shortages which reached 4,900 MW.

The projects were also expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions of up to 17.3 million tons per year, he said.

Indonesia has faced energy crisis, especially electricity as the nation relied heavily on fuel. The state power plant PLN has to spent around Rp30 trillion annually to by fuel.

To address that problem, the energy and minister resource ministry would optimize the usage of mixed energy up to 2025, namely by conversion and diversification of energy sources.

"We will optimize energy which has not been used so far, such as geothermal and nuclear energy, as well as coal up to ten folds, so that we could cut the emission by 16 percent," Marwansyah Lobo Balia, expert staff of the energy and mineral resources ministry, said.

According to President Yudhoyono, the development of geothermal energy in Indonesia would have a small impact on the environment because the country has adequate technology and human resources for the purpose.

The government has set itself a target of attracting around US$12 billion in new investment for the geothermal sector and a geothermal energy production capacity of 3,977 megawatt (MW) as part of its second phase 10,000 MW power project.

"I hope that the efforts to make efficient use of geothermal energy potentials will be successful, not only for Indonesia but for the rest of the world as well," he said.