W

ind energy may become a significant source of power in Indonesia, as it is not only renewable but also widely available throughout the country, a scientist says.

Scientist Sugiyanto from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said Wednesday that wind energy was one of the best methods to provide electricity in remote areas, especially the outer islands.

“There is huge potential for developing wind-based power in the outer islands, which lack a stable supply of electricity,” Sugiyanto said.

Poor infrastructure in remote areas hampered the fuel supply direly needed to produce conventional energy, he said.

“This makes renewable energy a potential source of power to be developed in those areas,” he said.

Sugiyanto said it made sense to build wind farms in Indonesia due to the country’s strong and steady winds.

Iman Junaedi, a LIPI energy scientist, said wind power could be developed on a large commercial scale and a smaller individual scale for household purposes.

With wind power, turbines activated by generators transform kinetic energy from the wind into electric energy.

“A wind energy system depends on several factors to produce electric energy, including the capacity of the plant,” Iman said.

An individual power system with an average capacity of 2.5 to 5 kilowatts might cost Rp 125 million, he said.

“It is not expensive, definitely,” Iman said. “However, wind energy was not competitive compared to conventional or fossil-based energy,” he added.

According to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, in the last 10 years, the use of fossil fuels had reached 95 percent of the total national utilization of prime energy.

On the contrary, by the end of last year, the use of new and renewable energy was less than five percent, despite huge unexplored renewable energy potential.

Only 1.1 megawatts (MW) or 0.01 percent out of a total of 9,290 MW of wind energy potential has been utilized.

“This is very small. It shows that fossil fuels remain at the core of energy demand,” director general of renewable energy and energy conservation Luluk Soemiarso said.

Under Vision 2025, the use of new and renewable energy is projected to reach 25 percent of the total national utilization of prime energy by 2025, followed by coal at 32 percent, gas at 23 percent and oil at 20 percent.

Sugiyatno said the price of wind-based electricity was less competitive than fossil-based electricity due to its lower subsidized prices.

He said the government should allocate more resources to subsidize renewable instead of fossil-based energy.

“We should subsidize the development of technology for renewable energy systems so we can produce electricity at affordable and more competitive prices,” he said.

Iman said wind power projects had higher production costs compared to conventional energy.

“Wind-based power has an average core production cost of Rp 1,800 [20 US cents] per kilowatt hour [kWH]. It’s not an affordable price for consumers,” he said.

Indonesia, he said, has a low coefficient factor for power because it has a lower wind speed compared to sub-tropic countries.

This means Indonesia’s wind farms may produce less energy, resulting in higher core production costs.

Iman said an incentive package would be a good starting point for developing wind-based energy. The core production cost of conventional energy in remote areas was between Rp 2,750 and Rp 3,000 per kWH, he said.

By producing wind-based energy on a large scale, electricity prices would be between Rp 1,800 and Rp 2,500.

“The price is not too different from fossil-based electricity. It is even more competitive,” Iman said.

“It all depends on the government and whether they can provide subsidies and incentives for the development of renewable energy,” he added. (ebf)