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pril 04, Online

PT BTN Energy Prima (BEP), a joint venture between Indonesia'€™s PT Biidznillah Tambang Nusantara (BTN) and Malaysia'€™s BTN Power Sdn Berhad, has joined forces with Chinese state firm China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) to build US$675 million worth of coal-fired power plants in palm oil-rich Dumai in Riau, Sumatra.

Your comments:

If Indonesians eventually use as much electricity per capita as Bruneians, Singaporeans, Americans, Europeans and Australians, in the following decades, Indonesia will need 10-15 times as much electricity as currently installed. Clearly with fossil fuels (coal/diesel) alone that will have a negative impact on the environment.

Therefore, less power must be used or for produce it in a more environmentally friendly way.

In my opinion, small scale solar cells in combination with small scale wind/biogas/biomass is the simplest way to power rural Indonesia.

Even in the big cities, encouraging people to install solar cells on their roofs and use electric vehicles would be a very quick way to improve the air quality.

Obviously there is also plenty of opportunity to produce large scale electricity by means of geothermal plants, hydro dams, large scale solar cell farms, wind turbines, biomass, biogas, etc.

All of these will produce '€œfree'€ energy while at the same time having no negative impact on the
environment.

Kees Oomen