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f Indonesians eventually use as much electricity per capita as Bruneians, Singaporeans, Americans, Europeans and Australians, in the next decade Indonesia will need 10-15 times as much electricity generating capacity as currently installed.

Clearly with fossil fuels (coal/diesel) alone, that will have a negative impact on the environment.

Therefore, Indonesians will either have to make sure they use less power for the same economic output and/or produce all that energy in a more environmentally friendly ways.

In my opinion, small-scale solar cells combined with small-scale wind/biogas/biomass is the simplest way to power (and therefore empower) rural Indonesia.

Even in the big cities though, encouraging people to install solar panels on their roofs and using electric motorbikes/scooters/cars, would be a very quick way to improve air quality.

Obviously, in Indonesia 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 there is no negative impact on the environment.

Kees Oomen
Principal process engineer
Jakarta