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esistance against coal as source of energy is growing steadily. A local NGO called the Network for Mining Advocacy (Jatam) recently released a report entitled “Hungry Coal, Coal Mining and its Impact on National Food Security.”

The report said existing coal concessions had overlapped 19 percent of the area mapped and dedicated for rice fields and could cause a loss of 1.7 million tons in rice production. This number is quite significant and almost equals the amount of the annual rice imports (about 2 million tons in 2015).

Not long after that, Tempo, a local weekly magazine, also chose coal mining for an investigative report entitled, “Who Owns the Deadly Pools?” It referred to the 632 exhausted coal mining pits left untreated that have become huge water pools and pose safety threats to the villagers living nearby.

As many as 27 drownings were recorded from 2011 to 2016 in the pools that used to serve as mining pits and this eventually drove President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to form a special task force to deal with the issue. The report indicated a number of big names ranging from government officials to well-known businessmen were behind the irresponsible mining companies.

The in-situ impacts and the ex-situ impacts, off-gas and coal ash waste produced in a coal-fired power plant (CFPP) makes it receive strong opposition from the locals, although current boiler technology, such as high efficiency ultra-super critical, guarantees toxic emissions below tolerable limits.

Land owners also often refuse to sell their land to power plant projects, although Law No. 2/2014 on land procurement for public interest requires them to do so. Waves of resistance to every CFPP to be built makes it difficult for power generation companies to find lenders.

With all the negativity surrounding coal, the question now is, “Can we take coal off the list of the energy mix?” To answer that, one must understand the concept of electricity provision based on Law No. 30/2009 underlining the importance of (i) quantity, (ii) quality and (iii) affordable prices for electricity. Regarding the last point, coal is still arguably the cheapest energy source.

Recently, the ASEAN Center for Energy together with the World Coal Association published a report entitled “ASEAN’s Energy Equation” in which they calculated the cost per unit energy generated from various sources using a leveled cost of electricity, a matrix that sums up all of a system’s lifetime costs (construction, financing, fuel, maintenance, taxes, insurance and incentives) divided by the system’s lifetime power output.

Based on their research, coal and geothermal give the lowest cost per unit of energy and it is slightly lower than gas, which requires expensive infrastructure to provide it to end users and at least 30 percent cheaper than renewables (hydro, wind, solar and biomass).

Regarding the similarity between coal and geothermal, project duration and exploration risk are not mentioned, albeit they differentiate the two. Indonesia has the biggest geothermal potential in the world (29,000 MW of resources , but only 1,500 MW installed). Nevertheless, developing a geothermal project usually takes seven to eight years, while a CFPP can be as quick as 3.5 years.

The risk of producing less than predicted also hampers the development of individual geothermal wells. With coal, the mining companies — not the power generation company — bear this risk as a coal supply contract is usually awarded to the mining companies who have already proven to have enough coal on reserve.

In the context of the national energy mix, the policy is already not to increase the proportion of coal but to balance the proportion among coal (25 percent), gas (24 percent), renewables (31 percent) and oil (20 percent) as the source of energy when the total output is increased from 51,000 MW in 2013 to 430,000 MW in 2050.

No single majority or minority in the energy mix composition indicates that all sources of energy play an equally important role and, as not known by many, serve a unique goal.

For example, Indonesia has been a net oil importer since 2004 and this is why the dependency on oil has to be reduced. Oil, to some extent, will be replaced by gas in which Indonesia has the potential to be self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency itself is not an issue for coal as Indonesia produces at least 400 million tons per annum, among the top four in the world, with much more than half of it for export. Meanwhile, renewables will help Indonesia meet the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent by 2030.

This energy mix composition will be reviewed regularly and, yes, it can change if there is a technological breakthrough that can lead us to lean toward a specific source of energy. However, up to now, looking at the complexity of power generation business, coal as a source of energy is not supposed to be dismissively viewed.

However, it is the in-situ and ex-situ impacts that must be minimized by adopting the best practices in mining and power plant technologies. This needs a strong will from the government, including imposing harsh penalties on the disobedient.
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The writer works as technical adviser for PT Geoservices. The views expressed are his own.