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delegation from the European Union is in Indonesia to explore the potential to develop waste to energy (WtE) facilities with nine regional administrations.

The intention was revealed during the official visit of delegates from the EU to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and ASEAN, in Yogyakarta.

'€œBy being here today we are offering to share our experiences with Indonesia. Waste has a huge potential [here] to become a major source for power generation,'€ EU Ambassador to Indonesia Olof Skoog said in his remarks at '€œWaste to Energy Week'€ event on Tuesday.

The event, which will finish on Friday, is part of the 2012-2016 EU-Indonesia Trade Cooperation Facility (TCF) program.

The program, which is run with cooperation from the Energy and Mineral Resource Ministry and the National Energy Council, aims to help improve policies on renewable energy.

It was also during the event in Yogyakarta that meetings between the nine regional administrations and representatives from the EU private sector were held.

The nine administrations interested in exploring cooperation with the EU private sector included Jakarta, Central Java, Yogyakarta, Pekalongan and Surakarta in Central Java; Balikpapan in East Kalimantan; Lampung, Payakumbuh in West Sumatra; and Palu in Central Sulawesi.

'€œWe are delighted to be part of this and look forward to finding the best technological, financial and operational solutions to building WtE facilities,'€ Skoog said.

Skoog of Sweden said European countries had experience in processing WtE.

Sweden, he went on, had turned two million tons of waste '€” some of which had been imported from Norway '€” into energy.

Europe, according to Skoog, has been the world'€™s biggest market for WtE technology for the last five years. He estimated that the WtE plant business had attracted 60 percent of investment.

'€œTherefore, I am happy and proud that the EU, through the TCF had chosen to showcase Sweden [...] during a study tour in 2013, in order for interested Indonesia municipalities to learn from the Swedish example,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, director general of the ministry'€™s new, renewable energy and energy conservation department, Rida Mulyana, said due to the positive trend of economic growth, Indonesia would need lots of energy.

Indonesia'€™s need for energy is set to continue to increase as 1 million cars and 10 million motorcycles are purchased annually, due to the disposable income of the growing middle class.

Rida said Indonesia needed to take renewable energy seriously, one example being to make use of waste to generate energy.

'€œThey are welcome to make use of EU investors and experts to develop WtE facilities,'€ Rida said.

The cooperation between local administrations and EU companies, Rida said, had to meet the four criteria of: creating economic growth, creating job opportunities, reducing poverty and being environmentally friendly.

Separately, the Yogyakarta Public Works, Housing, Energy and Mineral Resources Agency head, Rani Sjamsinarsi, said that the provincial administration had much to learn before it could turn waste into energy at the Piyungan dump.

She said that the dump was managed under a cooperation between the Yogyakarta provincial administration and Bantul'€™s administration.

'€œIn order to cooperate with a foreign investor, the management has to be taken over by the provincial administration,'€ Rani said.