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Early shift to clean energy will save costs, expert says
An early energy transition from dirty to clean sources will save a lot of money that will be spent in the future to provide compensation during a transition phase in which coal companies will suffer losses, an energy expert from Germany has said.
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An early energy transition from dirty to clean sources will save a lot of money that will be spent in the future to provide compensation during a transition phase in which coal companies will suffer losses, an energy expert from Germany has said. (Shutterstock/File)
A
n early energy transition from dirty to clean sources will save a lot of money that will be spent in the future to provide compensation during a transition phase in which coal companies will suffer losses, an energy expert from Germany has said.
Philipp Wendel, the head of an energy sector from Germany’s foreign office, said the message was based on his country’s experience as it had to set aside more than 40 billion euros (US$45 billion) in transition funds.
The money will be used as compensation for coal companies and energy subsidies.
“If you continue to invest now in coal [power plants], you might run into structural problems in the future. We are now facing it and it’s hard. Hence, actually many developing countries could leapfrog to the [renewable energy] technology,” Wendel said, adding that Germany targeted to fully phase out coal power plants by 2038.
Germany, which is Indonesia’s third-largest bilateral development cooperation partner, started shifting its focus toward renewable energy around 20 years ago with the belief that it will be much more competitive than the dirty energy and overcome the air pollution issue.
The amount of renewable energy produced from Germany’s electricity generation is more than 40 percent, a 442 percent increase from 8.3 percent in 2003.
In addition to trying to stay competitive and focusing on climate change, Wendel said the push toward renewable energy was also to provide a boost to the country's trade in technology to countries such as Indonesia.
