Adaro Energy president director Garibaldi Thohir, popularly called “Boy”, said in Jakarta on Tuesday that renewable energy could become the company’s future as the coal business would be more challenging in the next 15 to 20 years.

The company has made a number of preparations to support investment in renewable energy such as the establishment of a new business unit, the development of a pilot project for solar power generation and the plan to take part in state-owned electricity company PLN’s auctions for the construction of solar power plants.

To date, the company, which operates large coal mines in Tabalong regency, South Kalimantan, has two coal-fired power plants (PLTUs) in the pipeline, namely 200-megawatt (MW) PLTU Tanjung Power Indonesia in Tabalong and 2,000-MW PLTU Batang in Central Java, which are expected to commence operation in July and December 2020 respectively.

Two years ago Adaro formed a special division to look into profitability in renewables and invested around $5 million for the research and infrastructure.

“We have a special division on renewable energy and the goal is looking into what kind of renewable energy fits in certain regions. We cooperated with industry experts,” Christian Rachmat, the vice president of Adaro Energy, said.

Christian further said the business group would sign a cooperation agreement with a foreign company in the next two months to develop solar power plants (PLTS) on a remote island. “The project is part commercial and part social responsibility,” he said, but did not disclose the name of the company.

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