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Kalla makes fun of snail's pace progress in geothermal energy projects
The Indonesian Vice President mocked a signing ceremony for a 10-megawatt geothermal power plant, in light of the national target to produce 7,200 MW of geothermal electricity by 2025.
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Green power: The Dieng geothermal power plant in Central Java is one of the major producers of renewable energy in Indonesia. (Tempo/Aris Andrianto)
V
ice President Jusuf Kalla poked fun at the country’s geothermal energy industry on Tuesday at an annual international geothermal convention in Jakarta, which came as a sharp wake-up call for industry stakeholders attending the event.
“It has been seven conventions, yet progress has been very slow. Seven conventions and we’ve only reached 2,000 megawatts (MW),” Kalla said just before witnessing a contract signing for the construction of a small-scale 10 MW geothermal plant in Central Java.
“And if you’re going a sign an agreement [that] will be witnessed by the vice president and a [deputy] minister, don’t make it 10 MW. Make it at least 200 MW. Ten MW with such a formal signing, that’s too small. That’s a lack of confidence,” he quipped to the delight of most members of the audience.
Kalla's statement addressed the fact that Indonesia’s total geothermal electricity production last year was only 1,948 MW, a far cry from the government’s 7,200 MW production target by 2025.
Indonesia would need to produce an additional 883 MW of geothermal power each year for the next six years to meet the 2025 target. However, the Indonesian Geothermal Association (API) has projected only an additional 185 MW in increased capacity from four new power plants this year.
“Reaching the target by 2025 is too optimistic, but we should still push as much as possible to match that target. What will be the results? We’ll see in 2025,” API chairman Prijandaru Effendi told reporters after the signing ceremony.
He said the main problem of geothermal producers was that they generally bore heavier investment costs, such as for exploration insurance and production infrastructure, which made them less competitive than fossil fuel power plants.
