Indonesia Needs New Energy Sources, Jokowi Says
5 July 2015 19:38 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Bandung - President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo said that Indonesia needs new energy sources to meet the national electricity need.
According to Jokowi, energy sources from the geothermal, the wind, the sun, the wave and the biomass have to be prioritized in order to add electricity supply.
"We’ll have to explore energy sources from the wave, the wind, the sun and the biomass. Altough it will be slightly more expensive (to develop them), I think it will not be a problem,” Jokowi said in his remarks at the inauguration of Kamojang geothermal-powered electricity plant owned by state-owned oil and gas operator PT Pertamina in Ibun district, Bandung regency on Sunday (5/7).
However, Jokowi said that the utilization of those energy sources is still low because investment needed to develop them is higher than building and utilizing electricity plants using coal or fossils.
According to Jokowi, the government has a target of having a source of energy amounting to 35,000 megawatt in the next five years.
In the meantime, in the geothermal sector alone, Jokowi said that Indonesia has a potential reaching 28,000 megawatt although it is still 5 percent that has been used.
IQBAL T. LAZUARDI S.
