Sri Mulyani Inspired by Iceland Regarding Indonesia's Geothermal
Translator
Ricky Mohammad Nugraha
Editor
Laila Afifa
Jumat, 26 April 2019 07:20 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani recalled about Iceland’s success in managing the country’s energy potential before the entrepreneurs and business players in the electricity industry.
“I always recall Iceland, when I went there as an economist, this country once went bankrupt because of energy imports,” said Sri at the groundbreaking of geothermal power plant project (PLTP) of Dieng 2 and Patuha 2, on Thursday, April 25.
She continued to talk about the condition Iceland has to face since it is located close to the north pole and the country’s fuel dependence in powering indoor house heaters.
“Their balance of payments was greatly affected because of imports,” the minister said.
However, she said it didn’t take long for the country to change their energy sector policy after realizing the plethora of geothermal sources they had all along.
In terms of domestic issues, Sri Mulyani expressed her dream of taking Indonesia to the path that Iceland went through considering Indonesia’s geothermal potential and reserve.
Based on the data provided by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Indonesia’s geothermal capacity is predictably able to generate 29 Gigawatt of electricity but is now only able to tap 6.7 percent of that.
FAJAR PEBRIANTO
Read: Indonesia Only Utilizes 10 Percent of Geothermal Energy
