JAKARTA – The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) on Thursday (24/2) stated that it is considering the use of hydrogen as a potential energy source in accelerating energy transition. The decision came as a result of a simulation for a long-term strategy towards Net Zero Emission (NZE) by 2060 in support of the country’s low-carbon development commitments.
In a written release, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif said hydrogen has an important role in decarbonizing the global energy system and is expected to be one of the contributors to the energy transition. However, there are a number of challenges in utilizing hydrogen.
“The challenges include the economics of hydrogen and how to make hydrogen financially viable and beneficial for society,” said Arifin.
Even so, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources will continue to follow trends in hydrogen technology and open opportunities to collaborate in the use of hydrogen. Furthermore, Arifin revealed, hydrogen from the supply side is one of the Government’s main strategies in implementing the roadmap towards carbon neutrality in 2060.
Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE) Dadan Kusdiana added, the hydrogen plan is used for the industrial and transportation sectors. This hydrogen utilization does not use fuel cell technology, but uses internal combustion technology commonly used by motorized vehicles.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Indonesian Renewable Energy Society (METI), Surya Darma this week said that several types of alternative fuels for cleaner and greener transportation are biofuels (biodiesel and bioethanol), and hydrogen.
“In several countries, all types of alternative fuels have entered the commercial stage and continue to grow, both from the number of filling stations and from the number of user vehicles operating,” said Surya.
As is known, based on data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), hydrogen is currently produced mostly from fossil fuels, namely by global natural gas (6%) and global coal (2%).
“Of course, hydrogen production in this way will cause CO2 emissions of around 830 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. If you want to reduce emissions significantly, you can do it with green hydrogen,” he explained.
According to him, green hydrogen will use renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and water to electrolyze hydrogen from water, store and use hydrogen in fuel cells to produce stable, environmentally friendly CO2-free electricity and hot water.
However, according to the IEA, the current global production of specialty hydrogen comes from the electrolysis of water, which is still less than 0.1%. However, the decreasing cost of renewable energy, especially from solar and wind, has spurred increasing interest from various parties to utilize electrolytic (green) hydrogen. (Hartatik)
