Jakarta – The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR) reports that Indonesia’s geothermal resources reached 23,965.5 MW or around 24 Gigawatts (GW). The potential for geothermal or geothermal resources in Indonesia is the second largest in the world, after the United States.
“The global trend towards clean energy makes Indonesia have a great opportunity to optimise geothermal wealth economically,” said Director of Exploration and Development of Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE), Rachmat Hidayat in the Trijaya Special Polemic program, ‘Quo Vadis Geothermal Energy,’ in a press release, early February.
He said, with proper management, geothermal energy has promising value. Geothermal may be the alternative energy to replace fossil fuels during the energy transition period. Hidayat said geothermal can be the best supply for state electricity company PLN in the event of a blackout. “Geothermal takes a short time when charging. Unlike coal which takes a long time, geothermal can be immediate and stable. So it is not intermittent, be it day or night,” he said.
As one of the largest geothermal processing companies in the world, PGE has a capacity of 2.3 Gigawatts, nearly 82 percent of which comes from within PGE and the rest is managed by PGE partner companies. PGE working areas spread across three islands, namely Sumatra (Medan, Bengkulu, Lampung and South Sumatra), as well as West Java and Sulawesi.
Apart from electricity, geothermal also has many derivative products that can be utilised in everyday life. Among them are agro-tourism, silica minerals for beauty products, and green ammonia as a carbonless fuel. (Hartatik)
Banner photo: Main Director of Pertamina, Nicke Widyawati, listens to an explanation from Maintenance Manager Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) Lahendong Area, Fairuz Noor regarding geothermal production from wells in the 500 kW Binary Cycle Geothermal Power Plant (PLTPB), end of June 2022. (Hartatik)
