Arifin Tasrif, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, assures that Indonesia will not give up its forests to broaden solar panels to power the country.
Recently, in a conversation he mentioned, “Indonesia is equipped with a variety of renewable energy sources, with solar energy accounting for up to 89 percent of the country’s more than 3,600 gigatonnes (GW) of potential.
“However, we must be cautious and not sacrifice our forests for solar panels because we must maintain (our forests).”
According to the country’s energy transition roadmap, solar energy would soon ultimately be required to meet national electricity demand, accounting for approximately 21 GW of the 700 GW of renewable energy capacity.
Despite Indonesia’s commitment to a low-emission economy and the 2060 net-zero emissions target, Arifin believes that geothermal energy development is critical in the interim stage before renewable energy reaches an economically and commercially viable scale. He claimed that intermittent solar issues could be solved by utilizing energy from water or geothermal resources.
He emphasized that Indonesia, as an island country, requires a power transmission network to distribute electricity from power production centres to consumer centres.
He revealed that the country intends to build a super-grid transmitting system to improve energy access and bridge the gap between renewable energy sources in areas with high electricity demand.
“We also open the possibility of exporting electricity generated by our renewable energy to ASEAN countries via the ASEAN Power Grid,” Arifin explained.
Discover more from SolarQuarter
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
