The Indonesian government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Indonesia-United States Clean Energy Working Group. This agreement marked the establishment of a working group for the development of clean energy in Indonesia. The MoU was signed by Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Rida Mulyana together with Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the US and Foreign Commercial Service, US Department of Commerce Arun Venkataraman.
Rida said that the Clean Energy Working Group MoU would be the basis of cooperation and encourage and promote bilateral cooperation in the field of clean energy.
“This MoU will form the basis of cooperative relations and encourage and promote bilateral cooperation in the field of clean and renewable energy in Indonesia. This will cover various fields, such as CCUS, cybersecurity, SMR technology, geothermal, bioethanol, and smart city technology for the capital city, the new capital, the State Capital. This collaboration will also replace the MoU Power Working Group which was previously signed in 2015,” Rida said in his remarks after signing the MoU at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Jakarta.
Rida said that the Government of Indonesia would use this Working Group to support Indonesia’s electrification and electricity development goals, with an initial focus on helping Indonesia achieve 23% of the energy mix from EBT in 2025 and achieve Net Zero Emissions (NZE) in 2060 or sooner.
To follow up on this signing, the Government of Indonesia invited US business entities to collaborate, not only for investment but also to improve energy transition technology in Indonesia. “From a regulatory perspective, Presidential Regulation Number 112 of 2022 which has been issued is a form of the Government’s commitment to accelerating the development of EBT nationally,” he added.
Apart from the development of EBT, the role of mineral commodities in the energy transition is no less important. The Indonesian government will also prioritize domestic mineral commodities for energy transition projects, including energy storage facilities, electric vehicle batteries, and the downstream mineral industry.
“Indonesia needs support on how to downstream critical minerals. The downstreaming is all associated with the energy transition. From the demand side, there is an acceleration in the use of electric motorized vehicles which include the use of batteries, which contain critical metals whose resources are in Indonesia,” he said.
Another agreement from this MoU, hoped Rida, would be a flow of investment and the creation of new jobs. At the same time, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources continues to develop and improve business processes, including simplifying permits.
“In addition to increasing investment, certainty in financial support is needed in order to achieve the NZE 2060 target. Not only the United States, several other developed countries have also participated, especially in the JETP framework, such as Germany, Japan, and Norway, according to the results of the G20 Summit held last year. ,” Rida said.
For information, the Clean Energy Working Group MOU is an MoU regarding the establishment of a working group for the development of clean energy in Indonesia, this MoU will replace the Indonesia-United States MOU regarding the Power Working Group for Indonesia which was signed in 2015 and only focuses on electricity issues, on at that time the 35 GW program.
The areas of cooperation included in the Clean Energy Working Group MoU are super grid and/or smart grid, reducing the use of diesel generators, Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Technology, cyber security, Carbon Capture and Utilization Storage (CCUS); microgrid, digitization, energy storage, smart city, generator efficiency, bioethanol, and geothermal.
This MoU can serve as an umbrella for cooperation between the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the US Department of Commerce with an initial focus on helping Indonesia achieve the goal of 23% contribution from the renewable energy network by 2025 and to achieve Net Zero Emissions (NZE) in 2060 or sooner.
