New Stimuli for Renewable Energy
In the past weeks some apparently unrelated, negative news, have offered additional solid reasons for the development of renewable energy in Indonesia, and in particular Solar for commercial and private use. Acting energy and mineral resources minister Luhut Pandjaitan announced in late August that only around 25GW of the government’s ambitious project of generating an extra 35GW of electricity would be available by 2019. Furthermore, this target will only be achieved if the many bottlenecks plaguing the construction of the new power plants can be immediately cleared. Nevertheless, energy consumption will continue to grow, and will need alternative sources to fulfill demand thus fostering the creation of companies like Sun.
Concurrently, no progress is seen in the latest oil, gas incentives proposed by the government. The changes are unlikely to encourage oil and gas players to significantly boost their current activities amid low crude prices. Finally, a newly released Greenpeace report suggests that the electricity costs of PLTUs are around $51.22/MWh. However, when health costs are taken into account, the cost rises significantly to $152.65/MWh: “The cost becomes higher than any other types of renewable energy,” said Hindun Malaka, Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaigner. He added that biomass and solar PV-generated forms of energy cost $112.76/MWh and $108.07/MWh, respectively.
Source:PRN
