Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The government should move away from its dependency on dirty coal to cleaner renewable energy if it is to meet its ambitious capacity target to install 35 gigawatts (GW) of electricity before 2019. The energy shift is necessary as the county will struggle to provide the coal required to fire its power stations in the near future.
The Network for Mining Advocacy (Jatam) is of the opinion that the government should have taken into consideration the prediction that Indonesia's coal supply would be insufficient to meet the ambitious electricity target.
"Actually we don't have a significant coal deposit, only 3 percent of the global coal deposit. So if our electricity demand is reliant on coal supply, with a requirement of 70 million tons of coal, our coal supply won't even last 30 years," Jatam coordinator Hendrik Siregar said.
In mid-2015, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced a target to install 35 GW before 2019, as electricity demand is predicted to reach 7,000 MW per year. Approximately 20 GW of the target will be met from coal-fired sources, with 13 GW from natural gas-fired plants and 3.7 GW from renewable sources (primarily hydroelectricity and geothermal).
However, a study by the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Indonesia suggests that coal-fired power plants will not be able to provide the expected 20 GW for the next 25 to 30 years. Current commodity prices has seen coal sector profitability reach its lowest point and led to a decrease in production by coal companies.
The government has been optimistic about program feasibility as, according to data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Indonesia had 32.3 billion tons of coal reserves in 2014. However, the study suggests that, with declining coal prices, between 7.3 and 8.3 billion tons of these reserves are economically viable to mine and indicates that these reserves will be depleted by 2033-2036.
"What happens next? We will have to import coal. This will turn into a burden for the next government as the coal-fired power plants will need to keep operating," Hendrik said. The government should see the prediction as an opportunity to shift entirely to renewable energy.
"[The government] says that if we rid ourselves of our dependency on coal, it will slow down the economy. This is a false notion," Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) spokesperson Khalisah Khalid said. "But our economy will be more secure [if we ditch coal] when the global coal price is in decline."
According to her, the government failed to take into account the negative impact caused by the coal industry when it decided to support its ambitious electricity target by utilizing coal.
Khalisah noted how 19 people, including children and teenagers, drowned in 2015 at former mining sites in Samarinda and Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan.
She also emphasized that the 42 coal-fired power plants in Indonesia emit hundreds of thousands of tons of pollution every year, filling the air with toxic pollutants, including mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium and tiny toxic particles.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/05/10/govt-told-shift-renewable-energy-coal-prices-fall.html