Jakarta – Environmental activists welcome the government's pledge to decrease the consumption of fossil fuel by 2025, but they warn against the use of nuclear energy.
Greenpeace's climate and energy campaigner Arif Fiyanto said Tuesday that the government's argument that the nuclear power plant was not only cheap but also safe for the environment, was baseless.
He said that no technology could provide a safe disposal site for radioactive waste so far. Greenpeace also said the cost of building a nuclear site was very expensive. "Nuclear energy produces no carbon emissions as fossil fuel does. But the danger from nuclear energy is far greater than that of fossil fuel," Arif said.
The government, through its newly established directorate on new and renewable energy, planned to increase the target of utilization of new and renewable energy to 25 percent by 2025.
The current use of new and renewable energy stands at less than 5 percent. The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry's new and renewable energy and energy conservation director general Luluk Sumiarso said that the 25 percent target was an increase from the previous target of 17 percent as stipulated in a 2006 presidential regulation on national energy policy. In the last 10 years, he said, Indonesia saw an average of 95 percent fossil fuel use, partly subsidized by the government.
The 25 percent target was in line with the ministry's campaign called Vision 2525, referring to the 25 percent use by 2025. The vision, along with the new directorate general established in August, was part of the government's effort to phase out fossil fuel, Luluk said.
By 2025, coal use would be at 32 percent, followed by natural gas at 23 percent and oil at 20 percent.
"It's realistic," he said, referring to the huge untapped new and renewable energy potential. Only 4.2 percent of the entire geothermal potential had been used, Luluk said, while only 5.5 percent of the total hydro power potential had been exploited so far.
Luluk said nuclear energy has yet to be erased from the picture completely as the government still pursued the development as mandated in the 2007 Energy Law. "Nuclear technology is proven," he told The Jakarta Post.
Nevertheless, he said, the government would still carry out energy efficiency measures by maximizing its support for renewable energy development.
According to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, power plants are the biggest contributors of CO2 emissions, followed by industry, transportation, household, and commercial sectors.
At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, US, the Indonesian government conveyed its commitment to reduce the country's greenhouse gases emissions by up to 26 percent by 2020 and even 41 percent with international support.
The energy law stipulates new energy constitutes; nuclear, coal bed methane (CBM), gasified coal, liquefied coal and hydrogen. Renewable energy covers six types of sources: geothermal, bioenergy, hydro, solar, wind, and ocean (tidal, wave, and ocean thermal energy).
The government has carried out a kerosene-to-biogas conversion program called Biogas Rumah (Biru), which aims to accelerate the use of biogas for domestic purposes, he said.
He said the government was targeting to install at least 8,000 biogas units by 2011 in regencies within several selected provinces: West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java and one province outside Java.
In 2007, the government initiated an "energy self-sufficient village" program called Desa Mandiri Energi, aiming to improve energy security in villages by introducing the use of renewable energy, both biofuel and non-biofuel, for domestic purposes.