Forty-four Indonesia geothermal projects in the pipeline

Posted: July 29, 2012

A number of companies have announced commitments to geothermal industry
Eleven projects developed by state-owned PT PLN, 33 by IPPs

Indonesia’s geothermal resources have attracted the attention of international geothermal resource development companies as well as the support of its national government, according to the latest International Market Overview Report by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA).

Currently, there are 44 geothermal projects in various stages of development in 16 provinces. Eleven of them are being developed by state-owned PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PT PLN), and the rest by independent power producers (IPPs).

The World Bank is also working with the government to fast-track two geothermal projects – in Sumatra and Sulawesi – by providing US$300 million in low-interest loans.

Bastary Pandji Indra (photo credit: GPA Photo)

According to Bastary Pandji Indra, director of public-private partnership (PPP) development, National Development Planning Agency of Indonesia (Bappenas), the government and PT PLN are actively encouraging geothermal energy production in their second fast-track programme, which aims to have 10 GW of new generating capacity operational between 2012 and 2018. This includes the development of several PPP geothermal projects (see Table 1).

Table 1: Potential public-private partnership (PPP) geothermal projects

Source: National Development Planning Agency of Indonesia (Bappenas)

More recently, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in April between PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PT PGE) and Geothermal New Zealand to facilitate the cooperation between Indonesian geothermal enterprises and New Zealand.

The terms of the MoU include the exchange of experience in exploration, development and geothermal energy regulation, as well as in policy and geothermal energy strategic planning; the development of education programmes and geothermal energy training and technical assistance to improve the quality of geothermal energy production in Indonesia; and also to facilitate the role of the private sector in developing geothermal resources.