Increasing international interest in geothermal development in Indonesia
Patuha geothermal plant, Bandung, Indonesia (source: ESMAP)
Alexander Richter
16 Eyl 2016
There is increasing foreign interest in investment into geothermal project development in Indonesia, as reported by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) in Indonesia is reporting an increasing interest by foreign investors for the development of geothermal projects in the country. This, so the Ministry, is shown by eight auctions for Geothermal Working Areas opened this year, as reported by CNN Indonesia.
Director of Geothermal, Directorate General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE) Ministry of Energy, Yunus Saefulhak explained, the companies with interest are are from China, the United States (US), Italy and more. This, he added, is progress compared to the previous period, which only saw PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) bidding for the working areas auctioned.
“The auctions being prepared show that more companies than PGE are interested. Where once only PGE was interested, there are now more developers interested in bidding for geothermal working areas and the development of projects.”said Yunus this week.
He named geothermal companies like Hitay, originating from Turkey, which is interested in participating in the auction WKP Mount Talang and an American company, Ormat, which is participating in the process auction at WKP Simbolon Samosir.
But there is interest beyond the development of new projects. Yunus calls foreign companies are also of interest to complete stalled geothermal power projects.
In addition, he said that the Chinese company, KS Orka Renewables Pte Ltd has acquired 95 percent of geothermal power management Sukoria, East Nusa Tenggara. According to him, this proves that the company intends to work on geothermal power plant in Indonesia, having previously acquired 100 percent ownership in Sorik Marapi geothermal power plant at the beginning of last month.
“There is though not only KS Orka, but there are also other companies from China that want to get into the management of the Cisolok geothermal power plants,” he said.
The government of Indonesia plans to auction eight Geothermal Working Areas this year. So far two auctions for working areas have been concluded, the working area of Lawu with capacity of 165 MW, which was won by PT Pertamina (Persero) and the working area Way Ratai with a capacity of 55 MW, which was won Consortium PT Optima Nusantara Energy and Enel Green Power SPA.
Meanwhile, two auctions have closed for Mount Talang-Bukit Kili (65 MW) and Marana (36 MW), the following groups seem to have won those, a consortium between PT Hitay Daya Energy and PT Pertamina and Dyfco Energy. There are still the following auctions outstanding: Grahonyabu (110 MW), Galunggung (110 MW), Mount Pandan (40 MW), Simbolon Samosir (110 MW), and Mount Ciremai (110 MW).
Source: CNN Indonesia
