Govt to offer new geothermal areas for tender

Government is set to offer at least 7 geothermal working areas for tender within the next 2-3 months, a government official said on Friday.

Director of Geothermal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Sugiharto Harso Prayitno said the seven working areas are: Cisolok (45MW potential), Tangkuban Prahu (220MW potential) and Tampomas (20-50MW potential), which are located in West Java, Ungaran (Central Java, 50MW potential), Ngebel (East Java, 120MW potential), Atadei (East Nusa Tenggara, 40 MW potential) and Jaboi (Aceh, 50 MW potential).

Sugiharto said the areas will be offered after the ministry secured clearance from reginal governments where the prospects are located.

Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that the government is shouldering early exploration stage geothermal prospects costs to enable developer to reduce risk.

Indonesia has huge potential geothermal areas to be developed into power plant projects, but high development costs and lack of incentives has caused the development of new projects stalled in the past ten years. (godang)