Indonesia's geothermal resources remain undeveloped

Although Indonesia has the largest reserves in the world, the country lags behind the Philippines, Mexico and a couple other developed countries in the use of geothermal as the source of energy, according to Ferry Rusman, an energy analyst at PT Rekayasa Industry.

He said that Indonesia's geothermal reserves has the potential to produce some 20,000 MW electricity, but so far only 500 MW had been produced out of the 2,000 MW geothermal energy being used.

Ferry said that the government must anticipate from the inevitable decline in the country's oil production by 2010, and to become a net oil importer by 2014.

He admitted that the price of the electricity produced by geothermal (US$0.85 per Kwh) was more expensive than the electricity produced by coal ($0.04 per Kwh).

But he said that the cost structure would lessen in the long run because of the abundant geothermal reserves, and that geothermal doesn't cause pollution.(*)