Minister inspecting renewable energy programs in Sumba
Tuesday, April 7 2015 - 02:21 PM WIB
During the visit, he also inaugurated PLTMH Lau Au mini hydropower plant with a capacity of 13 kw built by state owned bank BNI in cooperation with Hivos, a Dutch non-governmental organization for development.
During the visit, the minister is accompanied among others by Norwegian Ambassador to Indonesia Stig Traavik, Director General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Rida Mulyana and officials from Hivos and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as well as local governmental leaders, the ministry said in a statement.
The minister is visiting the island to get a closer look at the progress of renewable energy projects on the island as well as to launch more renewable projects there.
Sumba has been chosen as a pilot project of an island fully supplied with power generated from renewable energy. The so-called Sumba Iconic Island (SII) initiative was launched in 2010 by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources together with the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) and Hivos. In 2012, ADB joined the initiative with the Norwegian embassy following suit in 2013.
Since the launching of the initiative, power plants with installed capacities of 5.87 MW have been developed on the island, including mini hydropower plants, solar power plants, wind farm, biomass power plants.
For this year, the ministry will spend Rp 114.9 billion to develop more renewable energy power projects on the island. The projects include the development of a 1-MW biomass power plant in Sumba Barat, the planting of 1 million calliandra trees on 100 ha of lands in Sumba Barat to provide fuel for biomass power plant in the future, the revitalization of 85 units of biogas digester in Sumba Barat Daya, the development of a 23 kw mini hydropower plant in Sumba Timur, the development of a wind farm in Sumba Barat and the implementation of electricity car on the island.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon