VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The collaboration between Indonesia and Costa Rica in renewable energy development should be strengthened to build national energy independence and a sustainable economy, said Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Fadli Zon in a statement in Jakarta on Friday. 
He made the statement after meeting the Head of Mission of Costa Rica, Esteban Quiros, at the complex of the House of Representatives in Jakarta, Wednesday (29/5).

According to him, Costa Rica assessed that Indonesia was an important country, and as such, it wanted to strengthen relations with Indonesia across various fields, including the energy sector and the environment.

Costa Rica managed to implement clean and renewable energy as the country had succeeded in producing 98.53 percent of alternative energy sources that come from, among others, hydropower, wind and geothermal energy.

Zon said that Indonesia was also concerned over the issue of climate change and new and renewable energy, which were very important for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Executive Director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), Fabby Tumiwa, earlier stated that the development of new and renewable energy (EBT) was still very slow even though Indonesia was rich in EBT resources.

Fabby said that throughout 2015-2018, the addition of capacity of the generator of new renewable energy was only 882 mega watts (MW). In fact, from 2010-2014, the capacity of the generator of new renewable energy could reach 2,615.7 MW.

If the effort continues until 2019, he estimates that the number will only increase by 300 MW. As a result, the maximum capacity is only 1,200 MW.

With the achievement of the new renewable energy portion in the energy mix at only 8 percent, the utilization of EBT is still very slow, even though according to the National Medium Term Development Plan, the current achievement should have reached 16 percent in order to reach the target of 23 percent by 2025.

The electrification ratio was estimated to increase to meet the target of 96 percent by the end of 2019.


However, existing regulations were actually considered to hinder the development of EBT, he continued.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) stated that the use of EBT requires capital of around 90 billion US dollars to reach the target of 23 percent in the national energy mix in 2025.