INCENTIVES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF ENERGY

Kamojang, W Java, July 5 (Antara) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the government is considering incentives to attract investors to build environmentally friendly power plants. "Incentives could be in the form of price (purchasing price by state power utility PLN), but it has yet to be studied," Jokowi said after inaugurating the 5th unit of the Kamojang geothermal power plant in Kamojang, in the district of Bandung on Sunday. The president said the government hopes that in five years the country's power requirement could be met with environmentally friendly power plants. "We have geothermal reserve that could potentially generate up to 28,000 megawatts of power not to mention wind , wave and solar energy not yet developed," he told Antara news agency. Jokowi symbolically inaugurate the construction of of a number of geothermal power plants (PLTP) in various areas in the country. The president, accompanied by a number of cabinet ministers including state enterprise minister Rini Soemarno, coordinating minister for Maritime Indroyono Soesilo and Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel, and President Director of the state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina Dwi Soetjipto officially inaugurated the start of construction of the 3rd and 4th units of PLTP Ulubelu in Lampung, the 5th unit of PLTP Lahendong in North Sulawesi , the 1st unit of PLTP Karaha in West Java, the 1st and 2nd units of PLTP Lumut Balai in South Sumatra, the first unit of PLTP Hululais in Bengkulu and the first unit of PLTP Kerinci in Jambi. Construction of PLTP Ulubelu, which will have a capacity of 2x55 MW will cost around US$524.26 million. The cost for the construction of PLTP Lahendong with a capacity of 2x20 MW is around US$262.07 million, and PLTP Karaha with a capacity of 30 MW to cost US$187 million; PLTP Lumut Balai with a capacity of 110 MW to cost US$683.51 million; PLTP Hulu Lais with a capacity of 55MW to cost US$248 million; and PLTP Kerinci with a capacity of 55MW to cost US$116.17 million. The 5th unit of PLTP Kamojang , the president set into operation on Sunday morning was built with an investment of US$104.3 million with a capacity of 35 MW. The government has encouraged development of alternative sources of energy with the country's dwindling sources of fossil fuel . Indonesia has the largest geothermal reserve in the world but only a small part of the reserves have been developed. ***3*** (AS)