Indonesia:

Govt to Boost Spending on Renewable Energy Development (Jakarta Post)

However a better disbursement system of the funding to geothermal energy developers needs to be established.

(Courtesy CIA.gov)

Abadi Poernomo, the chairman of the Indonesian Geothermal Association said “There is currently a geothermal fund managed by the Government Investment Center [PIP] which then lends the allocated money to developers. However, no developers use the fund because they don’t want to pay the interest the PIP charges,” he said.

The government is currently working to merge the PIP with the state infrastructure financing company Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (SMI) after it discovered that the PIP was unable to function optimally in various investment financing scenarios.

PIP has Rp 3.2 trillion in allocation for geothermal funding, according to SMI president director Emma Sri Martini. Should the merger plan be executed, SMI will manage the geothermal funding allocation. However, Emma argued that rather than disbursing the funds itself, SMI should involve the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

“We have to think of new mechanisms for this funding because the realization of disbursement of the funding is zero. The ministry has a geology unit that can use the funds for exploration work and when it has data on the geothermal potential, developers can have the access,” Emma said.

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