Continued investment in renewable energy is required to keep up with Indonesia’s growing national and regional energy demand, whilst also meeting the Indonesian Government’s energy diversification and sustainable development goals. 

Luckily, Indonesia is geographically well placed to take advantage of the natural resource of geothermal energy to generate clean, renewable energy.

The project supports one of the most efficient geothermal plants in the world - Darajat Unit III. The power generated by the plant avoids greenhouse gas emissions usually associated with electricity generation by utilising Indonesia’s geothermal resources. The electricity generated feeds into Indonesia’s largest electricity system that spans across three islands; Java, Madura and Bali (named the JAMALI system).

If you’ve ever relaxed in a natural hot spring, you’ve been enjoying the by-product of geothermal energy. But what exactly is geothermal energy?

Geothermal energy is a lesser known and relatively under-utilised source of renewable energy with significant untapped potential, particularly for developing regions such as Java where electricity demand is outpacing supply. Whilst geothermal energy can be produced almost anywhere, it is most easily accessed in locations that sit where the earth’s tectonic plates meet and shift, often indicated by the presence of volcanos, geysers and regular earthquakes. For this reason, Indonesia has superior access to geothermal energy, however significant investment is required to incentivise the development of geothermal power plants.

This is how geothermal energy works...

You can see natural occurrences of geothermal energy when heat from the earth’s crust naturally warms water that seeps into underground reservoirs. In some places, when the water becomes hot enough, it can break through the earth’s surface as steam or hot water. (Check out the image of Mount Papandayan below, which is around 10km from the project site, for what this looks like in action).

This natural occurrence can be replicated with human intervention via geothermal power plants. This particular project utilises the most common type of geothermal power plant called a “Dry Steam” plant. It works by capturing underground steam (via pipes drilled underground) that flows directly to a turbine to drive a generator that produces electricity.

The outcome is renewable energy supplied to the grid that is consistently reliable because it is not dependant on weather conditions, with minimal environmental impact and low emissions!

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Key benefits of this project include:

• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions (an average of 705,394t CO2e each year) and avoids air pollutants produced by fossil fuel plants.
• Contributes to the supply of electricity to meet the critical shortage of energy in the region.
• Supports Indonesia’s renewable energy transition by displacing coal and oil.
• Contributes to sustainable development in the West Java region of Indonesia, supporting local communities through improving infrastructure, providing job opportunities and investing in schools to improve education.

We’ve partnered with EnergyLink Services (ELS) to source CERs (Certified Emissions Reductions) from this project. ELS is a multi-disciplinary consulting firm and project developer with specialist expertise in renewable energy, energy efficiency and emissions.

This project has been vetted by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) as part of the long-established and well-regarded Clean Development Mechanism process.