Indonesia's renewable potential

By Kinan Adiatma Ramadhan Sulistyo

Thesis Statement: This article will explain ways on how renewable energy will benefit Indonesia and how you can contribute to it.

Have you ever thought about your electrical habits and how you could be destroying the

environment with it? Now, Indonesia’s energy situation is not the best. In fact the country’s

energy mostly comes from nonrenewable and unsustainable energy sources. Indonesia

relies heavily on its main commodity of coal, palm oil and gas as energy. To be precise 80%

or 30GW of Indonesia’s total energy. Unfortunately coal and oil are not renewable sources.

Coal and oil will eventually run out, and the gasses they release (fossil fuels) and how they

extract them (oil plantations that destroy rainforests and mines that destroy the ground) are

bad for the environment. Energy equity does not exist in Indonesia; some places have as

much as they want (Java and Bali) and others have electricity for only a few hours a day.

This forces people to use makeshift means of energy such as car batteries, lamp oil and

these sources are more unsustainable and even dangerous. Lamp oil can be very

flammable, causing much death and destruction. And car batteries only last for so long.

When car batteries are thrown away, many people don’t know how to dispose of them

correctly, this results in the lush soils being poisoned by the car batteries, killing them. Now

the country has started the usage of renewable sources such as geothermal and

hydropower. Unfortunately these energy sources only represent 20% of the total energy

(18% hydropower, 2% geothermal). It is quite ridiculous that this situation of using batteries,

using nonrenewable sources is still rampant. Indonesia is a blessed country that can hold so

many options for renewable sources. It is time to change and switch our power for the

betterment of this country.

Now before we enter the renewable and sustainable energy potential of Indonesia and how

you can contribute, a big misconception needs to be erased. Hydropower is not sustainable.

Just because the words renewable and sustainable appear, that does not necessarily mean

good. There are a few misconceptions. Everthought what hydropower comes from?

Hydropower relies on dams, and it is now obvious that dams are very bad for the

environment. Dams stop the natural flow of the river, where the environment depends on the

flowing river. Animals living within the dam will all suffer, particularly from drowning. Now for

the animals over the dam. Since there is now significantly less water many fish species and

other animals that live in the water would suffocate and have less space to move. Dams also

affect the life cycles (ability to have offspring and growing up to adulthood) of both animals

living within and over the dam which could lead to their extinction. The dam will also cause

soil erosion, where the soils will be deprived of river water and will dry up and crack away.

The lush rainforests will be turned into a depressing desert. An active example of the

destruction a dam can cause is the Tapanuli orangutan. Already having a small population

and being the rarest ape in the world, if a dam called the Batang Toru hydropower plant

came in to fruition, it will destroy the rainforests and will cause the extinction or at least

cause more death to the Tapanuli orangutan. Dams won’t just affect the animals but the

humans as well. With the soil erosion, the once fertile land will dry up, making growing crops

harder. Many people that dedicate their lives as farmers, will lose their jobs and go poor.

Settlements living near the river will be destroyed from the flooding caused by the rising

waters from the dam holding up most of the water. This will cause homelesness and death to

people once living in the settlement. This situation will not help with the already rising

poverty of Indonesia. This is not saying hydropower is all bad. Other sources of hydropower

such as water mills are good. Instead of stopping the natural flow of the river, it uses the

natural flow to power up. The kinetic energy produced by the moving watermill is converted

by a generator to electricity. The river gets to flow normally while your electrical appliances

can work. This is just to raise awareness on how big dams are bad for the environment.

Now with all of that set and done, this is how you can contribute to the Indonesian energy

situation and environment. Indonesia is a land of possibilities. The variety and potential of

renewable sources that isn’t just hydropower is large. The easiest and most common way to

do it is solar power. Solar power uses the power of the sun. Through solar panels, the

sunlight is absorbed and stored. Later at the end of the day where there is no sunlight, the

stored sunlight will be converted through solar cells within the panel. These solar cells hold

semiconductor wafers that have a positive and negative side. When the cells are charged

the electrons (what causes electricity) open and turn into electric current from the electric

field of the wafers. Now you have solar electricity. Solar power is the most accessible and

one of the most eco friendly of all the renewable sources. What I mean by accessibility is

that it can be bought whole, no need for DIY and stuff. Unfortunately that’s how far that

accessibility goes. Solar energy is very expensive in both buying it and setting it up. It does

not help that Indonesia is a third world country. Not everyone is rich. But fortunately It’s the

most eco-friendly because you literally just attach the panels on your roof and done. It does

not release any gas and sunlight is eternal. It also fits in with the tropical climate of

Indonesia. So if you have the money and start using renewable and sustainable sources,

start from that.

Now there is wind energy. Wind energy uses windmills as their power distributor. The wind

makes the windmill move, causing kinetic energy (movement energy). The kinetic energy will

go through a generator and convert that to electricity. The electricity then usually goes

through wires under the ground and goes to your houses. Now wind energy is a more

difficult thing to do yourself, as you can’t just buy a big windmill, unlike solar panels, but it’s

possible. You can make a homemade windmill, as long as you have a firm material to hold

up the wind turbines, the wind turbine is made of something that moves easily in the wind,

good wiring and a strong generator. Wind energy has its downsides. It might not look

attractive to some of you and the turbines could hit flying animals. One way to avoid that is to

not have a windmill that moves so fast and the windmill is in a low bird concentration

location. If you don’t have the time and effort, something as simple as raising awareness and

advocating for the use of wind energy is great enough.

The next sustainable source is geothermal. Now geothermal energy is energy from the

earth’s core. The heat of the earth heats up water from reservoirs in the earth and it turns

into steam. That steam rotates a turbine which becomes kinetic energy. The kinetic energy

enters a generator and it is the energy to electricity. It is kind of a hybrid of hydropower and

wind power. Very much the better option to hydropower. Now you probably can’t use

geothermal energy because it can only happen in volcanoes and that is dangerous. But you

can advocate for the use of geothermal energy as many people still don’t know about its

existence. Bring out the underrated geothermal and end the reign of the overrated

hydropower.

Now the last option for renewable energy in Indonesia is biogas or biomass. Biogas is

energy from wastes. These wastes could be animal waste, plant waste or even human

waste. They are all put in a biomass machine where the wastes are turned into energy. It is a

simple endeavour but it is still very expensive. It is also not for the faint of heart as this is the

least hygienic of all the renewable sources.

In conclusion Indonesia, in terms of its governments, is moving forward. It is said that by

2025, Indonesia will be using 23% of renewable sources. And will move on to renewable

sources mostly in 2050. Unfortunately, this renewable source does come by using

hydropower from big dams. 2050 is still a long way from 2021. By then it could be already

too late. So that is why you need to take action now. Try using these sustainable and

renewable sources. Limit the usage of nonrenewable sources of coal, gas and oil (palm oil

especially). Or at least bring awareness to it. Indonesia’s energy habits can change, it will be

difficult as a nonrenewable source of palm oil is the country’s most prized possession. But it

can change, with how diverse the country is, it can change, as long as you contribute and

work together for the better.

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Bibliography:

(Telfser et al.) (IRENA) (CertainTeed)

(Terra Mater) (Lane)

Works Cited

CertainTeed. “SOLAR 101: HOW SOLAR ENERGY WORKS (STEP BY STEP).”

CertainTeed Saint-Gobain, 2020,

https://www.certainteed.com/solar/solar-101-abcs-solar-power/. Accessed 13

October 2021.

IRENA. “Renewable Energy Prospects: Indonesia.” IRENA International Renewable Energy

Agency, March 2017,

https://www.irena.org/publications/2017/Mar/Renewable-Energy-Prospects-Indonesia

. Accessed 13 October 2021.

Lane, Catherine. “Wind energy pros and cons.” SolarReviews, 12 June 2020,

https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/wind-energy-pros-and-cons. Accessed 15

October 2021.

Telfser, Katharina, et al. “Indonesia Energy Situation.” energypedia, 11 September 2020,

https://energypedia.info/wiki/Indonesia_Energy_Situation. Accessed 13 October

2021.

Terra Mater. “What are the True Costs of Damming a River?” Terra Mater, 1 December 2020,

https://youtu.be/XfJdTCmkoaA. Accessed 13 October 2021.