Solar energy development in Indonesia is still wide open. But alas, the government does not to have a strong desire to develop the potential of solar energy into electrical energy in particular. Actually, if it is developed optimally, solar energy can be one of the solutions to the depleted electricity energy supply. "The one option open for further development is solar energy development. Unfortunately, the government has not shown a strong desire to develop it," said researcher who is also Deputy Head of Center for Energy Studies of UGM, Dr. Sudihartono, on Thursday (1/7).
Sudihartono added that Indonesia has been able to make prototypes of solar energy panels to convert the energy to electrical energy. The solar panels equipment, however, so far have been imported from some countries, including Germany, Japan, Canada, and China. Moreover, to produce it in mass quantities is still impracticable. Imported solar panel prices also vary, around IDR 2-5 million. "German-made solar panels, for example, cost around 5-6 million, while those from China could be around 2.5 million," he said.
With such conditions, in the future the government should start thinking about the establishment of solar panels manufacture factories. If the steps can proceed well, it is believed to be able to minimize PLN electricity energy. Besides, PLN will not raise the basic electricity rates too often, such as the one planned for July this year. “It could be developed as a potential alternative energy. Therefore, the establishment of the solar panel manufacturing factories needs to be pioneered," he said.
So far, from Sudihartono observations, solar energy use is still limited to research such as for agricultural or household activities, and has not been used as electrical energy. Despite the acknowledgment that Indonesia’s solar panels technology is far behind that of the developed countries, the use of solar panels is not really that complicated. The panel can be directly placed in the home roofs and then connected to an existing power grid from PLN. "It’s simple and can be placed on the resident’s roofs, then it needs to get connected to PLN’s electricity grid," said Sudihartono.
When mentioned about electricity rate increase, Sudihartono has the view that the government firstly needs to conduct an audit of energy use in each of the existing plant, whether the incoming energy or the energy produced are already in balance or not. In addition, the possibility of leakage or loss from any power plant is also visible. By doing energy and distribution audits, PLN will not necessarily cover the losses that occur by simply charge the loss to the community. "The important things are the energy and distribution audits. Do not subsequently charge the losses to the community by raising the rates, for example," he said. Public outlay will be higher if the losses suffered both at electricity generators and distribution are always charged to the community, especially in the upcoming August, the government will also remove the fuel subsidy. “If the fuel subsidy will also be removed, this means the people will get more miseries," said Sudihartono.
In addition to the utilization of solar energy, energy and distribution audits, it is no less important to give awareness to the community to start saving energy. Small steps, such as turning the power off when not in use, will greatly assist the efforts to save electricity. “The efforts to give the public awareness to diligently conduct the electricity savings are indeed no less important. If they have 450 W electricity powers and have only used 350 W of it, that’s good," added Sudihartono.
As reported previously, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia, Darwin Zahedy Saleh, finally officially announced the basic electricity price increase by 10 percent on average. The increase will come into force per July 1, 2010. Darwin said the increase is the government’s efforts to control the amount of subsidy amounting to 55.1 trillion IDR, which has been earmarked in the State Budget of 2010. The government maintains that the increase is fair as it does not apply to average customers.