Indonesia is currently facing serious problems related to fuels, including dependency on oil. This is due to government being not serious in developing alternative fuels.
"We consider government has not been serious and continuous in developing alternative fuels for motor vehicles or electricity. This made the people return to using oil as there is no other choice,” said Head of Centre for Energy Studies of UGM, Dr. Deendarlianto, S.T., M.Eng, Graduate School UGM, Monday (2/7) during an event to declare the Energy Sovereignty for Indonesia.
Deendarlianto said everytime government increased the price of subsidised fuels, a public outcry emerged. This does not need to happen if Indonesian people have an alternative.
"Actually, there are many other alternative forms of energy to be develpoed, such as hydro-energy, geothermal, biomass, solar power, wind power and uranium. These can be developed into alternative energy if managed maximally,” he said.
So, to achieve sovereignty, Deendarlianto said his office would keep initiating and advocating the downstreaming of research findings of new and renewable energy as efficient alternative energy. The Centre would also initiate the synergy between three pillars, university, government and industry for commercialisation of those energies based on research.
"We’re also planning to establish a graduate programme for clean energy and renewable energy,” he explained.
Meanwhile, researcher from the Centre, Dr. Fahmy Radhi, MBA, said fossil energy supplies were depleting. He urged the government to immediately migrate from highly subsidised fuels to gas energy.