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Indonesia's 17,000 islands are home to hundreds of volcanoes and approximately 40 percent of the earth's geothermal energy potential and the nation's government is ready to harness that hot, clean energy.
The country has set a goal of bringing online 4GW of geothermal capacity by 2014, which will almost quadruple the current capacity of 1,189 MW. If you think that sounds ambitious, you're right. It generally takes three to five years just to complete field exploration and then another three years to actually build a geothermal plant.
And then there's the cost of the project -- $12 billion to be exact. The country is looking to the World Bank, private investors and developed countries like Japan and the U.S. for help raising the money. But once the plants are up and running, they're basically tapping into endless, clean energy with little overhead required.
Plus, this plan will go a long way towards reaching the Indonesian president's goals of cutting emissions to 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and adding 10GW of clean energy capacity by 2014.
via AFP
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written by Elliott Lemenager, April 26, 2010
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written by Sally, April 27, 2010
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written by EV, April 27, 2010
While $12B might seem to be a lot, consider that the 4GW is equivalent to 4 nuclear plants, and is suitable for baseline generation 24 hours per day. This is about 1/3 the cost of recently proposed new nuclear plants.
4GW is less than one nuclear plant. Calver Cliffs nuclear plant is a 5.4 GW plant. If your cost numbers are right, this would make nuclear about half as expensive as this.
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written by ds, April 28, 2010
Location: Lusby, MD
Fuel Type: Nuclear
Reactor: Pressurized light water reactors
Capacity: 1,750 MWe
Unit 1: 878 MWe
Unit 2: 872 MWe
5.4 is thermal
built in 1975 so cost can't be compared directly.
nuclear energy is more expensive and more dangerous.
Today there are enough alternatives.
It's only a question of political will.
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written by ..., April 28, 2010
Still, from what I gather from the article, it would seem Indonesia is by far the best place in the planet to build geothermal plants, and judging by time frame one must suppose R&D and RD&D is either minimal or nonexistent, I would assume thermal springs, therefore technology already on the market. The 12 billion price tag seems a bit excessive.
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written by Gregory Nudelman, May 24, 2010
Secondly, have anybody idea about harnessing, accumulating and using of all this energy resource? Or, at least, damping it for preventing catastrophic consequences?
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Also construction time is probably similar to building a nuclear plant. But once the plant is running, then there is no need to worry about the future expense of radioactive waste or refueling cost.