ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Indonesian seas hold abundant wealth ranging from energy to minerals and rare earths.
The Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, through the Center for Marine Geological Survey and Mapping, noted that Indonesia’s practical marine energy potential is around 63 GW, consisting of ocean thermal energy conversion/OTEC (41 GW), ocean current energy (20 GW), and energy ocean waves (2 GW). This figure does not include the potential for tidal waves, offshore wind, seawater floating solar PV and other new energy.
“The sea has temperature differences that can be generated into energy. There are differences in wave height that can be used for energy. There are also currents, so in the sea (the water) also flows. On Alor Island we can see huge ocean currents, like seeing a river “When there is current, we will install a turbine, it will become electricity. This is what we are currently designing for development,” said Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dadan Kusdiana at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Office, Monday, December 4 2023.
Dadan conveyed this to welcome the 2023 Archipelago Day commemoration, the peak of which will be held on December 13 2023 on Tidore Island, North Maluku, entitled Oceanovation.
Dadan explained that eastern Indonesia has the potential to develop marine energy, both currents and ocean waves, which are the largest, dominating 17 ocean current energy points and 22 potential ocean wave energy points throughout the archipelago’s waters. The greatest potential for ocean currents is in the Larantuka Strait and Pantar Strait in East Nusa Tenggara, where the feasibility of becoming an Ocean Current Power Plant is currently being explored.
Not only that, the development of algae and microalgae-based bioenergy is also one of the prima donnas in bioenergy research, considering that Indonesian seas have tens of thousands of species of algae and microalgae which have the potential to be developed as substitutes for palm oil to produce bioenergy.
“In the future, we will shift to using energy that has low emissions or free emissions, and this is also sustainable,” he explained.
Indonesia’s marine mineral wealth also has high economic value. Some of the potential minerals stored in the Indonesian seabed include gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead, to rare earth elements (REE) which play an important role in producing high-tech downstream products such as solar panels and batteries.
Apart from the large renewable energy potential, the sea also plays an important role in dealing with climate change. The Blue Sea ecosystem, which includes mangrove forests, seagrass beds, estuaries and coral reefs, naturally absorbs and stores carbon, and is expected to absorb 188 million tonnes of CO2eq by 2045.
The government has a Net Zero Emission (NZE) target in 2060. Based on simulations carried out by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Energy and Mineral Resources sector will still produce emissions of 129 million tonnes of CO2.
“With the sea being able to absorb 188 million tons of CO2eq, we can positively ensure NZE in 2060 without braking our economic growth. Indonesia can compete, be competitive and become a developed country in 2045,” he said. (AT Network)
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