The government has invited investors and financial firms to build power plants powered by renewable energy in trying to meet the 2020 electrification deadline on Sumba Island in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

Energy sources for the power plants for the Sumba Iconic Island (SII) project include solar, wind, hydro and biomass.

Rida Mulyana, director general for new and renewable energy at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, opens an investment forum on Feb. 20, held to attract investors for a green energy project called Sumba Iconic Island initiative to powert Sumba Island in East Nusa Tenggara by 2020, mainly from clean energy. (JP/Stefani Ribka)

“There’s still big gap [between realization and target] so more investment is needed because the state budget is limited,” said Rida Mulyana, director general of new and renewable energy at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry during an investment forum on Monday.

The government organized an investment forum hoping to attract US$189.9 million in private investment to reach the 95 percent electrification target, with 65 percent coming from renewable energy, by 2020.

Electrification reached only 42.67 percent last year, only 16.5 percent of which came from clean energy. In 2010, when the project started, the percentage was around 20 percent with less than 10 percent being from renewable energy.

Dozens of private investors, philanthropists and finance firms were invited to the event. They included PT Arya Watala Capital, PT Growth Steel, Wind Energy Solution, Hywind and PACE Indonesia.

SII was started in 2010 by Hivos, a Netherlands-based international development company, and is supported by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. (bbn)

Sumber: The Jakarta Post