Danish-Indonesian Cooperation on Energy

Recently I got an essay competition held by the Danish Embassy in Jakarta. The "prize" is amazingly funtastic, becoming the Danish ambassador for 1 day and 2 weeks study trip to Denmark. O my God, I really really really want you, Denmark. The question I should answer was "How Can Indonesia and Denmark Cooperate to Address Challenges in the Energy Sector". It was a difficult question for a linguistics student like me. And I told my friend I would have been kicked before my essay was read haha. Thus, I decided not to attend in that opportunity. Today is the last day of essay submission and suddenly I'm so moody to write. But I just had some hours to complete it. I began to write at 12 this day. And finally this is the result: a 10 year old writing inclusive RIP grammar and idiot thought :D :D

Two of the major problems that the world faces these decades are the scarcity of oil and the climate change due its terrible impacts on social and economic growth. All the two problems is, directly or not, related to energy. Most countries still depend on fossil fuel for around three quarters of its energy consumption while the oil reserves, however, are predicted to be gone by 2045 – 2050. Energy efficiency is a must to be taken to reduce oil demand.

Reports also show that the combustion of fossil fuels contributes the biggest portion of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Indonesia ranks the sixth biggest GHG emission in the world. The use of fossil fuels should thus be decreased along with the fulfilment of still increasing energy demand, remembering that Indonesia has average 5% of economic growth and is one of the biggest economies in the world, which consequents a big energy demands for its 240 million populations.

Renewable energy, beside energy efficiency, seems to me the best answer of the two problems. Transition from oil to renewable energy can reduce dependency of fossil fuel, thus decrease the oil import too, as Indonesia has become oil-importing country since 2004. Little combustion of fossil fuel consequently reduces the GHG emissions, thus also mitigates climate change. These two options, energy efficiency and renewable energy, will be my focus on Danish-Indonesian partnership on energy.

Denmark has one of the best energy and climate policies in the world. Since the oil crisis in 1973—4 it has considered a big shift to renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. Its ambition of 100% free of fossil fuels has showed a progressive result with only 1% oil, 12% gas, and 24% coal of energy mix, while the rest (63%) comes from renewable energy (IEA: 2016). This shows that Denmark is a leading country in the renewable energy sector and its cooperation with Indonesia would profit a lot in Indonesia’s energy sector.

I emphasize the energy efficiency and renewable energy because of two reasons. First, energy efficiency is an absolute solution to the scarcity of oil and Denmark is advanced in the energy-efficiency policy. And second, renewable energy seems to have a great chance to make a significant growth in Indonesia in the future as Indonesia has a great potential of renewable energy sources.

Indonesia has the third largest geothermal energy resources in the world after USA and the Philippines. It also has a strong potential of wind, solar, and biomass energy. In spite of this, its electrification only reaches slightly less than 90% of all the population. Millions of people in the rural households has no access to electricity and only make use of traditional biomass for cooking and thermal purposes. Thus, exploring renewable energy potential with support of Denmark, that has a super quality of electricity supply and stable tariffs, is expected to raise the percentage of the electrification.

The cooperation between Denmark and Indonesia can be done in many ways, but for the beginning, a government-to-government cooperation is recommended before a further partnership. In term of level of cooperation it can also vary, from planning to operation. Danish decades of experiences can be transferred to Indonesia by modelling or planning energy policy in Indonesian context. In this case, several institution such as Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Industry, and also National Energy Agency should be involved.

The energy-efficiency policy designed with support of Denmark is hoped to give help in energy security and environmental sustainability. To achieve the goal, the cooperation should be future-oriented and holistic with realistic objectives and measurement as there are many things to be considered, from social, environmental to economic. Active participation of stakeholders and public sector are required to implement the policy consistently to achieve the goal.

Making effort on renewable energy to displace fossil fuel will be a big opportunity since it is largely from domestic energy sources, such as wind, biomass, and solar. Denmark is a leading country in wind energy sector. Wind energy provides 49% of its national energy mix. In other hand, Indonesia uses renewable energy less than 5% of its total energy consumption. Denmark’s support in wind energy sector will help Indonesia to sum up percentages to its electrification with some hundreds megawatts. Such cooperation is not impossible to realize because there have been five upcoming key wind power plants in Indonesia, among which four are permitting and one is announced. Those five wind power plants are: Jeneponto 1 Wind Farm with 62,5 MW capacity, Jeneponto 2 Wind Farm with 64,8 MW, Sukabumi and Samas Beach each 50 MW, and lastly Sumba Island Wind Turbine with 0,66 MW. Beside the experiences in wind energy, investment from Denmark seems to make a big profit for both sides.

Developing relevant policies, strategies, and solutions for Indonesia’s energy planning or policy will help with increasing the electrification and to achieve the government’s long term energy efficiency and renewable energy objectives. This cooperation is expected to give change to the Indonesia’s energy mix, by greater percentage of renewable energy as the government’s goal of 23% renewable in 2023. And hopefully the transition to renewable energy also helps Indonesia with its goal, reducing 41% of GHG emissions by 2030.

You know what, I've just submit it and ready to give the Danish Embassy a belly laugh wkwk. Peace Denmark, I just wanna write haha.