Indonesia has 40 percent of the world’s exploitable geothermal energy potential.
A big congratulations to Ormat technologies of Yavne, Israel for signing a $254 million deal for providing geothermal energy in Indonesia! The first phase of the 330-megawatt Sarulla geothermal power station in Sumatra is due to begin operating in 2016.
Sumatra lies in one of the most geologically active parts of the Pacific ring of fire and is known for numerous active volcanoes. The nearby volcano of Krakatoa was responsible for the largest eruption in recorded history and Sumatra’s Toba volcano was responsible for earth’s largest volcanic eruption in the past two million years.
It was about 5000 times more powerful than Mount Saint Helen’s 1980 eruption. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the threat of tsunamis are unfortunate facts of life for the people of Indonesia.
Now for the good news, Indonesia has 40 percent of the world’s exploitable geothermal energy potential. It has been estimated that as much as 28 billion watts of geothermal energy potential is available there or the equivalent of 12 billion barrels of oil. It has been a long slow process tapping into this energy.
The government of Indonesia set rules for geothermal energy more than a decade ago and there has been some controversy about plans to tap into geothermal energy here. So currently only 1.2 billion geothermal watts are being exploited in Indonesia.
According to their press release, Ormat will deploy their modular geothermal generating technology in three phases, each consisting of 110 megawatts of generating capacity.
One important consideration for this project is Ormat’s technology which allows nearly 100% of the geothermal fluid to be recycled and which utilizes the extracted brine. This will both increase the efficiency of this geothermal project and reduce the emissions of unwanted volcanic gasses.
Ormat (NYSE: ORA), expects to complete financing and begin construction in one year. The Sarulla geothermal power project is among the world’s largest single-contract geothermal power plants and is an important step towards Indonesia’s planned ten billion watt geothermal expansion.
Photograph of boat and erupting Indonesian volcano by Byelikova Oksana via Shutterstock
Author: Brian Nitz
Brian remembers when a single tear dredged up a nation's guilt. The tear belonged to an Italian-American actor known as Iron-Eyes Cody, the guilt was displaced from centuries of Native American mistreatment and redirected into a new environmental awareness. A 10-year-old Brian wondered, 'What are they... No, what are we doing to this country?' From a family of engineers, farmers and tinkerers Brian's father was a physics teacher. He remembers the day his father drove up to watch a coal power plant's new scrubbers turn smoke from dirty grey-back to steamy white. Surely technology would solve every problem. But then he noticed that breathing was difficult when the wind blew a certain way. While sailing, he often saw a yellow-brown line on the horizon. The stars were beginning to disappear. Gas mileage peaked when Reagan was still president. Solar panels installed in the 1970s were torn from roofs as they were no longer cost-effective to maintain. Racism, public policy and low oil prices transformed suburban life and cities began to sprawl out and absorb farmland. Brian only began to understand the root causes of "doughnut cities" when he moved to Ireland in 2001 and watched history repeat itself. Brian doesn't...
