Experts doubt the government will be able to realize its plan to shift to renewable energy to reduce its dependency on depleting oil reserves and to deal with soaring global oil prices.
The barriers to developing renewable energy still exists despite the government having already launched the energy mix policy two years ago, said Zuhal, professor of electricity engineering at the University of Indonesia (UI).
"We are still facing financial and market barriers and other barriers like cheaper technology, as well as the tough problem of the people's reluctance to move on to renewable energy," he said at a renewable energy workshop here on Tuesday.
The three-day workshop — jointly organized by Darma Persada University and UNESCO — is aimed at finding ways and means for innovatively financing the renewable energy program.
Zuhal said biofuel development is half the Energy Ministry's responsibility and half the Agriculture Ministry's, but the ministries have different plans for land that could be used to plant Jatropha.
"The Finance Ministry has not lifted the import tariff on clean technologies for the renewable energy," he said.
The 2006 presidential decree stipulates Indonesia to use, out of its total energy consumption, 5 percent biofuel, 5 percent geothermal, 5 percent biomass, nuclear, hydro, solar and wind, and 2 percent coal liquefaction by 2025.
"But there's no clear policy and road map on how to reach these targets. The commitment can't be implemented because the ministries are egocentric," Zuhal, who is also rector of the University of Al Azhar Indonesia, said.
Some countries have intensified the use of renewable energy to cope with the soaring global oil price that hit US$130 per barrel and as an effort to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change.
Indonesia has pledged to cut emissions by 17 percent from energy consumption through the use of renewable sources.
Zuhal said the government should set clear incentive policies for the use renewable energy. Indonesia, formerly an oil exporter, has become an oil importer in the past few years. Indonesia is currently facing an energy crisis.
The government has issued some policies to cut the use of electricity including shifting manufacturers' working hours to weekends and slashing operational hours of state offices and shopping centers.
The government also launched the so-called energy self-sufficient village program to enable the country's remote areas to access electricity services.
The World Bank said that more than 70 million Indonesian do not have access to reliable and affordable electricity services.
"We set up biofuel-based energy self-sufficient villages in 100 areas nationwide in 2007. We hope to build such facilities in 1,000 more villages next year," said Ratna Ariati, directorate general of electricity and energy use at the Energy Ministry.
Sri Endah Agustina, deputy chairwoman of Indonesian Renewable Energy Society (METI), acknowledged the government's poor coordination to promote the use of renewable energy.
"It's just like a music concert without a conductor to control the performance. All players go at it on their own. Indonesia has lots of experts and renewable sources, but has no leadership to push the idea into reality," she said.
