“We are thinking of how to accelerate development of geothermal projects, Rida Mulyana, the ministry’s director general for new, renewable energy and energy conservation, told the newspaper.
"PGE already has the capacity and geothermal working areas. However, its expansion still depends on the parent firm and the government currently cannot inject any funds directly,” Rida said.
The two options now on the table are to make the geothermal subsidiary a wholly state-owned business or to restructure it into a special public service agency.
Indonesia is believed to be blessed with abundant geothermal resources. However, harnessing the resources has been complicated for a number of reasons.
Out of the estimated around 28 GW of geothermal potential in Indonesia, only about 1,400 MW are currently being utilized to produce electricity.
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