Hot commodity

SALAK MOUNTAIN, Indonesia

Indonesia, land of earthquakes and volcanoes, is literally sitting on top of the solution to its energy needs: Vast reservoirs of hot water deep beneath the Earth’s crust can be harnessed to generate electricity.

What’s more, it’s a clean, renewable energy source.

Yet the country continues to import millions of barrels of oil and fuel annually. Legal uncertainties, financial risks and government bureaucracy have repelled international investors from developing its geothermal resources.

Indonesia vows to pass within weeks regulations it hopes investors will find attractive, but after years of foot-dragging, not everyone is convinced.

Tapping geothermal energy makes sense for a cash-strapped government that still subsidizes fuel for its citizens, who are demanding more power in the face of routine blackouts and brownouts.

The sprawling archipelago sits on what is believed to be the world’s largest geothermal resource base, with the potential to provide 21,000 megawatts — enough to supply all the energy needs for its 220 million people.

But so far, existing plants have a combined capacity of just over 800 megawatts, or 4 percent of Indonesia’s potential, putting it behind the United States (2,100 megawatts), the Philippines (1,775) and Mexico (975).

About three-fifths comes from Chevron Corp., the only foreign business developing geothermal energy in Indonesia. The U.S. energy company says it’s able to do so largely because it operates on contracts signed decades ago under then-dictator Suharto.

“At that point, the government had in place regulations that were very conducive to investment,” said Barry Andrews, president of Chevron’s Geothermal and Power, pointing to a strong central government and dependable tax regime. “We had certainty as to what to expect.”

Since the mid-1980s, Chevron has operated two fields, Salak and Darajat, on the main island of Java.

Its largest plant in Salak towers over the lush rain forest — home to gibbons, anteaters and eagles — where massive pipes wind through some 25,000 acres of jungle, transporting steam that turns giant turbines to produce electricity.

The water is then returned to the underground reservoir and reheated by magma to temperatures as high as 570 degrees, completing the renewable energy cycle.

Twenty years ago, nearly a dozen local and foreign companies — among them, Chevron and a company it bought last year, Unocal Corp. — were developing geothermal energy in partnership with the state-run electricity company PLN and a local private firm. Investors got a great deal because PLN agreed to annual minimum purchases at prices determined in dollars instead of the local currency, the rupiah.

But the 1997-98 Asian financial crash abruptly changed all that. International investors, who pumped billions of dollars into Indonesia before Suharto’s 1998 ouster, have been slow to return.

Story Continues →