Renewable energy to power Indonesian villages

Indonesia aims to have 2,000 energy self-sufficient villages powered by hydro, solar or bio-fuel resources by 2009, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.

The country currently has 140 villages capable of meeting all their own energy needs, the official Antara news agency quoted him as saying late Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.
“President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wants the number of energy-self-sufficient villages … 140 increased to 200 this year and to 2,000 by the end of the present cabinet’s tenure in 2009,” Yusgiantoro said.

The villages have developed micro-hydropower plants or solar, bio-gas and bio-fuel energy schemes which also create jobs and reduce reliance on fossil
fuel reserves to help meet growing energy demands in Southeast Asia’s largest
economy.

Yudhoyono has asked the relevant ministries to arrange to disburse the necessary funds to the villages involved in the scheme, Antara said.

Yusgiantoro said the villages were eventually expected to produce an energy surplus which they could then sell.

Antara