The energy transition requires strategies to convince communities around power plant sites to provide their support, including in the exploration of geothermal energy as one of Indonesia's abundant renewable energy sources. The practice ofdirect use of geothermal energy is an effective approach to boosting the community's economy, while paving the way for sustainable energy programs.
In one of the panel discussions at the Brown to Green Conference 2025 in Jakarta on Tuesday (02/12/2025), the Coordinator of Geothermal Exploration and Exploitation at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Roni Chandra Harahap, said that in the Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL) designed by PLN until 2034, it was revealed that there are plans to develop geothermal energy to reach 5.2 gigawatts (GW) by 2034.
Through this plan, the government hopes that geothermal energy will not only be used for electricity, but also support the industrial sector through direct utilization.
Through this approach, the socio-economic dimension of geothermal energy is expected to have a direct impact on the community, especially residents living near potential exploration areas.
Direct use of geothermal energy, Roni continued, can be applied in the agricultural sector for drying, greenhouses, and post-harvest processing. In the food sector, direct use can replace fossil fuel-powered boilers.
"Meanwhile, in the digital sector, it can also be a source of energy for data center cooling and green hydrogen for critical mineral extraction," said Roni.
However, despite the huge potential for direct utilization, Roni acknowledged that regulations often cannot accommodate innovation quickly. Nevertheless, he emphasized that Law No. 21/2014 on Geothermal Energy has accommodated forms of innovation in the industry, as long as what is extracted is natural heat energy formed beneath the earth's surface. With this strong foundation in place, all that remains is to develop derivative regulations and implementation guidelines to mitigate any risks that may arise.
One form of innovation that enables wider direct utilization is accommodating Next-Generation Geothermal, which allows geothermal heat to be extracted not only from volcanic areas, but also from thermal gradients, radioactive elements, or other hot rock sources that can produce steam when injected with high-pressure water. This method allows power plants to be built outside areas that do not even have volcanoes.
"Geothermal reserves in Eastern Indonesia, for example, have enormous potential, but demand there is very low, only 5 megawatts (MW). Therefore, if explored, this enormous potential needs to be carefully planned. For example, 5 MW could be used for electricity, with the rest used for green hydrogen, supplying cooling for cold storage for fish, and so on," he explained.
By emulating various successes abroad, according to Roni, proven technology will accelerate the implementation of Next Generation Geothermal, which can be utilized immediately. Efficiency in exploration and more accurate economic estimates are the solution to the challenges of conventional geothermal energy, including overcoming public resistance due to various concerns arising from misconceptions.
Easier on the surface
Rigsis Energi Indonesia CEO Farhan Muhammad confirmed the government's perspective. Currently, with the gap in technical education in Indonesia to produce engineers capable of leading the search for heat reserves underground, the risks of geothermal exploration are enormous and require trillions of rupiah in investment. Direct utilization for surface needs, according to him, is much easier than high-risk power plant exploration projects.
Rigsis Energi, said Farhan, had been involved in a direct geothermal utilization project in Mataloko, Ngada, East Nusa Tenggara. Meeting and exchanging ideas with a number of coffee farmers, Farhan discovered that it was not electricity that the community needed, but drying facilities that could help them in their daily coffee production.
The farmers in Mataloko told Farhan that every time they harvested coffee, they had to dry it in Ende, which had longer hours of sunshine, given that Mataloko only had two hours of sunshine and the rest of the time was foggy. When they arrived in Ende, the farmers had to pay for land rental, accommodation, and supervision of the drying process.
"It takes 20 days for them to dry the coffee and produce green beans, but because the temperature is inconsistent, the quality of the coffee is uneven and cannot enter the premium market. When we offered geothermal drying facilities that can dry coffee in two days, their eyes lit up," he said.
Reflecting on this experience, Farhan understands that the direct use of geothermal energy can change the lives of farmers by reducing their post-harvest processing costs. With a fully operational drying facility, the quality of coffee beans becomes more consistent, prices increase, income rises, and production costs fall, thereby improving the welfare of farmers. Maintenance is not too difficult and operation is very easy.
"Another example of direct use in Patuha has been running for six months and is still going strong. There, they employ local workers, six to eight people, without any experts. All of them are local residents who are skilled even though they were only trained briefly. Direct use is the answer to the concerns of those who live around the geothermal area. The approach can be reversed, with direct use coming before the PLTP, so that support is obtained," he explained.
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Pertamina Geothermal Energy Vice President of Business Development Fifi Roesmawi confirmed that direct use practices could pave the way for long-term geothermal business. In addition to empowering the local economy, particularly farmers and cultivators, direct use also helps companies calculate the impact of power plants on local communities and incorporate this into the economic value of power plant projects.
"Regulations related to direct use still need clarification and incentives. The geothermal business requires a huge initial investment, trillions of rupiah, even though the economic calculations are not likely to be favorable in the short term. Government incentives are needed here, even though the value of utilization is still theoretical, but monetization could be faster and investors more interested," said Fifi.
The region needs
As one of the new practices in geothermal utilization alongside electricity, Chair of the Purnomo Yusgiantoro Centre (PYC) Filda Yusgiantoro emphasized the need for specific derivative regulations for direct geothermal utilization. She reminded that even though the definition in Law 21/2014 includes utilization innovations, the priority for geothermal energy is still for electricity generation.
"We see that the Geological Agency can move forward to provide a stronger regulatory framework for the direct use of geothermal energy . Central regulations formulate its use in electricity, but it is local governments that can regulate this direct use. This means that we also need to see whether local governments understand good governance to optimize the potential in their regions," added Filda.
Currently, with regulations on direct utilization still scattered and not yet unified, emerging initiatives require a stronger legal framework, in addition to more robust human resource development. Filda gave an example: in one of the regional leadership consolidation courses organized by PYC, Cianjur Regent Mohammad Wahyu Ferdian stated that there was geothermal potential in his region and requested PYC's assistance in maximizing that potential.
"Regional leaders are currently concerned with developing local energy sources, so direct use can begin to be explored there. Through synergy between NGOs, the central government, and regional governments, policy makers also need to be educated to make targeted policies," concluded Filda.
