Ormat Combines for 330 MW Geothermal Plant
It’s a geological bonanza for clean energy investors, yet no one’s talking about it. With its population spread out over more than 17,000 islands, many Indonesians live in cities, yet some are in areas so remote that electricity access is almost zero.
Indonesia is also the only OPEC member in Southeast Asia, but in recent years it’s actually become a net importer of oil. (Production is down from aging oil fields, consumption is up, and the government in Jakarta feels the fire of an energy crisis bubbling beneath the surface.)
But trouble isn’t the only thing simmering under this archipelago nation. That’s because geothermal energy is about to break out from an underexploited state to become a primary resource for Indonesia’s energy needs.
Indonesia’s largest listed oil and gas company, PT Medco, is about to break ground on a 330 MW geothermal plant in Northern Sumatra. That project will cost about $800 million to be split with Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) and Japan’s Itochu. For Ormat, geothermal is a normal day’s work. For Medco, this marks a major reality check for its regional energy ambitions.
I first found out about PT Medco because of its exploration projects in faraway Libya. Medco is all over the Indian Ocean and the oil-producing world, inking deals from the main Indonesian island of Sumatra all the way to North Africa.
Source: Reuters
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Tags: Geothermal, Geothermal Plant, Ormat
