Efforts To Reduce Emissions Can Be A New Business Opportunity

Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Dadan Kusdiana. (ANTARA)

BANDUNG CITY - Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (KESDM) revealed several new business opportunities for the ESDM sector from efforts to reduce emissions.

Secretary General (Sekjen) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Dadan Kusdiana said, one of them is through carbon trading.

"That the impetus for reducing base emissions is a market, the approach is a market approach. So, there is supply and demand. The demand is those who have to reduce emissions. Later the supply will be those who can contribute to reducing emissions or known as carbon credit," Dadan said during a media workshop with the theme "Neighbors for the New Business Opportunities of the ESDM Sector" in Bandung City, West Java, Saturday.

The carbon exchange is a trading system where carbon emissions permits are traded with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

One carbon credit that can be traded is equivalent to a reduction in emissions of one ton of carbon dioxide. When a carbon credit is used to reduce, store, or avoid emissions, it becomes a substitute and can no longer be traded.

It is known that on February 22, 2023, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources launched carbon trading in the power generation sub-sector. For the first phase in 2023, there are 99 PLTU participants in carbon trading with a total capacity of 33.5 gigawatts (GW).

Then on September 26, 2023, Indonesia launched the Indonesian carbon exchange. The projects that have been registered today, namely PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy Tbk Lahendong Project Unit 5 and Unit 6 in North Sulawesi.

"There are those who sell and someone has bought it, so the market is already running, it's not as fast as we imagined. I think it's good at first, you don't have to be too fast so there is maturity in terms of price. If suddenly fighting for the price to go up, usually the price will be difficult to go down," continued Dadan.

On that occasion, Dadan also mentioned the advantages and lack of CO2 emissions issued from the PLTU. He revealed that each PLTU emits a different volume of CO2. This depends on the technology side, capacity to quality of the coal itself.

"There are emissions, for example 1 kWh emits 1,100 grams of emissions. Some issue 1,000 grams of CO2 per kWh," said Dadan.

He also gave an illustration, for example, the government determined that for 2023, the emissions for the PLTU were at 1,050 grams of CO2.

"So, with 1,100 emissions, he has to reduce it to 1,050. How to reduce it? He can actually save energy so that later the emissions can decrease, the consumption of new stones has decreased emissions.

"But there is a fast way, just buy carbon credit from PLTU whose emissions are below 1,050 to buy from there. This is what I call a stamp and trade," said Dadan.

Furthermore, other new business opportunities are through the development of new and renewable energy (EBT). The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said that EBT is increasingly important for global economic development and reducing the impact of climate change and maintaining energy security.

Referring to the green electricity supply business plan (RUPTL), the development of EBT will generate a total investment of around 55.18 billion US dollars, open 281,566 new jobs, and reduce GRK emissions by 89 million tons of CO2e.

Then, Dadan also revealed that the new business opportunity for the EBY sector,ESDM, could also occur from the application of carbon capture utility storage/carbon capture utility storage (CCS/CCUS) technology.

"What CCS means, the CO2 is captured, for example, if CO2 from the power plant is caught, the CO2 taken is taken and then put in the stomach and stored there forever. Will we allow later if we bring CO2 from Japan here? This is now being discussed, they will definitely pay, so it will become a new business. That's what I said later this will be a CCS business opportunity because we have such great potential," he said.

Dadan said based on the latest information that Indonesia has the potential for carbon storage reaching 500 giga tons of CO2.

"This means that 500 billion tons of CO2. PLN emits approximately the emission now the figure is around 300-340 million. We nationally spend the ESDM sector emission at 600 (million). So, this is enough for about 900 years if only used for the ESDM. So, this can be a new business field and we have entered and we are now starting to implement this," he said.