Figure 1. Prof. Purnomo Yusgiantoro as keynote speaker on National Seminar – Technology of Renewable Energy for National Security
On March 2, 2019, the Semarang State Polytechnic (Politeknik Negeri Semarang, Polines) held a national seminar on Renewable Energy Technology for National Security at Polines Auditorium. As the former Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources as well as former Minister of Defense, Prof. Purnomo Yusgiantoro was invited to give keynote speech at the seminar. It was necessary to understand the concept of energy security to support energy independence before jumping to a more complex concept such as national security. Energy security will not be able to last without considering four points as promoted by University of Defense, which is Availability, Accessibility, Affordability and Acceptability. As closing statement, he presented several SWOT analysis of renewable energy development in Indonesia.
In his speech, Prof. Purnomo explained the definition of new and renewable energy. He delivered the concept of energy security and highlighted the differences between national resilience and energy security. National resilience is the national ability to respond to the dynamics changes from both internal and external threads. Several aspects support national resilience, one of which is energy security. Energy security will support national resilience, but not the other way around.
There are 4 essential aspects that should be fulfilled to achieve energy security, or so-called 4A (Availability, Accessibility, Affordability and Acceptability). Availability is the ability to guarantee the sustainability of the energy supply; Accessibility (infrastructure) is the ability to access the energy effortlessly; Affordability is the ability to be purchased economically by the people and the last is Acceptability, or the ability to be fully accepted by the people. The 4A then will lead to sustainable energy and create energy independence. In addition, Prof. Purnomo showed the SWOT matrix of the technology role in renewable energy.
In the plenary session, the first speaker was Dr. As Natio. He introduced various technology of renewable energy as well as its potential in Indonesia. He mentioned that although Indonesia has the potential for renewable energy, it still needs to be explored. One of the obstacles in developing renewable energy in Indonesia is the lack of technology and experts in relevant fields.
Next, Ricky Elson as the second speaker explained the urgency of mastering the technology of renewable energy. Ricky Elson underlined that to encourage renewable energy studies, people can use some basic and inexpensive equipment such as wood upgraded to be windmill. The most important point is to have strong motivation as well as determination to learn and maximize the utillization of the resources around them.
One of the PYC researchers, Massita Ayu Cindy, was also a speaker in the panel discussion session. Massita Ayu presented the latest condition of renewable energy development in Indonesia. She started her session by presenting the related regulations such as Energy Law No. 30/2007 to the General Plan on National Energy (Rencana Umum Energy Nasional, RUEN) on the Presidential Regulation No. 22/2017. Then, she presented the current progress of renewable energy development compared to its potential capacity as well as the most updated national energy mix that showed that the government still need to work hard to achieve the 2025 renewable energy target in the national energy mix. At last, Massita Ayu delivered the challenges and recommendations for Indonesia in developing renewable energy based on research conducted by PYC.
