The Potential of Wind Energy in Indonesia and Its Impact on the Environment

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The Potential of Wind Energy in Indonesia and Its Impact on the Environment

Wind power is also an environmentally friendly energy source because its use does not produce gas emissions or significant pollution into the environment.

For its development, it needs the availability of accurate wind energy potential maps throughout Indonesia.

There are several problems that occur due to the use of wind energy sources as power plants, including visual impact, sound pollution, and some ecological problems.

Wind energy is one of the renewable energy sources used to produce electricity. The use of wind energy as a renewable energy source is a sign of the energy transition makes many countries prepare to switch to using renewable energy sources. In Indonesia, the renewable energy mix is still stretched. This is done to achieve the target of renewable energy mixes.

In addition to wind energy, renewable energy sources that can be used to produce electricity also come from solar, water, nuclear, geothermal, biomass, and wind. Each renewable energy source has the impact and also the challenges of each in its development, one of which is wind energy. The impact of wind energy on the environment and the challenges in its development will be discussed in this article.

Because of its renewable nature, the use of wind power plants provides benefits. One of its energy sources will not be reduced, as well as the use of fossil fuels. Therefore, wind power can contribute to world energy security in the future. Wind power is also an eco-friendly energy source because its use does not produce gas emissions or significant pollution into the environment.

Based on Government Regulation No. 79 of 2014 concerning National Energy Policy, the target of renewable energy mixes in 2025 was 23%. And by 2050, the renewable energy mix in Indonesia must reach 31%. The target capacity of the wind power plant itself is equal to 255 MW in 2025. However, new wind power plants with a capacity of around 135 MW will be installed in 2020. The wind power plant was spread in several locations, such as in Sidrap, with a capacity of 75 MW, and 60 MW in the Janeponto area. Thus, the development of wind energy in Indonesia is still a national challenge.

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For its development, it needs the availability of accurate wind energy potential maps throughout Indonesia. This was the first step in the identification and selection of the location of the wind energy project. The map provides information about wind characteristics in various regions, such as average wind speeds. Then, the maximum and minimum speed that can be converted into a map of the power meeting. And an annual energy map is also the information that must be included.

This information is very useful as the basis for determining the location and selection of the right turbine technology. The provision of data on offshore wind energy potential has a higher level of difficulty. This is due to several reasons, starting from difficulties in building a strong foundation structure. In addition, the power supply installation and data transfer are difficult to maintain if there is damage. These difficulties cause offshore wind measurements to require much higher costs than on land. Even though high-resolution offshore wind-measuring data is very useful for accurate air potential estimates.

One effort to accelerate the use of wind has been made by developing the calculation method for wind energy potential. This was done by making a map of Indonesia’s wind energy potential with a resolution of 5 km in 2016. By 2020, the map was updated by extending the input model. Then calculate the potential of onshore and offshore Indonesian wind energy.

Furthermore, to describe the potential of Indonesian wind energy, the modeling results are displayed in four distribution maps. The four distribution maps are onshore and offshore wind speed distribution maps, wind speed distribution maps per season, wind power density, and annual energy production. Verification of the model is done on data measurements of 111 stations of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency.

In addition, 11 locations for measuring research centers for geological and marine development. Verification is done by calculating the bias and root mean square error (RMSE) between the results of the model and measurement data.

Based on the results of mapping the distribution of wind speed, the wind speed in the onshore area is high enough at 6-8 m/s. It happened on the southern coast of Java, South Sulawesi, Maluku, and NTT. While the wind speed in the offshore area shows more than 8 m/s. It happened on Offshore Banten, Offshore Sukabumi, Offshore Kupang, Offshore Island of Wetar, and Offshore Kab Jeneponto, and Offshore Tanimbar Islands.

The wind power density at Sukabumi, Pandeglang, South Yogyakarta, Kupang, South Sulawesi, Maluku, reached 400-500 watts/m2. Offshore in Banten, Sukabumi, Kupang, Wetar Island, Jeneponto, and the Tanimbar Islands have a class of wind power density of excellent, reaching 500-600 watts/m2.

The annual energy production for the onshore Sukabumi area, Pandeglang, South Yogyakarta, Kupang, Alor, and Maluku with a 1 MW bonus turbine produced 4-5 gwh/year. Areas with an annual energy production of 5–6 GWH/year are located in the Offshore Pandeglang area, Sukabumi, Jeneponto, Kupang, Wetar Island, and Tanimbar Islands Regency.

To find out the potential of wind energy in detail, in 2020 a pre-feasibility study has been carried out on two locations that have a wind measuring tower. The location is on Sabu Island, East Nusa Tenggara and Saumlaki, Maluku. The potential of this onshore wind energy was obtained with a mere wind speed at a height of 50 m, 30 m, and 20 m. For the potential of onshore wind energy in Saumlaki, Maluku obtained a series of mean winds at an altitude of 50 m, 30 m, and 20 m.

The direction of the dominant wind from southeast. Daily wind speeds at a height of 50 m are evenly distributed throughout the day with maximum wind speeds and tend to uniformly occur in the afternoon from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (7 hours) with a speed of around 6 m/s. While the wind speed at 5 pm to 10 am ranges from 5.4 m/s to 5.9 m/s.

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However, offshore wind fields have their own problems that can interfere with sailors and sailing ships. The construction of wind power plants can interfere with the surface of the sea. Another thing that happens with the construction off the coast is the disruption of underwater life. Even so, offshore wind fields are expected to be a place where new fish seeds are. Because fishing and sailing in the area around the windfield are prohibited, fish species can be maintained due to excessive fishing in the sea.

However, in their use, wind power plants do not produce meaningful emissions. When compared with power plants with coal, the carbon emissions of this wind power plant are less. Besides carbon dioxide, wind power plants produce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Atmospheric pollutants are less than power plants using coal or gas.

Even so, this wind power plant is not entirely environmentally friendly. There are several problems that occur due to the use of wind energy sources. Those are power plants, including visual impact, sound pollution, some ecological problems, and beauty.

References:

[1]Potensi Energi Angin Indonesia 2020

[2]PLT Angin Sebagai Peluang Dan Tantangan