JAKARTA – The Indonesia Mining Association (IMA) believes that coal is still the world’s energy driver amidst efforts to shift to green energy. Daily Executive Director of the Indonesia Mining Association (IMA) Djoko Widajatno said that coal exploration will continue, even though the world is pursuing new renewable energy. “Coal is back to be the energy driver in the world until NRE can replace energy availability in 2060,” he told Bisnis, Sunday (12/12/2021).
Djoko said that several countries, such as Japan, Britain and Korea, are starting to try to replace nuclear power plants with coal plants.
“Regarding the impact of nuclear waste, which is dangerous, it doesn’t look like Fukushima and Chernobyl and others,” he explained. The nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan occurred on March 11, 2011. The leak of the nuclear reactor at the plant occurred as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in the region. Meanwhile, the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine on April 26, 1986. The accident was called the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history.
The UK-based special climate website, Carbon Brief, in its 2020 report noted that power generation capacity using coal fuel has reached 2,045 gigawatts (GW) from 2000 to 2020. The countries that use this energy the most are China and India. The report also mentions that 200 GW of coal plants are under construction and 300 GW is in the planning. It is stated that coal produces nearly 40 percent of the world’s electricity needs. At least 80 countries use this commodity as a raw material for supplying
electrical energy. This figure is up from 66 countries in 2020. However, growth in coal use declined in 2020 as the European Union and America tried to retire a number of steam power plants. Total retired steam power plants had a worldwide capacity of 268 GW in the past year.
