Kepulauan Riau Province is one of the outermost provinces in Indonesia. There are 2,408 islands recorded in this area, with 366 as inhabited islands. 172 of these inhabited islands have not received electricity from the main network operator.
Kepulauan Riau Province as tropical islands receive almost the same intensity of solar radiation throughout the year. Therefore, it is very plausible to install solar PV to generate electricity as standalone power source. However, the use of solar PV for electrical energy is not yet popular in this region.
Batam as the largest city in the province of Riau Islands, is now ready to change in reducing carbon and pollution on the island. As an industrial town, it is known to produce a lot of pollutant from coal, gasoline, and diesel. Increase in industrial area, will automatically increase inhabitants. Thus, another problem that shows in the area is the use of cooking oil and lack of facility and knowledge in reuse or recycling it. Due to this condition, German alumni group in cooperation with HME Polibatam, is proposing a webinar for students to talk and discuss this issue.
German alumni will be the main contributors through the webinar based on their competencies. They will participate as keynote speakers to share their knowledge and experience in alternative energy field, carbon reducing strategy, and also knowledge in reuse and recycling of cooking oil.
Energy resource used in Indonesia mostly comes from fossil. Power plants contribute the largest coal consumption for its fuel. Most European countries since a long time ago already reduce coal as fuel for power plants and shifted to nuclear technology. But after year 2000, the development of renewable energy increases and electric vehicle began to be introduced in the market. The purpose is to reduce carbon emission and even starting to replace nuclear power plant. Indonesian government is now starting to increase the development of renewable energy, such as photovoltaic which its implementation is still less than 1% of its potential. As Riau Islands consider to have a lot of hinterland area, the opportunities of photovoltaic development are still very open. Therefore, Polibatam could play a major role in developing renewable energy in Riau Islands area.