Gerilya is one of the independent study activities of Freedom Campus that produces clean energy activists with innovation capability.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government has launched the Solar Power Initiative Movement (Gerilya) Program to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels.

"Innovations in clean energy are one of the alternatives to reduce dependence on fossil fuel. We believe collaboration between independent campuses and Gerilya will be able to present a solution to the creation of clean energy for the community and contribute to slowing down the pace of climate change," Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Nadiem Makarim, said at the launch of the Gerilya program on Friday.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology has launched the Gerilya program in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, he added.

The program is part of efforts to implement learning methods for independent campuses, with the aim of grooming students to become clean energy activists through materials and experience sharing, the minister informed.

The program will rope in students of exact sciences to help make optimum use of rooftop photovoltaic power stations in the community and achieve the new and renewable energy target of 23 percent by 2025, he added.


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"Gerilya is one of the independent study activities of Freedom Campus that produces clean energy activists with innovation capability," Makarim said.

The minister said he is optimistic that students participating in the Gerilya Program will play a greater role in continuing the sustainable development mission -- 'For Indonesia Onward and Protected Earth'.

The Gerilya Program will be conducted via the Spada Indonesia website, managed by the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.

According to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin Tasrif, the program will help produce clean energy activists and accelerate the development of photovoltaic power stations, besides help achieve the new and renewable energy target by 2025.

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Tasrif said the program is a part of the clean energy transition, which will give photovoltaic power stations a great chance to flourish.

“Among the various types of new and renewable energy, the development of photovoltaic power stations will be pushed on account of its potential and increasingly lower price,” he explained.

In terms of investment, the government has opined that the price of photovoltaic power stations will decline significantly and become more competitive, he said. Indonesia now has a floating photovoltaic power station with a capacity of 145 megawatts (MW), which is the largest in Southeast Asia and sells electrical power for 5.8 cent dollar per kilowatt hour ( kWh), he pointed out.

The installed capacity of rooftop photovoltaic power stations at homes, business sites, industries and government buildings currently stand at 31 MW out of the total potential of 32 giga watts (GW), he added.

“We are in the process of revising the regulation on rooftop photovoltaic power stations to make it more attractive,” Tasrif said.


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Translator: Indriani, Suharto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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