There are three global keywords in recent years, namely energy transition, electric mobility (e-mobility) and digitalization.
The energy transition demands a gradual shift in fossil energy use towards renewable energy. The European Union is targeting a 57 percent share of renewable energy in the electricity sector by 2030, as well as China which wants to reach 50 percent by 2030.
To achieve this, China will increase its wind turbine capacity by 35 GW and 65 GW of solar energy annually between 2020 and 2030.China also plans that in 2023 the use of its coal will start to decrease significantly, so that by 2050 coal will only be given 11 percent of the share. total energy mix.
Likewise happened in Australia, America, Japan, India and was followed by several countries in ASEAN.
The conventional electric power system, which is 124 years old, is actually undergoing an evolution from a centralized system (an electrical system that is dominated by large-scale generators and relies on a high-voltage transmission system) to an integrated system (an electrical system that integrates renewable power plants and batteries into the system). , so that the business pattern will experience disruption from monopoly to competition.
Likewise, the story of the internal combustion engine, which has been a major component of motorized vehicles since 133 years ago, has entered its retirement period with the rapid development of electric motors.
Various efforts to increase efficiency have been carried out, including efforts to use biofuels to reduce exhaust emissions. However, the average thermal efficiency of a combustion motor is in the range of 35%, while the average efficiency of an electric motor is up to 90%, not to mention the much lower operating and maintenance costs.
Electric mobility (e-mobility) does not mean only electric vehicles / e-vehicles, if you only replace conventional vehicles with electric vehicles, the congestion problem that generally occurs in cities will never be resolved.
A new strategy is needed to integrate electric vehicles with public transportation systems, and adequate battery charging facilities.
The “life” of an electric vehicle lies in the battery, no battery; no e-mobility, however, electric vehicles will not make a major contribution to environmental quality improvement if the battery charging process still uses electricity from fossil energy. So that the development of e-mobility will only become a positive trend if it becomes part of an energy system that is based on renewable energy.
So e-mobility cannot be separated from an energy transition, both of which form a resultant, namely a megatrend, an unstoppable direction of global development.
The pace of megatrends is getting faster with the support of information and digital technology. Digitalization today is not just a process of transferring analog information to digital form, or simply installing a smart meter and controlling electricity consumption remotely.
In the context of the energy transition, the role of digitization is to prepare a new stage in the energy business, buying and selling and exchanging excess electricity from house to house (peer to peer energy trading), integrating hundreds or thousands of units of renewable energy generation installed in homes such as panels. solar, fuel cells, small-scale wind turbines to micro-hydro, as if forming a large-scale generator (virtual power plant).
With the cheaper renewable energy technology on the market and the sophistication of digital technology such as block chains, it will not be long before the electric energy sector will be similar to the online retail business and on-line motorcycle taxis in the transportation sector. It can be said that megatrends will not be perfect without digitization.
Governments in various countries must immediately decide how to deal with this megatrend, who are willing to learn and adapt quickly, make the right strategy and formulate accurate policies, then they will benefit the most.
However, if they only try to stay within the status quo and comfort zone, are slow to think, and even try to delay the fast pace of this megatrend, then they will fall further behind.
It is time for the Government of the Republic of Indonesia to organize a new cabinet, starting with tidying up coordination between ministries, industry, business people and of course universities.
It would be very proud if the technology in the energy, transportation and information sector – digital is the work of the nation’s children who were built from scratch and later mass produced.
In this way, this megatrend will become an opportunity for economic growth that has a social impact on improving the welfare of the Indonesian people.
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By:
* Dr.-Ing Eko Adhi Setiawan is a Director of Tropical Renewable Energy Center – TREC, Fakulty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia.
from Hijauku