Innovating the Research Map of Direct Use of Geothermal Energy in Higher Education in Indonesia

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to develop and identify the relevant research topic of direct use of geothermal energy in higher education or university level in Indonesia. To achieve it, several steps were conducted. First is to compare the needs of direct Use of geothermal energy in Indonesia select priority of the topic or application. It was conducted to evaluate all possible study subjects. It was found that in Indonesia, agriculture and aquaculture has bigger priority as research object compared to other subjects. The second is to identify the feasibility of that topic is researched in university environment including the related obstacles. These obstacles are divided into human resource and facility and equipment factors. Human resource factors include student’s research interest, and duration of research. The facilities & equipment factors include research area-field and equipment, sustainability and maintainability, better access to industrial application, and economical factors. The third step, the study identifies the topic that is not well studied by previous investigators. This was achieved by creating a matrix of type and applicability of the studies. Immediate application is preferred by many researchers and the basic/pure science and knowledge related to Direct Use of Geothermal Energy is found to be less investigated. This map hopefully can give description of situation of research study in Indonesia higher education and can encourage better approach and solution to Direct Use of Geothermal Energy problem.