Jakarta, 20 December 2021 – The Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) launched the Indonesia Energy Transition Outlook (IETO) 2022 report. IETO 2022 is an annual report that reviews the development of the energy transition in Indonesia and outlooks the challenges and opportunities of the energy sector in reducing greenhouse gas emissions for the following year. In the 5th year of the launch of the IETO report, IESR highlighted the government’s commitment to decarbonizing the energy sector, policy, and regulatory innovation to attract renewable energy investment and emphasize the role of the private sector and local governments in accelerating the energy transition in Indonesia.
IESR views that deep decarbonization of the energy sector is critical to be in line with the Paris Agreement target of limiting the increase in the earth’s temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Generating as much as 34% of total emissions in 2019 makes the energy sector the second-largest emitter after Forest and Land Use (FOLU) in Indonesia. If there is no planned decarbonization effort, it is projected that the energy sector will become the largest emitter in Indonesia by 2030 and make it even difficult to achieve the Paris Agreement targets.
“In 2022, the government and all stakeholders must strive to increase the use of renewable energy and promote energy efficiency in buildings and industry. In 2025, the government must achieve the target of 23% of the renewable energy mix. Likewise, it must pursue the energy sector emissions to reach their peak before 2030. These two milestones are an indication of whether we can achieve decarbonization in the middle of this century,” said IESR Executive Director, Fabby Tumiwa.
The Indonesian government has set its commitment to making an energy transition by retaining a larger portion of renewable energy generation capacity, 51 percent or as much as 20,923 MW in 2030 in PLN’s RUPTL 2021-2030. However, to align with the 1.5℃ decarbonization target, based on the IESR study, at least 140 GW of renewable energy is needed, which is dominated by PLTS by 2030.
IESR believes that achieving this big target requires a serious evaluation of the quality of the current policies and regulations. In the last five years, since PP No. 79/2014 on KEN was passed, the growth rate of renewable energy tends to be slow. Data from IETO 2022 shows that in the last five years, renewable energy has only increased on average by 400 MW.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian government also puts coal in transition scenarios such as the CCS/CCUS program for coal-fired power plants, coal gasification, and even coal co-firing. IESR stated that using CCS/CCUS technology in steam power plants will result in higher electricity prices and an increased risk of potentially stranded assets due to non-competitive costs. Furthermore, the application of co-firing and clean coal technology such as coal-fired power plants (CFPP) Ultra-supercritical results in insignificant emission reductions, thus making the effectiveness of these technologies questionable.
“The cost of generating electricity from using CCS in CFPP will compete with renewable energy technology plus storage. So far in the world, CFPPs with CCS still have problems in operating and achieving emission reductions. Even one of the CFPP projects with CCS, such as Petra Nova in Texas, was closed after only operating for approximately 4 years. So, the readiness of today’s technology, as well as the projected price of technology in the coming decades should be the main consideration. The priority must have been given to the technology with the most competitive costs, which are renewable energy,” explained Deon Arinaldo, Manager of Energy Transformation Program, IESR.
One of the authors of the IETO 2022, Handriyanti Diah Puspitarini said that although it had not yet reached the set target, the installed capacity of renewable energy, especially from solar PV, rose to 17.9 MWp, and electric vehicles such as electric motorcycles experienced a slight increase of 5,486 units and electric cars as much as 2,012 units. It needs more to be developed in 2022.
“The Indonesian government needs to encourage the development of locally produced technology to capture bigger opportunities such as decreasing the CAPEX of renewable energy projects. Therefore, it is easier for developers to get technology with high quality and low prices without imports. Thus, there will be a lot of investment not only in renewable energy projects themselves but into the industrial sector in Indonesia in general,” said Handriyanti Diah Puspitarini, Senior Researcher in Renewable Energy, IESR.
IESR realizes that decarbonization of the energy sector requires a large number of funds, around USD 20-25 billion per year, according to the IESR study on Deep Decarbonization of Indonesia’s energy system (IESR, 2021). IETO 2022 reviews some funding opportunities available from private or public entities for climate change mitigation and adaptation, which can be used to finance the energy transition. These funding opportunities include government incentives (fiscal and non-fiscal), international financing assistance, and more unconventional financing mechanisms such as green bonds/Sukuk, regional bonds, Islamic finance, and blended finance.
“Renewable energy financing should not be seen as a burden despite being an opportunity and strategy to shift investment from fossils to renewable energy. There are many sources of funding that can be a source of renewable energy investment. The government can use its APBN to attract investment from these funding sources, for instance by mapping renewable energy resources, conducting technological research, and pilot projects for new renewable energy projects that have not been developed such as marine energy, as well as providing de-risking instruments to attract investment,” closed Fabby.
The complete development of the energy transition will be discussed at IETO 2022.
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