Jakarta, October 15, 2024 – Throughout 2023, global renewable energy capacity will increase by 473 GW, with 74 percent or 346 GW coming from solar energy. This achievement shows that solar energy can be a key strategy for reducing emissions in the electricity sector.

“In COP 28 in 2023, a global initiative emerged to triple renewable energy capacity or equivalent to 11 terawatts by 2030 as an effort to slow the rate of climate change and keep global temperature increases at 1.5 degrees. Solar energy can be a strategy to meet this target,” said Deon Arinaldo, Program Manager of Energy System Transformation, at the launch of the Indonesia Solar Energy Outlook 2025 study report – Breaking the Walls: The Future of Indonesia’s Solar Energy and Energy Storage Innovations (15/10/2024).

Muhammad Dhifan Nabighdazweda, IESR Energy Analyst, based on IESR monitoring in the Indonesia Solar Energy Outlook (ISEO) 2025 study, explained that solar energy capacity in Indonesia has also increased but the figure is still very small compared to its potential.

“We also noted that only one-third of utility-scale solar projects in PLN’s RUPTL in 2023 were realized, while the other two-thirds were delayed 1-3 years until the second quarter of 2024,” said Dhifan.

Continuing Dhifan’s explanation, Abraham Octama Halim, IESR’s Electricity System Analyst, said that based on PLN’s planning, there are 1.89 GW of utility-scale PLTS scheduled to enter the Commercial Operations Date (COD) stage in 2024-2027. For the rooftop PV category, there is a change in policy from being based on net-metering to be based on quota.

“The elimination of net-metering for rooftop solar power customers results in a reduction in savings for household customers by 40 percent, commercial customers by 5 percent and industrial customers by 0.015 percent. In the future, there could be a shift in the rooftop solar power market with this regulation,” explained Abraham.

Alvin Putra Sisdwinugraha, IESR’s Electricity and Renewable Energy Analyst, said that there is a need to mobilize more investment into the solar energy sector more massively.

“We see more investment directed at distributed solar (rooftop solar PV) because of the certainty of regulations, namely MEMR Regulation No. 2/2024 which regulates on-grid solar power. However, we see that the absence of a net-metering scheme is a separate calculation for people who want to install solar power. For this reason, special subsidies are needed for household consumers to increase solar power installations,” said Alvin.

Integration of variable renewable energy (VRE) requires the installation of energy storage technology (ESS). Somewhat different from the development of renewable energy such as solar energy which is starting to be widely discussed, the development of energy storage technology is slow and public discussion is rarely heard. IESR has issued a report for the first time assessing the development of energy storage in Indonesia in Powering the Future: An Assessment of Energy Storage Solutions and The Applications for Indonesia.

His Muhammad Bintang, Coordinator of Energy and Electricity Resources Research at IESR, said that large-scale energy storage projects are used as enablers for increasingly large VRE integration projects.

“The price of energy storage has also continued to decline, so that it is no longer an additional component (sidekick) of VRE integration, and currently globally there are 88 GW of energy storage (project) capacity under development,” said Bintang.

Rachmat Kaimuddin, Deputy for Infrastructure and Transportation Coordination, Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said that the launch of these two studies, Indonesia Solar Energy Outlook 2025 and Indonesia Energy Storage System are very relevant to the current situation where the government is updating various energy policies.

“This study is relevant along with the ambition of 8 percent economic growth that needs to go hand in hand with the use of sustainable energy because currently Indonesia still relies on fossil fuels,” he said.

Rachmat added that the world will need products that are produced with low carbon intensity. Accelerating the energy transition is important to bring Indonesia into this circle.

Zainal Arifin, EVP of Renewable Energy, PT PLN, said that the combination of VREs and energy storage systems such as batteries will be a game changer for overall energy supply.

“In order for VRE to enter (the network), a flexible grid must first be created. Not only technically the system but also flexible markets and regulations,” he said.

Harris, Head of the Center for Survey and Testing of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Electricity, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said that in the agenda towards net-zero emissions, Indonesia must utilize all renewable energy sources it has.

“In the future, we will not only talk about energy, but also the environmental integration aspect. We want high energy resilience and low environmental impact. The answer to this need is renewable energy,” he said.

Enda Ginting, Country Manager of Gurin Energy Indonesia, shared his perspective on the need to build a renewable energy manufacturing ecosystem such as solar panels, batteries, inverters to run various strategic projects.

“If we really want to make changes, we have to do it on a large scale, not just the project scale, the ecosystem needs to change also,” he said.