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Clean power increasingly cost-competitive with coal, ministry says
The energy ministry has said that renewables are now competing head-to-head with coal in terms of power generation costs, and that "there is no reason anymore not to use renewables”.
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Employees of state electricity company PLN take photos of wind turbines on Oct. 26, 2021 at the 75-megawatt Sidrap wind farm in Sidenreng Rappang (Sidrap) regency, South Sulawesi, the first in Indonesia. (AFP/Zul Kifli)
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he cost of generating electricity from renewable energy sources is now comparable to, if not more competitive than, electricity generation from coal, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry says, following a significant drop in clean energy prices in recent years.
Energy ministry secretary-general Dadan Kusdiana said in a press statement released on Sunday that renewable power prices were now approaching or undercutting the prices of fossil fuel-generated electricity.
“Now, there is a new wind power plant in South Kalimantan signed at the start of 2023, its capacity is around 75 megawatts. Compared to the prices six or seven years ago, the figure today is [much lower at] less than 6 US cents per kilowatt-hour [kWh],” Dadan said in the statement.
Back in 2016, the contractually agreed price for electricity produced by the Sidrap and Jeneponto wind farms in South Sulawesi was 10.9 cents per kWh, he said.
The statement also revealed that electricity generated by the Cirata floating solar photovoltaic power plant in West Java, inaugurated in early November, was priced at 5.8 cents per kWh.
The ministry attributed the lower costs and greater efficiency in renewable power generation to technological advancements in wind and solar power.
In comparison, the price of electricity from coal-fired power plants normally ranges from 6 to 8 cents per kWh.
