President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has announced a series of ambitious energy transition pledges this year, including reviving early coal retirement plans and adding 75 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity over next decade, but the year has also revealed serious impediments to this effort.
his year was another difficult one for Indonesia’s energy transition, with both targets and policies falling short of expectations, and analysts say the same stumbling blocks could hinder President Prabowo’s ambitious new energy pledges.
As of early December, the country had attracted US$1.49 billion in new and renewable energy investment this year, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. If the ministry had not slashed the target to $1.23 billion, it would have missed its goal, which was set at $2.62 billion in January.
Indonesia has installed a total of 547.41 megawatts (MW) of additional renewable energy capacity this year, while it had hoped to add over 730 MW.
The country has fallen short of similar targets in recent years, and in January, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry announced it was considering slashing the targeted share of renewables in the national energy mix to between 17 and 19 percent by the end of 2025 from the previous 23 percent.
“The government must provide regulations to encourage the use of renewable electricity to replace coal-fired captive power plants,” Shabrina Nadhila, Southeast Asia electricity policy analyst at climate consultancy Ember, told The Jakarta Post on Dec. 19.
President Prabowo has vowed to phase out all coal and other fossil-fueled power plants in the next 15 years, a pledge he made on Nov. 19 during the Group of 20 Summit in Brazil. He also committed to adding 75 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity to the electricity grid in the same period.
To realize the goal of completely phasing out coal by 2040, Indonesia must close several coal plants each year and significantly increase its renewable energy capacity, adding 8 GW a year, Ember wrote in a report on Dec. 4.
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