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Coal plant expansion wipes out Indonesia's green energy progress
The expansion of coal plants such as Java 7 in Banten continues to outstrip renewable energy growth, thus setting Indonesia back from achieving its green energy ambitions.
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A worker inspects a high-voltage power grid which connects the coal-fired Suralaya power plant in Cilegon, Banten with the Java-Bali power distribution network in this file photo. The government still relies on coal to provide cheap electricity in the country. (Antara/Asep Fathulrahman)
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ndonesia has launched the operation of its largest coal-fired power unit to date, which offset all renewable energy power progress in the Southeast Asian country last year.
Java 7 Unit 1, launched in December 2019, is over twice as powerful as all renewable energy plants launched the same year. The Banten-based plant has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW), 2.7 times greater than the 376MW worth of green energy plants introduced in Indonesia last year.
The plant’s majority owner, Beijing-based coal miner China Energy Investment Corporation, described it as “the largest individual installed capacity of any overseas thermal generation unit invested and built by a Chinese enterprise.”
China Energy cooperated with Surabaya-based power producer Pembangkitan Jawa Bali (PJB), a subsidiary of state-owned utility firm PLN, to develop the US$1.71 billion power plant. China Energy and OJB own 70 and 30 percent of the facility, respectively.
The expansion of coal plants such as Java 7 continues to outstrip renewable energy growth, thus setting Indonesia back from achieving its green energy ambitions. Southeast Asia’s largest economy ended 2019 with a 12.36 percent renewables power production mix, far from the 17.5 percent target stipulated in the General National Energy Planning (RUEN) road map.
Ten coal plants began operations last year alone, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. The plants – including Java 7 – have a combined capacity of 3,017MW. They not only outstripped renewables growth but also contributed almost three-fourths of all newly added power production in 2019.
“It's rather unfortunate that the government relies on coal as the answer to both economy and energy challenges, when it is actually a golden opportunity to look toward renewable energy as the answer,” said Anissa Suharsono, an energy policy analyst with the Canadian energy think tank International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
