TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt to install solar panels on roofs of 800 public buildings this year
The rooftop solar photovoltaic panels are to be installed on boarding schools, clinics, orphanages, government offices and police stations in 17 provinces.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Mobile and green: A mobile food vendor uses solar panels at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, in August 2019. (The Jakarta Post/Riska Rahman)
T
he government plans to install rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on at least 800 public buildings across the country this year as it steps up its renewable energy push to lessen reliance on fossil fuels.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has allocated Rp 175 billion (US$12.76 million) to install the solar PV panels on, among others, boarding schools, clinics, orphanages, government offices and police stations in 17 provinces. All of the buildings are owned by regional administrations, which are to cover the panels’ maintenance costs.
“We need to show these administrations that solar panels are worth it,” the program’s head, Puspa Dewi, who is also the energy ministry’s renewables infrastructure director, said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
She said the allocated funds would not include the cost of the batteries for the PV panels because of budget constraints. Thus, her office would prioritize office buildings as they have higher daytime electricity usage compared to housing facilities.
Installing rooftop solar PV panels is one of the government’s many efforts to achieve a 23 percent renewable power production energy mix by 2025 as mandated by the General National Energy Planning (RUEN) road map. Indonesia closed 2019 with a 12.36 percent renewables mix, far less than the 17.5 percent annual target in the road map.
Of the 800 units, 51 percent are small with a capacity of less than 5 megawatts (MW), 32 percent are medium-scale (up to 25 MW), 11 percent are large (up to 50 MW) and 6 percent are extra large (above 50 MW). East Java and East Nusa Tenggara provinces are slated to receive the most solar PV panels:100 each.
However, Dewi told The Jakarta Post that the solar panel distribution was still subject to change as her office remained open to new requests from regional leaders. The ministry said it expects to begin the bidding for the installation of the panels in March.
