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State banks offer solar panel loans to boost adoption
The loans are intended to offset the upfront costs of installing rooftop solar panels and to help meet government renewable energy targets.
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Technician Agus cleans a photovoltaic panel at SMKN 3 state vocational school in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, in this undated file photo. Indonesia aims to increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix to 23 percent by 2025. (JP/Kharishar Kahfi)
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tate-owned banks have launched several special financing schemes for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) panels this year to help the government achieve its renewable energy targets.
Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), which are among the country’s five biggest banks, launched their respective financing schemes between January and June. The loans are intended to reduce the upfront costs of installing solar panels.
Indonesia Solar Energy Association (AESI) chairman Fabby Tumiwa told The Jakarta Post on July 13 that residential rooftop solar panel use had increased from about 200 to 3,000 households over the past three years.
“More affordable financial schemes will help spur this growth,” said Fabby, who is also the executive director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), an energy think tank.
He added that such financing schemes would be best suited to middle-class households whose power capacities were over 2,200 volt-amperes (VA) and whose monthly power bills were over Rp 700,000 (US$48.22).
Rooftop solar power could serve roughly 7 million households, he added, and was a potentially lucrative market.
The government expects solar power, one of the world’s fastest growing renewable energy technologies, to lead the way to achieving at least 23 percent renewable energy in the country by 2025 and at least 31 percent by 2050, as dictated by the National General Energy Planning (RUEN) road map.
