Indonesia Energy Ministry: These are the Three Ways of Solar Expansion

Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dadan Kusdiana, emphasized that solar energy is capable of accelerating the growth of EBT in Indonesia as well as transforming future clean energy needs. For this reason, the government is moving quickly by taking three approaches so that the development of solar electricity can grow faster.

“The sun is everywhere. In terms of potential, the sun is very helpful towards net zero emission. You could say solar is an unlimited expansion option (EBT),” explained Dadan during a virtual discussion entitled Hitting Record-Low Solar Electricity Prices in Indonesia organized by IESR, Thursday (19/8).

In the PLTS development process, continued Dadan, the Government has three approaches. First, Large-Scale PLTS with a development target of 4.68 Giga Watt (GW) equivalent to a reduction in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of 6.97 million tons of CO2e. Furthermore, the target of PLTS Floating in 271 locations is equivalent to 26.65 GW with a GHG emission reduction of 39.68 million tons of CO2e.

“We already have a good example of the PLTS Floating Cirata and we want to have a continuation project. Moreover, the issue of procurement is almost minimal,” said Dadan.

The final approach is the development of PLTS Roof with a target of reaching 3.61 GW or the equivalent of reducing GHG emissions by 5.4 million tons of CO2. “We have conducted a study looking at the use of export-import with the 1:1 principle,” explained Dadan.

Dadan straightened the export-import procedure for Rooftop PLTS electricity with the said principle. Based on the results of an internal survey, the electricity production from Rooftop PLTS does not entirely enter the PT PLN (Persero) network. “For example, from the production of 100 kWh of electricity, only 24 percent goes to PLN in households. As for industry, the figure is even smaller between 5-8% because it is produced by ourselves,” he said.

He also rejected the PLTS Rooftop export-import scheme which was deemed to be financially disrupted by PLN. “So PLN is not experiencing a loss, but the income side is reduced. The government has calculated that. That’s why we encourage them to make improvements in terms of plant operating hours,” said Dadan.

Through this approach, the government believes that the PV mini-grid market share will grow faster, thereby helping accelerate the NRE mix by 23% in 2025. “I have confidence that we have a market of 500 MW a year in the country. The upstream industry will enter here and at the same time. The same thing can increase in terms of the Domestic Component Level,” Dadan hoped.

Dadan revealed that currently the plan to increase the capacity of PLTS in the draft RUPTL 2021-2030 at least reaches around 5 gigawatts (GW). “In terms of capacity, it is still being discussed how many GW are included in the RUPTL, but the figure is already at 5 GW and will be included in the RUPTL for the next 10 years,” he said.

A number of efforts to address the challenges of PV mini-grid development are creating a PV mini-grid market by increasing the capacity of PV mini-grid development in policy and planning, improving the quality of domestically produced solar modules through Mandatory SNI in accordance with the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources No. 2/2021, and with the Ministry of Industry facilitating TKDN policies between developers. and domestic industry.