Indonesia

Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported in 2018 that 2,281 villages had no access to electricity. With more than 17,000 islands, building grid connections between them would be expensive. So what are the key challenges and solutions to the development of rural area electrification in Indonesia? pv magazine interviewed three experts that are involved in developing the country’s rural area electrification.

A presidential decree has enacted a range of incentives for e-mobility roll-out with domestic content requirements increasing over time.

To have any hope of restricting global heating to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the renewables success story which saw 108 GW of solar deployed last year needs to be cranked up to the next level – and fast.

Two projects have been deployed by Canopy Power on private islands in Indonesia. The two 52.5 kW/77 kWh mini-grids were the only alternative to diesel generators due to the lack of a connection with the grid on the island of Batam. The projects – which rely on REC Solar modules, SMA inverters and a storage system from Tesvolt – provide around half of the energy required on their respective islands.

The Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), an Indonesian think tank, has reported that the country has the potential to install up to 655 GW of rooftop PV capacity. Contrast that with a current installed capacity of just 100 MW, and it’s clear that solar PV still has a long way to go before it reaches its potential throughout Indonesia. Given the poor air quality in many heavily populated cities across the archipelago, PV deployment is long overdue in the Southeast Asian nation.

The government has amended two regulations and introduced a new one to spur development of rooftop PV. The new provisions increase the size of systems eligible for net metering payments and reduce fees for industrial installations.

Philippines-based AC Energy will work with UPC Solar Asia Pacific – the solar energy unit of Hong Kong-headquartered UPC Renewables – to build more than 1 GW of solar in the coming years, with an initial focus on Asian markets such as India, South Korea and Taiwan.

The government was forced to hold a tender for the 200 MW Cirata Dam scheme after originally awarding the deal to UAE developer Masdar. With August 19 named as the date to announce the auction results, nobody is any the wiser as yet.

The nation’s roofs could host up to 655 GWp of solar generation capacity a recent solar mapping exercise found. But a wider understanding of the benefits of solar, combined with incentives, would be required to unlock a potentially transformative energy development.

The cost of solar power generation in India has fallen to half the level seen in many other markets in the region due to extensive solar resource, market scale and competition.