According to IRENA's recently released report "Indonesia's Energy Transition Outlook", the agency expects the country's power sector to undergo a "radical transformation" by 2050. The share of renewable energy in the country's electricity generation mix is likely to reach 85% by 2050, compared to around 12% in 2011.
Solar energy is expected to be the backbone of this shift. According to the "most conservative" estimates, photovoltaics are expected to account for 798 GW of the total 1,000 GW of electricity generated. "For this, Indonesia will need to add 660 GW of solar power capacity to its generation portfolio by 2030.
To achieve this, the country will need to invest US$44 billion in solar energy, US$39 billion in other renewable energy technologies, and another US$75 billion in grid infrastructure. Battery storage will require an investment of US$5.5 billion and electric vehicle charging infrastructure will require an investment of US$22 billion.
However, Indonesia's own expectations fall far short of IRENA's vision. According to the country's electricity plan for 2021-30, released last year, the plan sets a "best case" target of 23% of all electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030. According to Apricum, the country currently has around 190 MW of installed solar capacity.
In May this year, Saudi Arabian developer ACWA Power successfully won tenders for a 110 MW floating PV project on a reservoir, a 50 MW PV project on Sumatra and a 60 MW floating solar project on Java.
In April this year, Singapore-based Quantum Power Asia and Germany's ib vogt announced plans to invest US$5 billion in a 3.5 GW PV project and a 12 GW energy storage project.
In January this year alone, Indonesia completed 51.2 MW of installed rooftop solar power including commercial, industrial (C&I) and residential projects, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.