University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Indonesia is the biggest economy in Southeast Asia. The power behind Indonesia’s massive economy is the size of the country and its population, which is advantageous in the country’s case with a population of more than 270 million. Economic growth always goes together with energy consumption. As an effect, Indonesia’s final energy demand is expected to shoot up in the near future to 388 MTOE (million tons of oil equivalent) with 1.2 TOE (tons of oil equivalent) per capita in 2050 (APEC, 2019). The growth in demand is double the country’s energy demand in 2020, which means in a span of 30 years Indonesia
must be ready to double its energy supply. Talking about energy supply, the country is currently relying on fossil fuels, especially coal to generate electricity from coal power plants. Coal power plants are widespread in the country, one of the reasons being the abundance of coal, making Indonesia one of the world’s most important coal exporters. In fact, coal export in 2018 was more than three-fourths of the total production (IESR, 2019a). Contrary to the current situation, in the future fossil fuels are expected to be abandoned in favor of cleaner energy sources. The drive behind this transition is mainly environmental. The Earth is facing its biggest climate crisis if it stays on its current track of dependence
on fossil resources. The environmental effect is so detrimental that it may topple down our current living systems: introducing famine, infectious diseases, biodiversity collapse, and deaths from major natural disasters. Aside from the environmental factors, overall drastic growth in population is also threatening the Earth’s ability to supply energy equal to the human population if world governments continue to rely on fossils. Fossil fuels are considered non-renewable since they took a long time to renew themselves, so these resources are finite in nature.
If we continue to rely on fossils, it is just a matter of time before we deplete the earth’s natural deposit of fossils. The consequences will be grave in the society as governments fight over fossil fuels, leading to wars. Collectively, we are aware of these threats. World governments have crafted plans, goals, associations, and planned actions together to start the transition to non-fossil-based renewable energies. In Indonesia, the guideline to base energy transition was set on the National Energy Plan (RUEN-Rencana Umum Energi Nasional) in 2017. The aim is to gradually increase renewables proportion in the national energy mix to 31.2% by 2050 while reducing fossil proportions (Rencana Umum Energi Nasional, 2017). The target is set quite loose for renewables, as all forms of renewables are grouped into the same category. Globally, renewables already make up 29% of the global share of electricity generation in 2021 (IEA, 2021). However, the latest data in Indonesia show that renewables make up only 11.2% of the national energy mix in 2020 (Ditjen EBTKE, 2021). In the Southeast Asian region, Indonesia is trailing behind Vietnam, which generates more than twice the amount of Indonesia’s renewable energy production (IRENA, 2020). Indonesia’s path towards a net-zero future can only be achieved if we successfully transition to renewables, focusing on carbon-free renewables. Aside from pushing for energetic transition, the country also needs to take care of other aspects as outlined in this chapter.
