TECHNICAL ASSESMENTS AND SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS OF THREE PILOT PROJECTS OF LARGE-SCALE 1 MW GRID-CONNECTED PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS IN INDONESIA

Indonesia has huge potential for utilizing the sun’s energy for electric power generation using photovoltaic technology, which converts sunlight into electric current with electrical energy potential between 4 to 6 kWh per meter square every day almost all year round and available in most parts of the country. Due to its geographical location near the equator, and vast area including land and sea, the country has enormous potential for generating renewable energy from the sun. In view of diminishing reserves of the country’s conventional energy sources such as coal, oil, and gas and the fact that the country has huge the potential of renewable energy resource, the central government has released National Energy Policy (NEP) which serves as the reference for national energy development. With respect to PV implementation, the government has set to achieve 5,000 MW PV capacity by 2019 and further increasing to become 6,400 MW by 2025. Despite, the huge potential and also the government plan, however, the progress to date is unclear. Stakeholders have quoted different figures for the current PV achievement of the country as there is no single and reliable figure to indicate the current progress.

Application of PV in Indonesia started in the late 70s but government-supported projects started in the 80s, so the country has accumulated nearly 50 years of PV experience. PV implementation includes a solar home system, an off-grid system, and the most recent is a grid-connected power plant. The government built a three 1 MW grid-connected PV plant in 2013. Two plants were built in Bali and the third was built in the District of Labangka, the island of Sumbawa. The large-scale grid-connected PV will be a large component of the PV project portfolio together with SHS and off-grid community-based PV. Therefore, there is the need to learn a lesson from the first large-scale PV project of the country. The lesson covers the technical aspect as well as the sustainability of such projects.

ASEAN countries pose similar characteristics both natural resources as well as demographic features and the region also pursue the implementation of as renewable power generation. Each country has set a goal and progresses to achieve its national target. In this context, Indonesian progress will be compared with other ASEAN members and qualitative analysis will be carried out to understand factors that affect PV development in ASEAN members which could be learned by Indonesia as the largest ASEAN member.

Three key questions proposed in this research proposal are: 1) What is the current the national capacity of PV in Indonesia and what factors that affect its development both which hinders and enables the progress, 2) What is the performance index of the first large-scale 1 MW grid-connected PV plants of Indonesia and what lessons can be learned as this type of PV will form a significant component of the PV portfolios, 3) How is the PV development of Indonesia as the largest member of ASEAN in term of natural resources and demographic features compared to other ASEAN members and what lesson can be learned from the neighboring countries.