Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The capacity of renewable energy power plants in Indonesia until mid-2021 has increased by 217 megawatts (MW).

"This addition is included in state-owned electricity company PLN’s on grid system," said Director General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Dadan Kusdiana in a webinar organized by the Institute for Essential Service Reform (IESR) on Thursday (Aug. 19).

However, according to him, in order to achieve the target of the 23 percent renewable energy mix, Indonesia should work four to five times harder than what has been done so far, so that in 2025 the target could be achieved.

The additional 217 MW was obtained from Malea hydro power plant (90 MW), 9 Mini-hydro power plants (56 MW), rooftop solar power plant (13 MW), Sorik Marapi geothermal power plant (45 MW), and bioenergy power plant (12.5 MW).

In the last five years, the addition of renewable energy power plants’ capacity in the archipelagic country was recorded at 1,478 MW with an average increase of 4 percent per year.

Dadan said that one of the factors driving the growth of renewable energy plants is solar energy because of the massive potential that reaches 207.8 gigawatts, yet only 0.1 percent has been utilized.

"Therefore, the government continues to boost the use of solar power plants, one of which is through rooftop panels," he said.

Dadan added that the government had finalized the 2021-2030 Electricity Supply Business Plan of the state-owned electricity company, which increased the renewable energy portion to 51.6 percent.

"Hopefully it will be approved soon," said Dadan.

Reporting by Indonesia Window