Onshore Wind in Indonesia: Lessons Learnt on Technical Requirements for Investors
(Room Garuda 7A, 1st Floor)
20 Sep 18
9:30 AM
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11:00 AM
Tracks:
TRACK G - Renewable Energy Strategy & Technology
As an outlier in the SE Asia region, wind power is currently progressing faster in Indonesia than utility-scale solar power. This paper intends to highlight the conditions that have allowed wind power in Indonesia to progress, and the challenges faced. Indonesia aims to provide generation capacity of around 115GW by 2025, with plans for 23% new and renewable energy penetration. The development of a renewable power market has made Indonesia increasingly attractive for investors. A recent report (IRENA, 2017) indicated that Indonesia has a theoretical resource potential of 9.3GW, and due to the nature of Indonesia’s geography, interconnection of the islands to a central grid can prove difficult and expensive. As such, onshore wind power can provide a scalable and cost-effective method to provide power to areas with a high cost of electricity. Mott MacDonald has been involved in the Indonesian wind power sector since 2015, where it is acting as Lender’s Technical Advisor for Indonesia’s first two IPP led wind projects, among other assignments. The company has built a leading position in providing technical advisory services to wind farm owners and lenders. Drawing from lessons learnt working with several companies developing and investing in wind power projects in Indonesia, particular country-specific challenges have been identified. These include availability of specialist skills and capability, permitting considerations, physical and regulatory interconnection challenges, and other more general regulatory challenges, including parallels with those faced by any country embarking into developing renewable energy capacity for the first time. This paper presents key technical and commercial lessons learnt from Mott MacDonald's wind power project experience in Indonesia. The paper focuses on identifying important challenges and proposing mitigation strategies to structure bankable projects which can unlock the country’s promising wind power potential.