Background and objectives
Indonesia, with its 250 million people and abundant coal and oil resources, is mainly relying on domestic fossil fuels. Recently, Indonesia has set ambitious targets for renewable energy in 2025 and 2030 and announced to be carbon neutral by 2060. However, the green energy transition is still in an early stage compared to other emerging economies, such as India, Brazil, and South Africa. Thus, Indonesia is in a favourable position to benefit from the previous experience of early movers in Europe and other emerging economies, enabling it to avoid repeating past mistakes through the adoption of proven best practices.
Consequently, this project will investigate how the design of RE procurement policies can contribute to a just energy transition Indonesia.
Expected outcomes
The Justin project will generate knowledge on how renewable energy procurement schemes can be designed and implemented to achieve investments, job creation, local ownership, industry development, and other social development objectives, which are replicable in Indonesia and other latecomer countries. The immediate goal is that this knowledge can lead to procurement policies for RE that contribute to achieving a just energy transition in Indonesia, including inclusive engagement of public agencies and private sector actors.
Further, the project will contribute to enhance the research capacity of the younger researchers involved through working jointly in Indonesia under the guidance of senior staff from Indonesia and Denmark, through co-authorship of research papers, joint research seminars, and research stays in Denmark.
Budget and timeplan
The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign of Affairs of Denmark and is administered by the Danish Fellowship Centre (DFC). The overall budget is around 5 mio. DKK. The project start date was 1st of April 2022, and the project is expected to terminate on 1st of October 2024.
Project partners
The research group has been set up in Indonesia with researchers from the University of Indonesia, Universitas Prasetiya Mulya, and the Dala Institute. South-South cooperation is ensured by the University of Cape Town’s in South Africa, and in Denmark the research team includes researchers from the Society, Marked and Policy section at DTU Wind and Energy Systems.
Project publications
Journal papers
The country of perpetual potential: Why is it so difficult to procure renewable energy in Indonesia?
Do green foreign direct investments increase the innovative capability of MNE subsidiaries?
Policy briefs
Building a national solar PV manufacturing industry in Indonesia
Newspaper articles
Ulrich Elmer Hansen, Developing economies may become the big losers in the West's state aid race
Conference presentations
David Rudolph, Martha Maulidia, Hamida Busyrah: Recognition, decolonial justice and community benefits: Local implications of the procurement and deployment of large-scale renewable energy facilities in rural Indonesia. Presentation held at the 28th International Conference Association People-Environment Studies (IAPS), Barcelona, Spain, 2-5 July 2024
David Rudolph, Hamida Busyrah, Martha Maulidia: 'Solar-Water-Nexus: On local implications of the procurement and deployment of the first floating solar photovoltaics project in Indonesia'. Presentation held at the workshop entitled: The Dawn of Solar Photovoltaics: Emergent Political Economies at the Solar-Agri-Land Nexus, University of Stavanger, 21-23 May 2024
Hamida Busyrah: 'Justice Implications of the Procurement of Renewable Energy Projects of Indonesia: The Case of Large-scale Floating Solar PV'. Presentation held at the Global Land Grabbing International Conference in Bogota, Colombia, 19-21 March 2024,
Yohanes Kadarusman: 'Windows of opportunity and industrial policy in Indonesia: a comparison between automotive, cell phone and solar PV manufacturing industries'. Presentations held at the 7th Geography of Innovation Conference in Manchester, UK, January 2024.
Ulrich Elmer Hansen: 'Green industrial policy failure: creating a domestic solar PV module manufacturing, industry in Indonesia'. Presentations held at the 7th Geography of Innovation Conference in Manchester, UK, January 2024.
Alin Halimatussadiah: Assessing procurement options in Indonesia. Presentation held at the 12th Congress of the Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (2023), Japan, 29-30 August 2023