Indonesia's rise as Southeast Asia's premier green energy powerhouse

Indonesia is home to abundant natural resources, with the potential to become a regional powerhouse in the green energy space. Indonesia has an estimated 400 gigawatts (GW) of technical potential for renewable-based power generation. Solar accounts for half of that figure, while hydropower and geothermal could deliver up to 75GW and 29GW capacity respectively. If fully developed, this is more than enough to meet Indonesia’s future demand — however, the pace of the energy transition must be carefully managed to ensure a just transition. This encouraging outlook reveals Indonesia’s substantial green energy opportunities, with renewables able to deliver as much as two-thirds of the nation’s total energy mix by 2050 — up from just 14 percent today. Indonesia also holds significant potential as a center for carbon capture and storage (CCS), with an estimated four to eight gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) storage potential by leveraging depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Utilizing Indonesia’s saline aquifers could add an additional 600 billion tons of CO2 storage potential. This CCS opportunity could significantly accelerate the journey to reduce national CO2 emissions. Indonesia is also positioned to become one of the region’s leading producers of green molecules. As an emerging economy with a growing industrial sector, there is an increasing demand for industries such as steel, cement and chemicals switching to green hydrogen to accelerate their decarbonization. The demand for green hydrogen across Asia is projected to reach more than 300 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2050.