The technical and economic potential of renewables in Indonesia and scenarios for power system decarbonisation

Indonesia has been dependent on its abundant coal reserves to meet its increasing electricity demand. The Indonesian government is aware of the negative environmental effects of coal combustion and pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060 or earlier by transitioning towards renewables. In principle, it is known that Indonesia has large renewable...

The global techno-economic potential of floating, closed-cycle ocean thermal energy conversion

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is an emerging renewable energy technology using the ocean’s heat to produce electricity. Given its early development stage, OTEC’s economics are still uncertain and there is no global assessment of its economic potential, yet. Here, we present the model pyOTEC that designs OTEC plants for best economic...

Geospatial analysis of Indonesia's bankable utility-scale solar PV potential using elements of project finance

Geospatial analysis is useful for mapping the potential of renewables like solar PV. However, recent studies do not address PV’s bankable potential for which project financing can be secured. This paper proposes a framework that incorporates project finance into geospatial analyses to obtain the bankable potential of renewables. We demonstrate...

Introducing site selection flexibility to technical and economic onshore wind potential assessments: New method with application to Indonesia

Onshore wind potentials are commonly mapped with site selection criteria that either fully include or exclude land for wind farms. However, current research rarely addresses the variability of these criteria, possibly resulting in overly conservative or optimistic potentials. This paper proposes a method to account for the variability of site...

Is bigger always better? Designing economically feasible ocean thermal energy conversion systems using spatiotemporal resource data

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) produces electricity using the temperature difference between warm surface and cold deep-sea water. OTEC systems in literature only limitedly consider seasonal seawater temperature<br/>variations and thus might not be adequately sized for off-design conditions. This potentially leads to techno-economically...

Upscaling scenarios for ocean thermal energy conversion with technological learning in Indonesia and their global relevance

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a promising renewable energy technology that is the most economical at large scale. But contemporary literature does not address how OTEC could reach such scale with current technology, and what the techno-economic impact of location-dependent factors and technological learning are. This paper tackles...

How offshore wind could become economically attractive in low-resource regions like Indonesia

The current focus of offshore wind industry and academia lies on regions with strong winds, neglecting areas with mild resources. Photovoltaics' cost reductions have shown that even mild resources can be harnessed economically, especially where electricity prices are high. Here, we study the technical and economic potential of offshore wind...

Harnessing the economic potential of ocean thermal energy conversion in Indonesia with upscaling scenarios

Plant siting and economic potential of ocean thermal energy conversion in Indonesia a novel GIS-based methodology

Indonesia strives for a renewable energy share of 23% by 2025. One option to contribute to this goal is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). Despite a global theoretical potential of up to 30 TW, its economically deployable share remains unknown. This paper proposes a novel methodology, which enables to determine OTEC's economic potential...

Review of Renewable Energy Potentials in Indonesia and Their Contribution to a 100% Renewable Electricity System

Indonesia has an increasing electricity demand that is mostly met with fossil fuels. Although Indonesia plans to ramp up Renewable Energy Technologies (RET), implementation has been slow. This is unfortunate, as the RET potential in Indonesia might be higher than currently assumed given the archipelago’s size. However, there is no literature...

Recent progress in the economics of ocean thermal energy conversion: Critical review and research agenda

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a Renewable Energy Technology (RET) with a global theoretical potential of up to 30 TW. However, OTEC's economic potential is unknown as it is still an immature technology with no commercial plant operating. This paper reviews recent academic and industrial literature since 2005 to provide an overview...