JAKARTA, INDONESIA / MENA Newswire / — Indonesia is preparing a 100 gigawatt solar power program with an estimated investment requirement of about US$71.3 billion, as the government moves to identify land, storage needs and grid infrastructure for one of the country’s largest renewable energy projects. The program is tied to a national target to develop 100 GW of solar power capacity between 2026 and 2028, compared with current installed solar capacity of about 1.5 GW.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning have identified about 24,000 hectares of land on Java Island to support the solar power plant program. Officials said the identified land would undergo joint verification, including checks related to transmission access, substation availability and other grid connection requirements needed to link the planned generating sites to Indonesia’s electricity network.
State utility PT PLN has been assigned a central implementation role, including technical site work and location planning for the solar rollout. The initial phase prioritizes 17 GW of solar power capacity and includes about 33 GW of battery energy storage. The first phase is part of the wider 100 GW program, which is being prepared under Indonesia’s national energy transition agenda and diesel replacement planning.
Land and storage plans advance
The wider program is planned at about 100.7 gigawatt peak of solar generation capacity, supported by 145.8 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage systems. Government planning separates the program into large grid connected solar power plants and smaller distributed solar systems intended for remote areas and villages. Officials have described the structure as a combination of centralized generation and decentralized systems linked to storage capacity.
Under the current planning outline, large scale solar plants account for about 87.5 GWp and would be supported by around 111 GWh of battery energy storage. Distributed solar systems account for about 13.2 GWp and would be supported by about 34.8 GWh of storage. Tariff estimates range from 5.5 to 25 US cents per kilowatt hour for large scale plants and from 9 to 40 US cents for smaller systems, depending on storage capacity.
Cost and grid needs remain central
Officials have estimated that replacing diesel and gas based power generation with solar plants paired with battery storage could reduce electricity generation costs by up to Rp73.9 trillion, or about US$4.18 billion, per year. The calculation compares solar and storage costs with fossil fuel plants currently used in several regions. The program also forms part of broader plans to reduce reliance on diesel generation, including in eastern Indonesia, Java and Bali.
Indonesia’s latest electricity supply planning targets an additional 69.5 GW of generating capacity through 2034, with 42.6 GW, or 61 percent, coming from new and renewable energy sources and supported by 10.3 GW of energy storage systems. Officials have also identified transmission as a major requirement, including a planned 48,000 kilometers of supergrid infrastructure to connect renewable power resources with electricity demand centers across the country.