Indonesia To Accelerate Shift To Solar, Phase Out Fossil-Fuel Power Plants

JAKARTA, March 13 (Bernama) -- Indonesia plans to begin phasing out fossil fuel-based power plants and replacing them with solar power as early as next week after Aidilfitri, as part of efforts to accelerate the country’s energy transition, said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia.

He said the move follows a directive from President Prabowo Subianto to speed up the shift to renewable energy as the government weighs risks to global oil supplies stemming from the ongoing conflict in West Asia, including potential disruptions to key shipping routes such as the Strait of Hormuz.

“That was one of the issues we discussed during the meeting with the president, what alternatives can be used if the situation in the Strait of Hormuz remains as it is now,” he told reporters after the meeting, according to ANTARA News Agency, on Friday.

Bahlil said the plan would involve gradually replacing power plants that still rely on fossil fuels, including diesel power plants and steam power plants that use diesel fuel.

“In the current geopolitical situation marked by war, we cannot be certain what our energy situation will look like in the long term. 

“Therefore, we must optimise all the potential we have domestically, including energy sources that can be converted from fossil fuels,” he said.

Bahlil also stressed that fossil fuel-based power plants would only be shut down once replacement facilities powered by renewable energy are completed.

“We must build the replacements first. If we stop them before the new plants are built, there will be no substitute. So it will run in parallel, once the new plants are built and reach the commercial operation date, the diesel plants will be switched off,” he said.

Bahlil said the directive would be carried out through the Task Force on New and Renewable Energy and Energy Conversion, which he chairs.

-- BERNAMA