Research Database

Since 2015, the Indonesian solar electricity sector has witnessed unprecedented attention from international investors and developers, with planned solar photovoltaic (PV) projects announced in 2017 set to increase existing installed capacity from 9 megawatts (MW) to over 240 MW. This article examines the emerging geographies of renewable energy generation resulting from the rapid influx of foreign investment into Indonesia’s solar PV sector. While foreign investment may prove successful in increasing the country’s solar PV capacity, it may also produce several contradictory outcomes for Indonesia’s energy transition. Efforts to reconcile demands of risk-averse, profit-driven investors and developers with the needs of the approximately 25 million Indonesians who currently lack access to electricity has resulted in a geography of renewable energy generation characterized by large-scale centralized generation facilities that constrain opportunities for local ownership and control over the energy system. The result – a major contradiction when viewed through the lens of Indonesia’s energy transition development objectives – is not only a flow of economic benefits out of the country and limited improvement in energy access for much of the country, but a missed opportunity in terms of maximizing the socially and politically transformative potential a broader energy transition may entail.

Since 2015, the Indonesian solar electricity sector has witnessed unprecedented attention from international investors and developers, with planned solar photovoltaic (PV) projects announced in 2017 set to increase existing installed capacity from 9 megawatts (MW) to over 240 MW. This article examines the emerging geographies of renewable energy generation resulting from the rapid influx of foreign investment into Indonesia’s solar PV sector. While foreign investment may prove successful in increasing the country’s solar PV capacity, it may also produce several contradictory outcomes for Indonesia’s energy transition. Efforts to reconcile demands of risk-averse, profit-driven investors and developers with the needs of the approximately 25 million Indonesians who currently lack access to electricity has resulted in a geography of renewable energy generation characterized by large-scale centralized generation facilities that constrain opportunities for local ownership and control over the energy system. The result – a major contradiction when viewed through the lens of Indonesia’s energy transition development objectives – is not only a flow of economic benefits out of the country and limited improvement in energy access for much of the country, but a missed opportunity in terms of maximizing the socially and politically transformative potential a broader energy transition may entail.

Closing the gap between economy activity and environmental quality is one of the solutions for reaching “sustainable development” in Malaysia. To do so, the cubic polynomial functional form of EKC is utilized by accommodating renewable energy into the base of the EKC model and validating its hypothesis between CO2 emissions and GDP growth for the 1971–2015 period. The F-bounds, VECM Granger causality, CUSUM, and CUSUMSQ tests are utilized. The estimated results consistently show that the inverted N-shaped EKC hypothesis holds in Malaysia. Ceteris paribus, the CO2 emissions will be declined when the GDP reach RM2841.9 billion in 2030, which is beyond the sample period. The renewable energy has a negative significant effect on CO2 emissions, and the direction of causality is running from CO2 emissions to renewable energy. Also, the GDP growth will be the remedy for environmental pollution problems and that renewable energy is one of important elements to be considered for improving environmental quality. A tighter and concentrated environmental policy is needed to direct the environment–economic growth nexus toward a downward trend. Consequently, these results may help Malaysian policymakers to establish an energy policy that guarantees a balance between economic growth and environmental prosperity.

This study quantifies the environmental burdens created by a planned rooftop photovoltaic (PV) solar installation on a university campus in Bangkok, Thailand, and models the potential of rooftop solar to meet the country’s renewable energy goals. Impacts are evaluated using Life Cycle Assessment and recommendations made for upstream purchasing decisions according to different scenarios. Results indicate that main contribution to impacts occurs in manufacturing by stage and from PV modules by component. Impacts generated by the mounting structure and inverters are also significant, and together these components constitute over 90% of environmental burdens. A climate change impact of 0.079 kg CO2-eq/kWh is produced over the lifetime of the system. Energy Payback Time is calculated as 2.5 years, and the Economic Payback Period is 7.4 years. The system is estimated to avoid 1.00E+06 kg CO2-eq over its lifetime. Installation of similar rooftop PV systems on 50% of university and government buildings in Bangkok could result in a net reduction of 4.80E+09 kg CO2-eq. Domestic production of components and recycling of materials is identified as a best-case scenario, with alleviations across all impact categories. Economic analysis suggests on-site electricity consumption paired with a net-metering policy scheme is the best way to incentivize PV solar energy installations.

This paper describes the performance of tracking photovoltaic (PV) system for mobile station. The system consists of tracking PV array, the battery bank, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller and the DC/AC inverter). This system is the first full solar power station, which acts as pilot project by Celcom Sdn. Bhd. Success of this system shows potential of electrify rural remote area. The design is hoped to be a pioneer and acts as well-known system in order to ensure renewable energy is the future supply of electricity in far located urban area. This paper showes the record of the battery state-of-charge (SOC) as a function of time for rainy and sunny days.

The World Commission on Environment and Development in its report entitled “Our Common Future” has put forward the idea of sustainable development which is also an important part of the development of regional environmental law in Southeast Asia. In 1985 ASEAN Agreement on the Nature and Natural Resources has put sustainable development for the first time in ASEAN’s treaty. Sustainable development continues to grow through the 1987 Jakarta Resolution on Sustainable Development agreed upon by the leaders of ASEAN. This research will look at the importance of sustainable development as part of the regional environmental international law concept and how it has grown in ASEAN today. The purpose of this research is to know the various international agreements both soft law and hard law that puts sustainable development as an important element. The results show that sustainable development has become an integral part of the regional international environmental legal system in ASEAN. A provisional conclusion shows that ASEAN’s commitment to sustainable development has greatly improved the success of implementing environmental policies at the ASEAN level.

In the last decade, the increase of energy consumption that has multiplied carbondioxide emissions becomes world problems, especially in the developing countries undergoing industrialization to be developed ones like Indonesia. This aim of this study was to analyze the effect of fossil energy consumption, population growth, and consumption of renewable energy on carbon dioxide emission. The method used was multiple linear regression analysis with Ordinary Least Square approach using time series in the period of 1990 - 2014. The result showed that fossil energy consumption and population growth have a positive influence on carbon dioxide emission in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the consumption variable of renewable energy has a negative effect on the level of carbon dioxide emissions produced.

The development of renewable energy policies is necessary to ensure secure and sustainable energy supplies at reasonable costs and to address issues related to global climate change. Since the year 2000 in Malaysia (time of the 8th Malaysian Plan), renewable energy has been included as a key fifth element in the country's fuel policy along with hydro, coal, gas, and oil, and a target of obtaining 5% of the total energy supply from renewable sources was set, although it has not yet been reached.This work explores public opinions regarding climate change and renewable energy in Peninsular Malaysia. Probability sampling and a stratified technique were used to conduct a survey with subjects aged 20 years and over with higher education qualifications. The results showed that the majority of Malaysians are concerned about climate change and have heard about renewable energy. However, only two out of five people in Peninsular Malaysia have used renewable energy products. This finding can be explained by the high price of renewable energy products, lack of knowledge about government policies, and ineffective programs and initiatives.

This article argues that a change in institutional strategy enables The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to manage its great power relations and prevent their abrupt political intrusion into the region by providing the policy options of pursuing institutional balancing, bandwagoning, hedging, or co-option. ASEAN’s strategy is not only to choose optimal policy under a changing security environment, but also to create an institutional division of labour by proliferating ASEAN-led institutions to ensure, as far as possible, regional autonomy and Member States’ security. Changes in ASEAN’s institutional strategy occur when its Member States expect a change in the regional distribution of power. However, due to constraints created by the existing institutional design it is difficult to make any drastic alteration to the institutional strategy unless a radical change in the regional power configuration occurs. This article examines the cases of East Asia Summit and ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM)/ADMM-Plus during the period 2005–2016, the comparison of which illuminates the causes and processes of their strategy change and helps to deepen our understanding of the roles of regional security institutions.