IESR's role in Indonesia-Australia renewable energy cooperation 2018-2023

The development of renewable energy in Indonesia is still in a relatively fledgling state, yet it is forecast to increase. The Government of Indonesia has formulated and implemented several strategic programs, compiled under several binding frameworks, namely the National Energy Policy and the General Plan for National Energy. The government is committed internationally to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions. However, unearthing the dynamics of renewable and sustainable energy in Indonesia requires a detailed stakeholder analysis of all relevant and major actors. This paper aims to provide a stakeholder analysis of actors in the renewable and sustainable energy sector in Indonesia as a whole, using a Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental (PESTLE) analysis methodology. The results have indicated that existing policies are not yet perfect, given that the renewable energy industry is still quite minimal, especially in the current conditions of falling oil prices. In the future, it is hoped that the government can formulate a breakthrough policy to improve existing policies in the renewable energy sector, such as by giving ease to investors in the renewable energy sector, including the effective and efficient supply chain management of renewable energy.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. The ‘Livestock and Renewable Energy’ Thematic Paper is part of a toolkit for development practitioners, created to support the design of appropriate livestock development interventions. It has been developed to assess existing synergies between livestock and the renewable energy sector and consider the potential benefits that could arise from their interactions, such as mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, environmental preservation (soil restoration), and availability of clean, affordable and reliable energy sources (e.g. biogas). The paper is divided into two sections. The first part looks at livestock’s potential as a renewable energy source. For example, through the use of cost-effective technologies such as biogas systems that can stem methane emissions from livestock manure by recovering the gas and using it as an energy source as an alternative to wood/charcoal or fossil fuel. The second part, given the climate change scenario, considers viable applications of renewable energy technologies (RETs) addressed for small-scale farmers and livestock keepers at different levels of the value chain that can provide multifunctional benefits for households, community and environment. Drawing on knowledge gained from IFAD-supported projects and from experiences and lessons learned by other IFAD partners, the paper provides recommendations for project design and possible actions to encourage the use of RETs that will enhance a sustainable livestock sector, preserve the environment and facilitate access to a renewable and sustainable energy sector. The paper thus seeks to identify the direct benefits from combining policy measures and innovation technologies for poor small-scale farmers and their production systems.

Community participation (CP) is emphasized in the planning and implementation of the various projects and sector. Renewable energy (RE) sector like other sectors requires community participation for its effectiveness and efficiency. This review aims at exploring the community participation in the renewable sector in Tanzania. Five themes were identified for through literature review where a Seven-Step Model for comprehensive literature review was used. These themes include (i) access to information on RE resources; (ii) community awareness of the RE technologies and related policies, laws, and regulations; (iii) RE as the source of employment opportunities; and (iv) RE as an alternative to fossil fuels and for poverty alleviation. These study revealed that despite the different efforts taken by the government and other energy stakeholders the community still lack enough information and awareness about renewable energy technologies, institutional and regulatory framework. However, the interesting issue is that renewable energy sectors play an important role in providing employment opportunities to the local communities. Moreover, the use of renewable energy has contributed to poverty alleviation. For instance, hydropower has an increase in electricity supply, solar energy has improved the local households’ standard of living, education and health services. It is recommended that the government and other energy stakeholders should cooperate to provide more information and awareness of renewable energy technologies to the community. This should be accompanied by the introduction of the national policy and law which is specifically for renewable energy to enable its development. Community participation (CP) is emphasized in the planning and implementation of the various projects and sector. Renewable energy (RE) sector like other sectors requires community participation for its effectiveness and efficiency. This review aims at exploring the community participation in the renewable sector in Tanzania. Five themes were identified for through literature review where a Seven-Step Model for comprehensive literature review was used. These themes include (i) access to information on RE resources; (ii) community awareness of the RE technologies and related policies, laws, and regulations; (iii) RE as the source of employment opportunities; and (iv) RE as an alternative to fossil fuels and for poverty alleviation. These study revealed that despite the different efforts taken by the government and other energy stakeholders the community still lack enough information and awareness about renewable energy technologies, institutional and regulatory framework. However, the interesting issue is that renewable energy sectors play an important role in providing employment opportunities to the local communities. Moreover, the use of renewable energy has contributed to poverty alleviation. For instance, hydropower has an increase in electricity supply, solar energy has improved the local households’ standard of living, education and health services. It is recommended that the government and other energy stakeholders should cooperate to provide more information and awareness of renewable energy technologies to the community. This should be accompanied by the introduction of the national policy and law which is specifically for renewable energy to enable its development.

This article discusses the role of MNCs in the application of renewable energy in Indonesia. The pressing issue with renewable energy in Indonesia is the critical need for more funding to realize renewable energy programs to achieve SDG targets. Many MNCs invest in the renewable energy sector in Indonesia, such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and others. The SDGs concept is used in this research by looking at the application aspect, its effect on the economy, and MNC involvement in renewable energy in Indonesia. This research aims to accelerate the application of renewable energy in Indonesia by supporting all stakeholders in focusing on the application of renewable energy for shared economic growth.

An increase in market concentration (MC), which refers to a large share of few and large firms in a given sector, is a main concern for governments all over the world since it is believed to affect competition levels and, thus, lead to inefficiencies. It has also captured the attention of researchers in the past. A trend towards MC has been observed in many sectors, as they progress through different stages (i.e., what we call “consolidation effect”). This can also be the case in the renewable energy (RE) sectors. On the other hand, the features of RE policy may also influence the entry and exit of firms in RE sectors and, thus, MC, as they affect the revenues, costs and risks of its players (i.e., what we call the “policy effect”). However, despite its academic and policy relevance, the literature on MC in the RE sectors is very tiny and the few analyses have been undertaken without a systematic and comprehensive analytical framework. The aim of this paper is to provide an analytical framework to assess the impact of deployment support on market concentration in the RE sectors. This framework is based on several approaches, i.e. industrial organisation, industry life cycle theory and the literature on renewable energy support. It considers the aforementioned two effects on market concentration in the project ownership stage of the value chain. The empirical analysis illustrates the viability of this framework with a case study of wind energy in Spain, and suggests that it can be applied to other countries and RE sectors. Using primary and secondary data sources, the paper shows that there has been an increase in market concentration, although this has not been monotonic, suggesting the influence of the aforementioned two main effects.

The topic of the article considers the functioning of the renewable energy (RE) sector in Poland. This is really important in the context of the energy transition of the national economy because it influences the creation of modern technologies and increases the competitiveness and innovation of the country. Poland is in a process of energy transition where the RE sector has been developing for two decades. The authors aimed to research the RE sector improvement possibilities in Poland, including the influence of this sector on chosen social and economic aspects. Because of this research’s aim a critical situation assessment of RE in Poland was conducted and a survey of a group of experts in this field was also involved. Legal, physical and mental determinants and their influence on RE sector were looked into. In the legal determinant context a necessity to simplify relevant legislation acts in Poland was found. Undoubtedly there is a need to improve several legal acts, including the Distance Act. In physical determinants it was found that solar, wind and biomass energy have the biggest chances for development. In the case of mental determinants the authors paid attention to the need of educating the public about using and obtaining energy. It is also important to make people aware how the RE sector influences the low emission economy positively. This will improve the creation of new jobs and reduce the emissions of harmful substances to the environment.

Energy transition and companies’ commitment to sustainability can be supported by integrating innovative technologies into the renewable energy (RE) sector. Blockchain technology (BT) represents one such technology. This paper explores how BT can support RE consumption as an answer to energy sector companies’ technological, transparency and traceability needs. We conducted a literature review on blockchain’s ability to adapt to the energy sector, focusing on RE applications. In addition, we qualitatively analysed two projects pursued by energy sector companies in Europe. Although there is an abundance of research on the application of BT in the energy sector, there are only a few operational studies on this theme. Therefore, we combined the theoretical analysis with an exploration of the practical application of BT in two actual developments that highlight its positive implications for the transition to RE. BT applications for RE are at an early stage and require time for development. The analysis invites interactions among academics, energy sector operators and legislators. The findings contribute to facilitate the RE adoption and greenhouse gas emissions reduction in compliance with 2030 and 2050 goals.

For a developing country such as Bangladesh, renewable energy is immensely important for its entire development and advancement. Bangladesh has taken steps to increase the development capacity in the renewable energy sector and to fulfill the target of achieving one hundred percent electrification. The goal of this study is to determine the present scenario of the capability of the sustainable energy sector, the advancement as well as achievement of adopted plans, obstacles to achieving goals, and to discuss overall issues with necessary suggestions. In this article, according to qualitative research, data have been collected about the steps taken by Bangladesh in the renewable sector, potential achievements, and various progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in the renewable energy sector. The most important things that have been discussed in this article are what obstacles Bangladesh faces in increasing the capacity of renewable energy and what steps should be taken to overcome those obstacles. To present the obstacles in this article, some important points are discussed including the lack of coordination among the institutions that are responsible for implementing ongoing projects and the lack of adequate maintenance. In addition to increasing public awareness of the mentioned obstacles, valuable advice has also been given in making the loan system accessible to entrepreneurs and customers, increasing the capability of renewable energy, and encouraging conducting research on the overall subject. Nevertheless, for technological advancement in the sustainable energy sector, it has been suggested to reduce imports and to make renewable energy equipment available by increasing the production of the equipment that is necessary. To enrich this renewable energy sector in a sustainable manner, the analysis of the current state of the energy division of Bangladesh, taken steps, obstacles, and given proposals presented in this article will play an important role in the future.

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have shown promise in specialized fields, yet their effectiveness is often constrained by limited domain expertise. We present a renewable and hydrogen energy-focused LLM developed by fine-tuning LLaMA 3.1 8B on a curated renewable energy corpus (RE-LLaMA). Through continued pretraining on domain-specific data, we enhanced the model’s capabilities in renewable energy contexts. Extensive evaluation using zero-shot and few-shot prompting demonstrated that our fine-tuned model significantly outperformed the base model across renewable and hydrogen energy tasks. This work establishes the viability of specialized, smaller-scale LLMs and provides a framework for developing domain-specific models that can support advanced research and decision-making in the renewable energy sector. Our approach represents a significant step forward in applying LLMs to the renewable and hydrogen energy sector, offering potential applications in advanced research and decision-making processes.

As the globe transitions to a low-carbon economy, China's renewable energy (RE) sector is crucial to attaining sustainable growth. Green financing and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies have become increasingly important in promoting the growth and sustainability of the RE sector. In order to evaluate CSR factors and green finance strategies for effective integration in supporting the RE industry, this research employs hybrid Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Fuzzy VIekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje (FVIKOR) approaches in the context of China. The FAHP method is used to determine the various CSR factors and subfactors, while the FVIKOR method is employed to prioritize the key green finance strategies. The findings of the FAHP method highlight the importance of socioeconomic development, environmental protection, and stakeholder engagement as critical CSR factors for RE sectors. Moreover, the results of the FVIKOR method reveal that innovative financing mechanisms, green bonds, and green banks emerged as significant green finance strategies for mobilizing capital and resources for RE projects. The study highlights the value of aspects of CSR and green financing techniques in fostering sustainable development in the RE industry. The results can aid in the promotion of sustainable practices and the assistance of China's transition to a more resource- and environment-wise economy by firms, investors, governments, and other stakeholders.

Background: Saudi Arabia (KSA) is a global leader in producing fossil fuels and has primarily relied on this energy source for its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, after the 2014 oil crash, the country established Vision 2030, intending to shift toward a non-oil dependent economy. Through this vision, Saudi Arabia aims to increase generation of electricity from clean energy sources by 30%. This paper examines the effectiveness of strict intellectual property (IP) regulations aiming to develop the renewable energy (RE) sector. Methods: In this paper, the author examines the effectiveness of strict intellectual property rights in-depth to develop innovation in the renewable energy sector as mentioned in Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision. The paper makes a comparison with countries, such as the EU and China, regarding the extent to which strict intellectual rights have improved innovation. The author uses an inductive research approach that relies on qualitative data since it critically analyses regulations and policies in many countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the EU, and China. Results and conclusions: The author finds that financial incentives are more effective than in developing innovation in the renewable energy sector. Most importantly, developing countries benefit from financial incentives to increase innovation since many developed countries have adopted a strict IP law after their markets developed.

A bird's eye view of Ghana's renewable energy sector environment: A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making approach

East Asia's renewable energy (RE) sector has grown faster than any other region's since the mid-2000s. It is argued that renewables formed an integral part of the region's new industrial policies and new developmentalism, which are founded on new configured forms of state capacity shaped in response to various challenges, primarily climate change, energy security, globalisation and global neo-liberalism. By studying the recent progress of East Asia's RE sector, we gain useful insights into these key developments in East Asia's political economy and the region's prospects for transition towards low carbon development. This analysis considers how and why different approaches to RE policy emerged in East Asia, to what extent the promotion and expansion of East Asia's RE sector is part of a new industrial policy paradigm and new developmentalism, and what the study of East Asian policies on promoting renewable energy can tell us about the region's broader approach to low carbon development. Although the promotion of renewable energy has been a fundamental part of East Asia's recent macro-development plans and new developmentalism generally, these same plans suggest that East Asian states will simultaneously continue to significantly promote high carbon and ecologically damaging industrial activities, thus undermining the low carbon credentials of East Asia's new developmentalism. The path to meaningful low carbon development will be very long and will take many decades to achieve. However, it is contended that by maintaining and improving their various forms of state capacity over time, the East Asian states will be well positioned to sustain the significant growth of their renewable energy sectors and thereby further strengthen the low carbon development orientation of their new industrial policies, macro-development plans and strategic economic thinking.

Comparison of the economic effects of nuclear power and renewable energy deployment in South Korea

Indonesia is a developing country with a high dependence on fossil fuels. To promote renewable energy, the government has implemented several policies, including a feed-in tariff system and tax incentives. However, the renewable energy sector in Indonesia still faces various challenges, including the fiscal policy gap. This paper aims to analyze the political economy of Indonesia’s renewable energy sector and its fiscal policy gap. We argue that the fiscal policy gap is the result of the interests of fossil fuel stakeholders who have managed to influence policy-making processes. We conclude that to overcome the fiscal policy gap, the government needs to establish a strong political will to promote renewable energy and reduce the influence of fossil fuel stakeholders. The article “The Political Economy of Indonesia’s Renewable Energy Sector and Its Fiscal Policy Gap” provides an analysis of the political economy of Indonesia's renewable energy sector and the gap in its fiscal policy. The study aims to understand the reasons for the slow progress of Indonesia's renewable energy sector and to propose a policy framework for accelerating its development. The study uses a qualitative research method and draws on data from a variety of sources, including academic studies, policy documents, and interviews with industry experts and policymakers. The findings reveal that the slow progress of Indonesia's renewable energy sector is due to a lack of political will, institutional fragmentation, and a lack of coordination among stakeholders. The study recommends that Indonesia adopt a comprehensive and integrated policy framework to overcome these challenges, including developing a national energy strategy, implementing effective fiscal incentives, and improving the regulatory environment.