ABSTRACT
Indonesia’s energy demand and consumption have increased following its economic growth. At the same time, it set to achieve a renewable energy target of 23% by 2025 to help meet its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) target. However, challenges such as inadequate policy planning and implementation and increased coal power plant installations continue to hinder Indonesia’s ability to achieve these targets. The application of clean and efficient renewable energy presents the opportunity to reduce emissions and meet the growing energy demand. This narrative explores the risks and uncertainties of the biogas technology transition pathways. Two pathways were identified and discussed with stakeholders, namely household biogas digesters and the large-scale deployment for electricity. Dialogue on the planning and implementation of these pathways highlighted four key uncertainties: unclear roles of public and private sectors, inconsistent targets under changing political terms, an unspecified national biogas target, and contrasting views on biogas development. Interactions among these uncertainties affect the overarching risks of biogas development in Indonesia. Stakeholders emphasized the implementation risks due to the limited outlook of the consequential risks. A cross-analysis of the two pathways are presented, followed by an extensive exploration of the household-scale biogas pathway as the initial research interest.
