Indonesia has more than 27 thousand Islamic boarding schools, of which 90 percent are located in the western part of Indonesia. This is huge potential for the implementation of the rooftop solar panel systemJakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has encouraged Islamic boarding schools to install rooftop solar panels at their school complexes to bolster efforts in achieving the 23-percent renewable energy mix target by 2025.
The ministry's Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Dadan Kusdiana, confirmed that the ministry had disbursed the requisite budget to install 114 rooftop solar panels, with a total electricity capacity of 1,175.5 kWp at 100 Islamic boarding schools in the four provinces of Aceh, West Java, Central Java, and East Java.
"Indonesia has more than 27 thousand Islamic boarding schools, of which 90 percent are located in the western part of Indonesia. This is huge potential for the implementation of the rooftop solar panel system," Kusdiana noted in his statement here on Wednesday.
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The director general explained that if every Islamic boarding school in Indonesia installed a 10-kWp capacity rooftop solar panel, the potential of additional electricity capacity produced in boarding schools may reach 270 MWp.
The development of rooftop solar panels has been prioritized in the development of new and renewable energy in Indonesia, as the country's solar power potential, reaching 3,295 GW, is distributed evenly across Indonesia, particularly in East Nusa Tenggara, Riau, and South Sumatra, where higher solar radiation was recorded, he noted.
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"Indonesia's solar energy potential is huge, yet we still harness only 204 MW. We encourage all parties to utilize this great potential to bolster our new and renewable energy mix target and support the government's efforts to reduce dependence on fossil-based energy," Kusdiana remarked.
Kusdiana called for expediting the current pace of transition to achieve the 23-percent energy mix target by 2025, especially after President Joko Widodo set the target to achieve carbon neutrality in Indonesia by the year 2060.
"Our target is to install more rooftop solar panels to achieve the 2.6-GW capacity by 2025. We also encourage residents and all parties to install rooftop solar panels at their respective homes and buildings, including at Islamic boarding schools," the director general remarked.
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Translator: Sugiharto P, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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