According to Ember, Indonesia’s power consumption grew by more than 40% between 2015 and 2023 (from 243 TWh to 351 TWh), including due to population growth: the country’s population went up from 259.1 million people in 2015 to 275.5 million in 2022 (no later data are available). Growth in energy demand has led to the launch of new generating infrastructure. The capacity of Indonesian coal-fired TPPs brought into operation in the period from 2000 to 2014 totaled 16.4 gigawatts (GW) versus 28.5 GW launched between 2015 and 2023, according to Global Energy Monitor. As a result, Indonesia became one of the top three countries worldwide in terms of the rate of bringing coal-fired TPPs into operation, second only to China and India, which launched 380 GW and 80 GW of coal-fired TPPs, respectively, over the same period.
A similar leap in the development of coal-fired power generation was observed in the Philippines, which launched 2.3 GW of coal-fired TPPs in the period from 2000 to 2014 versus 6.4 GW in 2015–2023. The year 2023 saw the share of coal in the energy mix reach 61.9% in the Philippines and 61.8% in Indonesia; both countries outpaced all other world economies in these terms, including Poland and China, where coal accounted for 61.1% and 60.7% of the power output, respectively.
Despite the reduction in the cost of wind and solar power generation technologies, both countries use renewable energy sources to a relatively low extent. For instance, the output of Indonesia’s coal-fired and gas-fired power plants in 2023 increased by 12 TWh and 6 TWh, respectively, while wind, solar and hydroelectric power plants saw their output go down by a total of 1 TWh. Meanwhile, the output of coal-fired TPPs rose by 7 TWh in the Philippines, with the output of all other power plants falling by 2 TWh.
Overall, Indonesia and the Philippines are somewhat out of step with the trend prevalent in Southeast Asia, where the widespread use of coal is combined with the introduction of renewable energy sources. For instance, Vietnam and Thailand launched 18.7 GW and just under 1 GW of coal-fired TPPs in the period from 2015 to 2023, whereas wind generators and solar panels in 2023 accounted for a total of 13% of power generation in Vietnam and 5% in Thailand. According to Ember, that share stood at a mere 3% in the Philippines last year, and less than 1% in Indonesia.
