Chapter 24: Building a Sustainable Photovoltaic Innovation System in Indonesia Through Network Governance Perspective

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) is one of primary renewable energy sources aimed to achieve national electrification ratio in Indonesia. There are two PV electricity generators in Indonesia, centralized PV generators (PLTS) and dispersed PV generators (SHS). Both PLTS and SHS are installed in remote and rural areas by which there are no electricity grids provided by state-owned electricity (PLN). The numbers of 15 PLTS/SHS projects are main cases of this study. All of them are categorized based on the type of project and thus analyzed by qualitative research method. This research attempts to investigate PV projects’ current progress and formulate a solution to solve the emerging problems. This research found that PLTS/ SHS projects face unresolved classical problems over the years, unsustaining PV projects (e.g., short-life infrastructure due to maintenance capability issue). This study proposes regional innovation system (RIS) and sectoral innovation system (SIS) as the Indonesian comprehensive policy strategy to sustain national PV projects. Network Governance (NG) perspective is a lens to capture how actors of academician, business, government, and community (ABGC) interact and collaborate mutually. The conclusion is that RIS and SIS can create a PV market in Indonesia, possibly being implemented through different NG forms.