Indonesia has an increasing electricity demand that is mostly met with fossil fuels. Although Indonesia plans to ramp up Renewable Energy Technologies (RET), implementation has been slow. This is unfortunate, as the RET potential in Indonesia might be higher than currently assumed given the archipelago’s size. However, there is no literature overview of RET potentials in Indonesia and to what extent they can meet current and future electricity demand coverage. This paper reviews contemporary literature on the potential of nine RET in Indonesia and analyses their impact in terms of area and demand coverage. The study concludes that Indonesia hosts massive amounts of renewable energy resources on both land and sea. The potentials in the academic and industrial literature tend to be considerably larger than the ones from the Indonesian Energy Ministry on which current energy policies are based. Moreover, these potentials could enable a 100% renewables electricity system and meet future demand with limited impact on land availability. Nonetheless, the review showed that the research topic is still under-researched with three detected knowledge gaps, namely the lack of (i) economic RET potentials, (ii) research on the integrated spatial potential mapping of several RET and (iii) empirical data on natural resources. Lastly, this study provides research and policy recommendations to promote RET in Indonesia.

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Carbon fibers and their composites have attracted much attention in recent years and are being used in an increasing number of industries. However, due to the high production costs of carbon fibers and the complex manufacturing process of composites, their use in large series applications is still limited. The main cost driver in carbon fiber manufacturing is the production of the precursor fiber, with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) being the prevailing feedstock today. Approximately 50% of the production cost of carbon fibers is related to the precursor fiber. For this reason, the use of a new precursor material offers enormous cost-saving potential.Polyethylene (PE) is a promising alternative to PAN due to its high carbon content, low cost, high availability, and melt processability. This study reviews the research and development activities on PE-based carbon fibers. The manufacturing of the precursor fiber and its conversion process into a carbon fiber are discussed. The review also provides an overview of published information on concepts for commercial production of PE-based carbon fibers and various cost models.

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