M. Indra al Irsyad Presents in IAFOR International Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the En

The conference was organised by the International Academic Forum (IAFOR) in association with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka University and IAFOR’s Global University Partners. With theme “Surviving and Thriving: In Pursuit of a Sustainable World”, the conference invites synergistic conversations for solving the vulnerabilities and great uncertainties in the future. The first day of the conference was the opening ceremony and a series of keynote presentations.

Dr. Joseph Haldane, the IAFOR Chairman, opened the conference.

The second and third days were the parallel sessions. In the last session, Muhammad Indra al Irsyad, a member of UQ’s SEES Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy Research Group, presented part of his PhD project. His presentation entitled “Estimating Effectiveness and Efficiency of Solar Energy Policy for Indonesia: A Hybrid Agent-Based Model Analysis” suggests that the Indonesian government should change its existing solar energy policies. Existing free photovoltaic (PV) system in rural households without electricity access should be changed to policies establishing PV retailers and financing access; reducing PV price; and giving partial capital and interest subsidy. Specifically, the government give subsidies to an electricity company appointed through a bidding system. The company may use solar lighting kits without power meter and grid infrastructure. Therefore, the subsidies are calculated based on the number of served customers given at a commercial date. Thereafter, the company collects fix monthly electricity fee from its served customers. This fix revenue stream scheme will reduce the business risks of the company. For on-grid solar energy supply, Indra suggest to change the existing quota system of centralised solar power to the distributed rooftop PV system. The distributed system could provide more stable solar power supply but it needs the net metering scheme, allowing electricity export and import to/from the electricity grid at the same tariff. These recommendations are based on the simulation results of Agent-based Renewables model for Indonesia’s Sustainable Energy (ARISE), a hybrid energy model integrating energy system, macroeconomic, social and environmental perspectives.