Bali solar shift targets full diesel phase-out

Bali aims to retire diesel with flagship solar and storage

Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources says a 1-gigawatt-peak solar programme in Bali could eliminate every diesel generator on the island. Eniya Listiani Dewi, Director General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, framed the plan as a complete diesel phase-out once the 1 GWp capacity is in place. As a result, Bali moves from symbolic clean-energy pilots to system-level change that directly targets fuel-based generation costs.

The island’s build-out will be split into five clusters, making Bali a test-bed for large-scale solar paired with storage and grid integration. The flagship Gilimanuk project is designed at 300 megawatt-peak, paired with a 1,000 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system. Ministry projections show the site will span roughly 321 hectares, generate about 470 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year, and save approximately 151,000 kilolitres of fuel annually. Those figures give investors a concrete view of project scale, land requirements and fuel-displacement economics.

The Gilimanuk plant is targeted to begin operations in 2028. According to PLN president director Darmawan Prasodjo, the integrated solar and battery design is built specifically to eliminate fuel oil use in Bali’s power system. By contrast with earlier rooftop-only pilots, this signals a grid-level approach — one that opens room for utility-scale procurement, network reinforcement and ancillary services markets.

How Bali’s role in the 100-GWp push reshapes the opportunity set

President Prabowo Subianto officially launched Indonesia’s 100-GWp solar power strategic programme at the Gilimanuk site in Jembrana, Bali, on 25 August 2026. The national initiative opens with 14 projects across six provinces, combining 5.3 GWp of capacity and an estimated investment of around US$73 billion. Government figures indicate the programme could cut annual subsidy spending by roughly 73.9 trillion rupiah and create more than 5.5 million jobs. Bali’s flagship role sits within a subsidy-linked decarbonisation drive, not an isolated tourism-island experiment.

In 2026, the government targets 30 GWp of new solar capacity while retiring 13 GW of diesel-fired plants nationwide. Ministers describe this as a de-dieselisation programme, with small-island diesel generation replaced by solar as part of a wider green industry transition. The Bali solar shift therefore becomes a visible template for other island grids, with clear capacity, storage and fuel-saving benchmarks that financiers can model on comparable sites.

What does rooftop solar add to Bali’s investment picture?

Rooftop solar adds a secondary layer to the system change. Dewi has highlighted Bali Governor I Wayan Koster’s ambition to equip all hotels on the island with rooftop panels. As a result, hospitality, retail and real estate players may face new incentives to install behind-the-meter capacity. That creates a parallel stream of smaller-scale EPC and financing deals alongside the grid-scale push. This dynamic aligns with broader trends explored in the Jakarta–Bali financial hub plan, where infrastructure investment and tourism capital increasingly converge on the island.

The energy ministry says the 100-GWp programme could save around 6 million kilolitres of diesel per year nationally, including an estimated 500,000 kilolitres per year in Bali alone. That scale of fuel displacement points to power purchase agreements linking tariff reform, diesel retirement and fiscal savings — terms institutional investors will scrutinise closely. Bali’s diesel phase-out, backed by a 1-GWp solar and storage build-out, is Indonesia’s clearest early case of renewables replacing fuel-based generation at grid scale. Over the next two years, the market will watch how tenders are structured, how PLN prices solar-plus-storage, and how fast Bali’s model spreads to other islands targeting similar diesel exits.

Quick answers