Indonesia's Ministry of Environment/Environmental Control Agency (KLH/BPLH), together with sovereign investment body BPI Danantara, is targeting 11 waste-to-energy facilities to come online progressively by 2028, part of a broader push to overhaul the country's national waste management system ahead of a comprehensive 2029 target. The initiative was outlined at an international media briefing in Jakarta on 7 September.
Why Waste-to-Energy Is Framed as a Last Step, Not the Whole Solution
KLH/BPLH's Director of Waste Management, Melda Mardalina, was explicit that waste-to-energy facilities are not the only answer to Indonesia's waste problem, stating that handling must start at the source: sorting waste, processing organic material, and optimizing Reduce-Reuse-Recycle (3R) facilities before residual waste reaches a waste-to-energy plant at all. That structure positions waste-to-energy specifically as downstream infrastructure for handling what remains after upstream reduction, sorting and processing, run alongside other supporting programmes including waste banks, organic waste processing, refuse-derived fuel (RDF) as an alternative fuel, and biogas utilisation.
The Competitive Selection Process Behind the Projects
Development of the facilities has attracted interest from 85 companies and global consortia, with 68 formal applications submitted to develop eight project sites in the programme's second phase. Those eight projects will join three pioneering first-phase projects already underway in Denpasar, Bekasi and Bogor, completing the full 11-facility target by 2028. According to Fadli Rahman, CEO of PT Daya Energi Bersih Nusantara (Denera), applicants came from Indonesia, China, Japan, South Korea, France, India and Singapore, with track record, technology readiness, and reliability in completing construction on schedule cited as the main selection criteria.
Where Construction Actually Stands
Two first-phase projects, in Denpasar and Bekasi, have already entered on-site construction, while the Bogor project is scheduled to begin construction in September 2026. This gives the programme a genuine, verifiable construction track record for two-thirds of its pioneering phase, rather than the announcement resting entirely on future commitments.
Why Feedstock Supply Certainty Is Treated as a Named Risk
Fadli specifically flagged the importance of guaranteed feedstock supply for the facilities to operate continuously, with local governments involved in each project required to ensure waste volume availability through a due diligence process involving the relevant local government, KLH/BPLH, and independent consultants. Naming this as an explicit, structured requirement, rather than an assumed given, reflects a recognised risk in waste-to-energy projects generally: a facility built for a certain waste throughput can underperform or run uneconomically if the actual waste supply reaching it falls short of what was planned for.
What This Represents Within Indonesia's Broader Waste Strategy
Fadli described waste-to-energy as merely the beginning of a broader journey toward end-to-end waste management transformation, framing these 11 facilities as one component of a chain intended to run from household-level sorting through to final waste handling, rather than a standalone solution addressing Indonesia's waste challenge on its own.
Source: Environmental Control Agency of Indonesia (KLH/BPLH), 7 September 2026.
