Research & Development 20 for Clean Energy Technology

SUMMER SCHOOL 2024

The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has hosted the Research and Development
20 (RD20) Summer School 2024. Under the theme "Diversity of Knowledge on Decarbonization in
Just Energy Transition Mechanism" young researchers from the G20 countries gathered from 7-13
July 2024 in Jakarta in a series of lectures, workshops and excursions related to the decarbonizationof the energy system.
The RD20 Summer School offered researchers a comprehensive program, covering topics such assustainable energy transition, circular economy, smart grid, artificial intelligence in the energy sector,
and solar energy development. These sessions provided participants with valuable insight into thelatest technological developments and their use, particularly in the realm of renewable energy anddecarbonization efforts. By bridging theoretical knowledge and practical application, it supports
participants to actively contribute to changes in the energy system landscape in the future.
As host of the RD20 Summer School 2024, BRIN emphasized their commitment to encouraging
innovation and collaboration among young researchers around the world to pave the way towards asustainable future. Through joint learning and understanding and by sharing knowledge andexperience among scientists and engineers, this can foster new solutions and innovative thinking toovercome the complexity of energy transition strategies and decarbonization efforts.
The participants were also involved in interactive workshop sessions, panel discussions, andnetworking sessions, in order to increase participants' understanding of the complexities ofachieving a sustainable energy transition. In 2022 Indonesia announced its plans to target a
reduction of GHG emissions by almost 32% by 2030 in a business-as-usual scenario. Throughpresentations from high-level representatives from government ministries and leading corporationsof the energy sector, researchers were able to get first hand insights into Indonesia’s energy
transition and decarbonization plans on their path towards carbon neutrality by 2060.
This enabled them to better understand the specific needs and challenges Indonesia is facing andthe technological and implementation solutions required for adaptation in the existing environment.
Examples are the new local content requirement for renewable energy technologies, e.g. for solar
modules a minimum of 40%, which presents a significant challenge on the supply side, or guidelines
for the early retirement of fossil-fuel fired power plants and their replacement by renewable power
projects.
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Message from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Republic of Indonesia

Chrisnawan AndityaIndonesianHead of Center for Data andInformation Technology,
Ministry of Energy andMineral Resources,
Indonesia

Within the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources we areresponsible for the provision of all the relevant data in energy andrelated transportation and technology information for strategic
policy making and reporting of the government. In order to fulfill
Indonesia’s obligations towards a carbon neutral society in 2060,
total emissions of 915 million tons of CO2 have to be reduced in
2030, of which the energy sector contributes 358 million tons CO2.
There are several areas which will contribute towards this goal.
One is the development of nuclear energy, which can contribute toa reduction of 181 million tons CO2, the next biggest factor iscoming from energy efficiency and the third factor is coming fromthe introduction of clean power technologies which will replacecoal and gas power plants and also through the co-firing of
biomass and the replacement of gasoline through LPG intransportation.
Key priority for R&D in the energy sector is energy storage, as
most new clean power additions will come from variable energy
generation resources as wind and solar PV. For energy storage
batteries and pumped-storage hydro will be the main technologies.
As a large archipelago the second R&D focus will be on thedevelopment of a large interconnection system, the Indonesian“supergrid” and the development of smart grids. Through theexistence of abundant natural gas resources, there is also
particular interest in gas-based technologies like biogas, hydrogenand ammonia, which may be partly used in existing coal fired
power stations. Their price is still very high, so we need to focus on
research to reduce the cost of these technologies. In transportation
there will be change from the ICE to batteries, which will also
require research in the efficient use of these technologies.
The RD20 initiative offers us a good opportunity to learn from theexperiences of other G20 countries who have implemented thesetechnologies already before, and how they contributed to theirdecarbonization efforts. With this initiative we expect to get thelessons learned from others’ experiences and how to put for
example the use of solar PV and wind into reality. Indonesia has
also abundant mineral resources, so it needs environmentallyfriendly technologies which will help to extract these resources andprocess them from upstream to downstream into end products, so
we always look for existing environmental friendly technologies
which can help our planning for the future. Through the RD20
initiative we are inviting other researchers to share theirexperience with us and to benefit from such events.

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Message from the Organizer BRIN (National Research and Innovation Agency)

Agus Haryono
Indonesian
Deputy Chairman for
Facilitation of Research andInnovation, BRIN, Indonesia

The Indonesian government has set a national target towards net
zero carbon emissions by 2060 or sooner, with the main objective
to make our environment cleaner and to provide a healthier life forour young generation in the future. With BRIN, we facilitate thisprocess especially for research in renewable energy technologies
and the funding of projects in universities or the private sector.
In Indonesia the total installed electrical generation capacity is 85
GW, with the majority of more than 40 GW is coal-fired, so in thenear term the plan is to convert it from coal to biomass. In terms of
implementation the biggest challenge is to transfer research
results from the laboratory to the industry and the upscaling inindustrial scale processes.
For us the challenges in the energy sphere cannot be overcome bya single country, so we have to cooperate with other countries
which have more experience in achieving net zero emissions
targets. Indonesia has still many problems in achieving its targets,so collaboration with other countries is a must. RD20 is one of theopportunities for us to establish many cooperations in developing
our renewable energy sources, and I hope through RD20 we caninitiate more cooperations.
RD20 provides the opportunity for meetings to get together withresearchers and stakeholders in research and development in theenergy sector, so I believe their engagement should be in more
concrete terms in order to have a positive impact on RD20
objectives. That’s why I suggest to support more engagement
between organizations to give them for example the opportunity forbilateral meetings, e.g. BRIN and AIST, or CEA and NREL, so they
can discuss more concrete projects. Multilateral projects are often
more difficult to organize which makes it more complicated. In thelast RD20 event I requested the organizers to have bilateralmeetings between organizations, so after one year after the
meeting I expected to have more concrete activities.
In Indonesia the engagement of the private sector in our research
activities is still very low compared to other countries. Just looking
at the budget for research and development, 84% is coming fromthe government and only 16% from the private sector.
In the RD20 summer school the participants are young
researchers from different countries. Their collaboration andexchange will be important for future generations within the G20
countries. So we hope that the summer school provides theopportunity for contacts and networking for future collaboration
between each other.

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Research & Development 20 for Clean Energy Technology

Cuk Supriyadi Ali Nandar
Indonesian
Chairman of Energy and
Manufacture Research
Organization, BRIN,
Indonesia

SUMMER SCHOOL 2024

In order to achieve the net zero emission target, we focus on
renewable energy, first solar PV, wind and hydro, but we also want
to utilize biomass, as the country has abundant natural resources.
In the transportation sector we also have the priority to use palm
oil for production of biofuel and the implementation of electricvehicles. For electricity generation, apart from those mentioned
above, our priority lies in geothermal and also nuclear power. The
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources have set up the energy
transition roadmap, where the first priority is the installation of new
solar PV, which may be realized within a shorter timeframe. The
original target was a 23% share of renewable energies in 2025, but
at the moment we have achieved only a share of 13%. Then, theNational Energy Council (DEN) revised the target for the newrenewable energy mix to 17 - 19 percent by 2025. One of ourchallenges is how to convert coal-fired power plants to biomass, so
for example we started the co-development with the industry toconvert boilers from coal to biomass.
Cooperation through RD20 with foreign countries is very important
to us. As Indonesia has huge natural resources, we would like todevelop necessary modern technologies and corresponding
intellectual property rights for their environmental friendly
exploitation together with our partners. Indonesia is a huge market
not only for electrical energy generation but also for green
transportation and carbon capture.
Real action is very important for us. Within RD20 we discussed
about many topics and decided on priorities, but for Indonesia forexample we need an action plan for the integration of a large
amount of variable renewable sources (VRES) for power
generation. This target includes some issues, especially stability,intermittency and excess power, so we need to decide on priorities
and real actions after the RD20 summer school.
The industrial sector is very important for the implementation of ourresearch activities, so further engagement in RD20 is very much
welcomed.
Every country has their different challenges and opportunities, forexample in Indonesia quality still does not play such an importantrole as quantity. The electrification ratio is still not 100%, forexample the majority of the renewable resources are lying outside
Java, but the majority of the demand is within the island of Java,
this is one of our challenges. This is an issue we can discuss withother countries and learn from their experiences.

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Voice from ERIA (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia)
Through an ongoing big joint project between AIST in Japan and
ERIA two years ago when I stayed in Tsukuba Japan during a
research project I was for the first time exposed to the RD20
initiative. I was first involved in the G20 process in 2010, and later
I learned through my colleagues that the RD20 initiative waslaunched during the Japan G20 presidency in 2019. I learned
about the RD20 summer school later when some AIST colleagues
came to ERIA for an explanatory meeting and then BRIN
contacted us and we had a couple of meetings about the RD20
summer school. Previously I had an exposure to a similar
program which was the initiative of the German G20 presidency,
they also had a summer school program which was held end of
May and first week of June. I also know about the Science20
program (G20's science and technology engagement group), myanalogy was that the RD20 was something similar to these
Venkatachalam Anbumozhi initiatives.
When AIST asked ERIA for a partnership for the RD20 summer
IndianSenior Research Fellow for school they asked us what ERIA could contribute in the area ofcarbon market and carbon pricing where we are doing some
Innovations, ERIA,
research and they also asked for other speakers from India andIndonesia
Indonesia to introduce relevant experts that were needed. Duringthat time my image and expectation was that it is an event for thepromotion of these young researchers and to empower them forfrontier knowledge that would benefit them. ERIA is aninternational organization and our mandate is also knowledgetransfer, we have this knowledge and we bring this regional
knowledge to our end customers.
RD20 is about research and development and it was born out of
the G20 process, so it needs to be aligned with the G20 mission
and goals, which might be summarized as policy coordination.
Within the G20 we have advanced and big economies, andemerging and small economies. Basically the value addition
comes from bringing these gaps to narrow down. So thedeveloping countries could learn from the advanced economies,
first the curiosity to develop and second to find a solution for acertain problem. There are joint global problems that the G20 are
trying to address commonly, but where solutions could be
differentiated in a certain way. So how RD20 can bring solutions
for the global problems, that is what we need to bring into
consideration. There are developmental gaps that exist, that iswhat RD20 could mean, that is where development exchange
could happen. That could come from the RD20 summer school. In
reality there a country silos and research silos that exist, but
normally there is a wide participation of developing countries, thatis where exchange could happen. There is also a huge variety of
research disciplines, where exchange would be beneficial. Then
there is also the issue of financing support, where maybe twoparticipants are cooperating on a common project, and throughthe invitation of a third researcher where RD20 could contribute
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through a financial mechanism as maybe a small grant to allow
joint research and development. In another sense RD20 could
also foster innovation through such events as the summer school
to develop new ideas, and to facilitate and nurture the common
ground to work together.
Every researcher who is an expert in his field could contribute to
the RD20 initiative by bringing frontier knowledge to either a groupof young researchers or engineers, which can bring a multidisciplinary thinking to this group. On the other side there is thequestion of how to incentivise top researchers to contribute,
because it is their valuable time to prepare presentations which is
not being compensated. As an organisation, we are alreadycooperating with 16 different nations, we are involved in the G20
process, so we can bring some G20 presidential thinking to theRD20 program, the way what we are discussing, how we are
discussing, how to make research more useful and usable for us.
Voices from the young researchers participants
I became to know about the RD20 summer school through acolleague which participated in the summer school in 2023, so I took
the initiative to talk to my manager and suggested to participate inthis years’ event. On top of everything the most important motivation
for participating in this summer school was the diversity of theknowledge on decarbonisation and especially the sustainableenergy transition. My whole work objective in my research is toachieve a sustainable energy transition. I expected that the event
will be truly diverse and touch on those subjects which I will normally
not do, because my research is really advanced, this will give me theopportunity to touch on some diverse topics, for example today weheard about the circular economy and life cycle assessment, and an
entirely new capital to be developed in Indonesia with the objectiveof low emissions, so it is very interesting of how all these individualfeatures fit into the overall system planning and how they can impact
positively to the outcome of the decarbonisation plan for the future.
Ghulam Mohy Ud Din
I am very pleased to become to understand these new topics today I
Pakistan
Electrical Power Systems, heard about and learned from, it definitely broadens your spectrum
Network Planning, CSIRO, of thinking of what you are going to integrate and features which aregoing to affect the outcome and which we are not thinking at theAustralia
moment.
I believe the objectives for RD20 are very general, whereby we areplaced in a very narrow research spectrum where we are trying tocontribute to the energy transition for our future. We have to fit inthose objectives into a research perspective. So on following up on
those core (RD20) objectives, so I thought, this is the right thing,because this type of alliance of the research organisations where we
can really have in-depth discussions on different topics, and where
we can really explore more on our own research spectrum andwhere we can become to know where we can contribute moresignificantly and easily through the RD20 platform. I really expectthat these discussions should facilitate on the way to the next levelof collaboration. I myself being favourable towards open data tools,
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models and data sets for research purposes, and these are one of
the contributions I am trying to do myself to this area. I am a strong
advocate for this throughout that platform so the researchcommunity can benefit from that. This will help us collectively tounderstanding and doing research and sharing and collaborating on
our research activities in different fields.
The conferences which we normally attend are very specific in theircontent, for example the Power Systems conference which I justattended last June in Paris, these conferences have normally very
specific themes and are confined to a very specific research area.
What is also missing is to present research issues in the specificlocal context, so for example when you place a certain solution in adifferent local context, the solution might be different. You have tounderstand all those kind of diverse aspects and to have to identify
those problems in a different context, so only this will help to comeup with a really global sustainable energy transition. This is an area
where RD20 could contribute a lot.
I am also working on the Australian electricity market model, so I am
interested to look into those real system characteristics and I am
thinking of the real problems that can be faced and to solve them,rather then to do only theoretical research. I am not criticising it, I ama great fan of all the research which is being done across countries
around the globe, but I am really interested to look into the real
problems. One of the ways to find the real problems and to get on
the real solutions is to exploring them practically. I actually had thechance to explore Vietnam’s power system. In February this year I
was delivering a presentation in a workshop which was organised by
CSIRO and the Department of Trade of Australia. In that workshop
we were able to talk to the Vietnamese representatives tounderstand about their power system, which was very interesting,because the characteristics of their power systems were entirely
different from the Australian power systems, their problems wereunique, they needed unique recommendations and solutions for that.
That actually helps to widening up our own knowledge andunderstanding of how the systems work in different specific regions,that is the diversity which can be learned through RD20.
I can personally contribute to the RD20 process throughpresentations on my own work on network security, I have also
made available my models, data sets and tools on open source toshare it with the community for the purpose of transparency. I would
be very happy to continue to contribute in that sense.

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Research & Development 20 for Clean Energy Technology

Asad Hasan Sahir
IndianChemical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology
ROPAR, India

SUMMER SCHOOL 2024

My first job after graduation with a master’s degree was with an
Indian petroleum company, where I worked in the area of crude oil
distillation and refining efficiency improvement. Then I moved on to
pursue a PhD in clean coal technologies, where I was introduced tothe subject of biofuel co-firing during my stay in Colorado, USA. My
research always centered around leveraging already existing energy
infrastructure. The same problem we are facing with the introductionof hydrogen, where we are having a lot of existing natural gas
pipelines which potentially could be used for transportation ofhydrogen. It is a question of how we can use modern calculation
tools, such as fluid dynamics to investigate systems, which havealready a history, which may benefit from advanced analysis.
My main personal motivation to work in the field of decarbonisation
technologies lies in the fact that India has a very large population, so
we have concerns about energy equity. So how we can help our
population to get access to energy which is affordable. Renewableenergies have a very important future, especially in a country which
is moving from an emerging to a developed economy. And these are
the aspirations which are shared also by our current government.
For a developing country one of the important issues is to provide
access to energy and equity. Hydrogen is also an important vector to
be explored, but recently my focus has changed on how to use
bioenergy. We are also working on the decarbonisation of the ironand steel industry as well as the resource requirements for the
petrochemical industry. So these are the four areas I am interested
to look at. Coming to the summer school I am also finding similar
aspirations for Indonesia which is also diversifying its energy
structure. So an event like this is a very important opportunity to see
how a country is thinking in re-planning its resources, as well as toparticipate in an event where major research organisations like
NREL, AIST from Japan as well as the university from Birmingham
and CEA from France provide an excellent opportunity to engage inthese type of conversations.
I was part of the organising team which was welcoming delegations
for the G20 summit last year, where I participated in the secondary
education working meetings, where part of it was also research anddevelopment. Through Google search I learned that there is also an
RD20 initiative and that there was a summer school. I was verymuch excited about the idea on the common objective of research in
the field of decarbonisation. I am convinced that a single country can
not address a large problem, because although the energy
technologies may be similar, but the context of applying thosetechnologies is very different. So what is happening in Indonesia is
not applicable to India because of the geographical size. The UnitedStates may have another different context on manufacturing andwhat are their needs in the future. And for example India is planningto undertake massive investments in its petrochemical infrastructure,
but there is a lot which we can learn from the United States andEurope when it comes to life cycle assessment of technologies. So
why don’t we have a collaborative mechanism where we can learn
and synergise between different nations and their scientists. So
RD20 can be a great way of doing this. 20 years back a lot ofPage 8

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research collaborations were happening bilaterally, but multilaterally
only on a few occasions.
An area which can benefit besides the typical PhD candidates is
exposing our undergraduate students to these initiatives. For
example the German Academic Exchange Service welcomes
students from all over the world, but there could be a particulartheme on energy where the participating countries may identify
certain topics on decarbonisation, I think of a three to five year
program where they could have internships towards these topics.
For example we have participants from Bangladesh and the UnitedStates which participate on online internships, and everyone ofthese emerging leaders wants to do something for the world, so it isjust to create those mechanisms, so I think an initiative like RD20
can join in and centralise such mechanisms. So it is not about asummer school, a task force or a workshop, but it is an opportunity
for the participating nations to truly benefit from an immediate needto collaborate.
Another opportunity which I really appreciate is the US Departmentof Energy solar decathlon design competition, which they opened tocountries like India and Africa, and the idea is that teams cometogether and they design and manufacture solutions based on solar
energy, this initiative had a resounding success. So maybe RD20
can bring these initiatives together which then can have a wider
footprint.
I am involved in many bilateral and multilateral research programswith individual countries, for me the main learning I am looking
forward in RD20 is how different countries are approaching thesame problem but through a different lens, and it is my opinion thatevery country has its own analysis under a given context, even if
there is a lot of learning which can be done through sharing of data,
sharing of insights. For example if there is some wonderful researchwhich is being conducted in Germany, and if I am a researcher
sitting in India, I will need to consider whether there are solutions
where both countries can work together in developing joint
technologies which can be applied in India, but there might be also
other countries which might be working on the same item. So this is
an area where RD20 can support to provide better visibility. I willdefinitely encourage other senior researchers to participate as alecturer in the next RD20 summer school as well as to learn from theemerging generation of researchers by seeing their enthusiasm, byseeing the diversity of topics in the poster sessions, which has beena wonderful experience.

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