Winarso PA
Indonesia is situated in tropical area which receives a lot of solar energy every year. Unfortunately, the applying of solar energy as the one energy sources is still have many problems such low efficiency and more expensive than fossil fuel. Another problem is that there is no actual data in experimental based which shows the actual solar energy received annually. Thus the massive usage of solar power in term of cost-effective is hard to be determined. Indonesia happens to be ideal sites for solar energy production and utilization because of their geographical locations. Moreover, some remote areas are among the best sites to develop small scale solar electric generating plants. Hence the this country may exploit this natural resource to the advantage and work together with the international donor community to gain the means and knowledge necessary for developing sustainable energy technologies in Indonesia. The objective of this study is to determine the theoretical potential of solar irradiation in Indonesia by several approximations from global up to regional point of view to investigate the favorable places of the potential solar radiation to convert in the electricity power. This global point of view may be subjected to have global findings of the specific areas favorable for obtaining the solar energy conversion for electricity. From the regional point of view, the development of timing of the sun shining may derive from rainfall pattern, where the more rainfall received over certain areas. The second object; they may describe more cloud development to reduce sun shining as wheel as sun radiation. The result may give more detail the potential areas of the sun radiation to be converted into solar power for electricity.