Dear IEEFA Asia Community,
First, a date for your calendar. On 7 October 2026, IEEFA will host a one-day, in-person summit as part of Bangkok Climate Action Week. We’ll bring together experts from across energy, finance, policy, and civil society to discuss some of the key issues shaping Asia’s energy transition, including energy security in emerging Asian markets, investment in grids and energy storage, and climate finance in Asia.
Save the date and register your interest. We’ll share more details on the agenda and speakers in the coming weeks.
Turning to our research this month, one major key finding from Indonesia stands out: coal is no longer the cheapest source of electricity. IEEFA finds that, at the lowest end of their respective cost ranges, solar is approximately 44% cheaper than coal, while onshore wind is around 32% cheaper. The question is increasingly not whether renewables can compete with fossil fuels, but whether Indonesia’s electricity planning can keep pace with the changing economics of power generation.
Our team’s research this month has also explored several key developments shaping Asia’s energy transition:
- On 25 August 2026, President Prabowo Subianto officially launched the ambitious 100GW solar program. Embedding the program into Indonesia’s electricity planning framework could help reduce electricity costs and strengthen energy security.
- Natural gas accounts for 66% of Thailand’s electricity generation, but declining domestic production has increased reliance on volatile LNG imports. Rising fuel costs have also put pressure on state utility EGAT, highlighting the economic risks of continued dependence on fossil fuels.
- Our two fact sheets this month look at Pakistan’s energy transition and ammonia co-firing in Japan’s coal-fired power plants. In Pakistan, we examine the potential benefits of more flexible LNG procurement, continued solar deployment, and faster development of battery energy storage systems (BESS). In Japan, we look at the challenges of relying on imported ammonia for power sector decarbonization, including the implications for energy security and electricity affordability.
You can find these and our other latest research below. We hope to see many of you in Bangkok in October.
Warm regards,
Paige Nguyen
Director, Asia
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
