Jakarta. Australia has entered into talks to partake in Indonesia’s multibillion-dollar megaproject of powering the country with its mounting waste.

The close neighbor has sent business delegates to explore investment opportunities in Indonesia. President Prabowo Subianto has ordered the state asset fund Danantara to spearhead the waste-to-energy project. Australia’s Business Champion for Indonesia Jennifer Westacott revealed on Wednesday that Danantara had made its business pitch of how foreign investors could join the country’s quest to generate electricity from waste.

“We certainly got a great briefing this week from Danantara about their waste-to-energy proposal, which looks very ambitious, and very, very important. Australia has a lot of capability in the waste-to-energy space,” Westacott told reporters on the margins of the 2026 Indonesia Economic Summit.

“We began some conversations about bringing parties together from Australia with Danantara, … to see whether or not Australian companies can come in to either be providers or partners in what is really an important initiative of Danantara,” Westacott said.

As many as 24 foreign companies are now competing in the first tender to be the technological partner in the waste-to-energy project. Chinese firms dominate the list, with no Australian participation in the tender. Danantara will unveil the results of the tender this month, with the groundbreaking on the pilot projects slated for the first half.

Just a few months ago, Australia opened its first operational energy recovery plant. The Kwinana Energy Recovery facility will transform up to 460,000 tons of non-recyclable waste annually into 38 megawatts of baseload renewable electricity — enough to power over 55,000 homes. Owning and operating this facility is the renewable energy giant Acciona. Indonesia has amassed $719 million in Australian investments throughout 2025. 

Prabowo wants to get the project running as soon as possible, as he fears almost all landfills in the country can reach overcapacity by 2028. His presentation to cabinet members and regional heads earlier this week showed that the groundbreaking would start with 10 cities this year, including Denpasar and Bekasi in March. The plants should also enter into operations within two years from now.

The president said at the time that setting up the waste-to-energy facilities in 34 cities would require $3.5 billion, much lower than Danantara’s early estimates of around Rp 91 trillion ($5.4 billion). The Jakarta Globe later confirmed to Danantara’s managing director for investment Stefanus Ade Hadiwidjaja on the actual price tag for the entire project.

“It’s $5 billion,” Stefanus told the Globe by text on Thursday morning.

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