Indonesia's need to rapidly expand data center capacity while cutting emissions has the potential to create a significant field for cooperation with China, according to a special policy study report from the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

The Indonesian digital economy is projected to grow from about $80 billion in 2023 to as much as $340 billion by 2030, said the report titled "Pathways to Advance Global Cooperation on Green Development — Focusing on the Green Transformation of and from Data Centers".

Data center demand in Indonesia is expected to increase from about 1.44 gigawatts in 2025 to 3.56 GW by 2030, while demand could exceed 4.5 GW, leaving an estimated 1 GW shortfall, it said.

The report warned that the expansion could also intensify pressure on Indonesia's coal-reliant power system, water supplies and urban land unless new facilities are designed around low-carbon energy and efficient cooling.

Fabby Tumiwa, CEO of the Jakarta-based Institute for Essential Services Reform and co-chair of the report's international team, said the issue extended well beyond the data center industry itself.

"Data centers should be treated not only as energy-intensive infrastructure, but as industrial nodes that can pull wider green transformation through the economy," he said.

For Indonesia, cooperation with China could begin with standards and planning, he said. China has developed national green data center guidelines covering power usage effectiveness, renewable-energy use, water efficiency and other indicators. Indonesia could adapt such frameworks to its tropical climate, archipelagic geography and grid conditions, establishing benchmarks for new construction and retrofits without simply copying Chinese rules.

According to the report, the value of that experience serves both a practical and regulatory purpose.

Projects in the Zhangbei area of Hebei province in North China show how wind and solar power can be combined with free-air cooling in a large computing facility, while the computing hub in Guizhou province in Southwest China demonstrates how data centers can be clustered in a less-developed, resource-rich region and supported by dedicated grid infrastructure.

Such models could inform development in Indonesian locations including Karawang, Batam-Bintan and eastern provinces with potential for solar, hydropower, geothermal and wind.

China could also offer technologies and investment. The report identified liquid cooling, artificial intelligence-based energy optimization, modular construction, heat recovery, efficient power distribution and renewable-energy integration as potential areas for technology transfer.

It highlighted how joint ventures could eventually manufacture power equipment, cooling modules and prefabricated data center components in Indonesia, helping build local skills and reducing the emissions embedded in imported hardware.

Green finance and long-term renewable power agreements would be equally important for projects that require reliable electricity around the clock, it said.

Tumiwa said while Indonesia has renewable resources, data centers required a carefully balanced supply rather than a single source. "There should be a portfolio approach to meet the green energy demand of data centers," he added.

He said Chinese companies' experience in building renewable projects and managing large electricity loads could help Indonesia connect new facilities to cleaner power while maintaining reliability.

The partnership has strong commercial logic, according to Tumiwa. Indonesia has Southeast Asia's largest population, a fast-growing digital market, available land and a broad network of industrial parks where data centers can be linked with manufacturing and logistics.

Chinese cloud and infrastructure companies already have a presence in Indonesia, providing channels for practical projects rather than cooperation limited to policy declarations, he added.

Tumiwa said the next step would be to match those capabilities with concrete business opportunities.

"Most Chinese businesses are more looking for practical cooperation," he said. "Their interest is: Do I have a project? Do I have an opportunity?"

The report called for a China-Indonesia bilateral framework covering standards, clean electricity and grid cooperation, technology transfer, investment and green finance.

Turning that potential into projects will require coordination between Indonesian and Chinese agencies, clear data-governance rules and incentives for facilities that meet green benchmarks.

But with Indonesia facing an urgent capacity gap and China bringing experience from large-scale green computing projects, the report concluded that cooperation could help Indonesia expand its digital economy without locking in a high-carbon infrastructure legacy.