President Joko Widodo has inaugurated a 192MWp floating solar power plant on a reservoir in West Java province.
Indonesia has opened a $108m (£88m) floating solar plant in a significant renewable energy milestone for the country.
The project was developed by PLN Nusantara Power and the renewable energy company Masdar from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The plant was built on Cirata reservoir, 108km (67 miles) south-east of the capital Jakarta. It is the third-largest floating solar plant in the world and could be expanded up to 1,000MWp, PLN chief executive Darmawan Prasodjo said.
The 13 arrays installed so far only occupy 4 per cent of the reservoir’s surface.
“Today is a historical day, because our big dream to build a renewable energy plant on a big scale is finally achieved,” President Joko Widodo said. “We managed to build the largest floating solar farm in South-east Asia, and the third biggest in the world.”
The project includes the installation of of 340,000 solar panel units across 250 hectares, which are expected to generate 245GWh of electricity per year, enough to meet the needs of 50,000 households, according to official sources.
The building of the facility has been funded by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered.
The project has been hailed as a significant move in Indonesia’s decarbonisation journey. The country has a power generation capacity of over 80GW, of which only 15 per cent comes from renewable energy sources. However, Indonesia aims to increase that number to 23 per cent by 2025, and for the country to reach net zero emissions by 2060.
Its launch comes just ahead of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) climate meetings in the UAE later this month.
