Indonesia activated one of the world's largest floating solar plants (and, by far, the largest in Southeast Asia) with the inauguration and announcement this week of the 145 MW Sirata Power Plant (AC) on a hydroelectric reservoir in West Java. There are plans to add another 500 MW.
This floating solar power project is a collaboration between UAE renewable energy giant Masdar (the first and foremost floating solar power project in Southeast Asia) and Indonesia's PLN Nusantara Power (PLN NP), a public power plant. .
"Today is a historic day because our great dream of building a large-scale power plant based on renewable energy has finally been realized," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in his speech marking the inauguration of the power plant.
"We have successfully built the largest floating solar farm in Southeast Asia and the third largest solar farm in the world," he said.
"We hope that our country will develop more renewable energy, such as solar energy, hydroelectricity, geothermal and wind energy," Widodo said.
Sirata is the third largest operating floating solar power plant in the world, after the 150 MW Three Gorges New Energy Project in China and the 320 MW Dezhou Dingzhuang Project also in China.
But it appears that its ranking will increase in the near future, as Masdar and PLN NP have announced that they have agreed to add another 500 MW of capacity to the Sirata reservoir in the second phase of the floating solar power plant project.
Masdar said Thursday that the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a second phase following the development of regulations to increase the share of water that can be allocated for renewable energy use.
"In October 2023, Masdar and PLN Group agreed to double the existing capacity of this record-breaking project, supporting Indonesia's decarbonization and net-zero emissions ambitions," Masdar CEO Mohammad Jamil said in a statement. 'Al Ramahi.
Separately, Indonesia's Energy Minister Arifin Tasrif said recent regulatory changes meant the project would have a maximum gross potential of around 1.2 GW, if it decided to occupy 20% of the basin's surface area currently allowed.
"By using Sirata Floating PV, we hope to increase investor confidence and encourage technological innovation as a solution to the limited field of solar energy development, where floating PV has huge potential in Indonesia." He declared, known as Tasrif.
For now, Sirata will have to content itself with the title of largest power plant in the region, after the plant installed in Singapore's Tengeh Basin exceeds 60 MW.
However, a 2,200 MW floating solar power plant proposed by Singapore-based green energy developer Sunsep for a reservoir on the Indonesian island of Batam will be on top, although there has been no news of the project since it was announced. Sometime two years ago.
According to Indonesia's Institute of Essential Services Reform (IESR), the technical potential of floating solar power plants in Indonesia has reached 28.4 GW in 783 waters, of which at least 27 sites are already equipped with the potential of large-scale floating solar power plants. Hydroelectric power plant. Energy center.
"As of 2020, solar energy development in the country is almost non-existent. However, falling investment costs of solar panels make them the cheapest source of renewable energy," IESP said in a statement this week. Inauguration of Cirata.
“Therefore, Indonesia needs to optimize its technical potential [of solar power] to reach between 3.7 TW and 20 TW to support its goal of achieving maximum emissions from the energy sector by 2030 at the lowest possible cost.
"Using the potential of these floating solar power plants will accelerate the achievement of the renewable energy mix target and achieve the Net Zero Emission (NZE) target by 2060," IESR said.
