Aerial view of the largest floating solar farm in Southeast Asia on November 9, 2023 in Cirata, West Java, Indonesia (AFP/BAY ISMOYO)
Indonesia on Thursday inaugurated Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar farm, costing more than $100 million, as the archipelago seeks to expand its still-weak renewable energy production.
The Cirata floating solar park, with a capacity of 192 megawatts-peak (MWp), is built on a 200-hectare artificial lake in the west of the big island of Java, about 130 kilometers from the capital Jakarta.
“Today is a historic day because our great dream of building a large-scale renewable energy plant is finally realized,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said at the inauguration.
Aerial view of the largest floating solar farm in Southeast Asia on November 9, 2023 in Cirata, West Java, Indonesia (AFP/BAY ISMOYO)
“We have succeeded in building the largest floating solar park in Southeast Asia and the third largest in the world,” he added.
The project, a collaboration between Indonesia’s National Electricity Company (PLN) and Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar, took three years of work for an investment of $108.7 million (100 millions of euros).
In the countryside, surrounded by rice fields, the solar park, financed by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Société Générale and Standard Chartered, includes 340,000 solar panels and should cover the electricity needs of 50,000 homes, PLN said.
The transmission plant of the new floating solar farm on November 9, 2023 in Cirata, West Java, Indonesia (AFP/BAY ISMOYO)
Production must be increased to 500 MWp, according to President Widodo, and ultimately, according to the operator PLN, it could reach 1000 MWp.
Solar and wind energy currently each represent less than 1% of the energy mix of a country which is aiming for carbon neutrality in 2050 for its electricity sector, still heavily dependent on coal, in order to secure financing of up to 20 billion of dollars negotiated last November.
Jakarta’s goal is to lower its carbon emissions to a maximum level of 250 million tonnes by 2030 from a previous target of 290 million tonnes.
At the same time, the country wants to increase the share of renewable energies in its electricity production. The initial objective of 23% renewable energies in its energy mix by 2025 risks being difficult to achieve, warned Mr. Widodo, due to delays due to the Covid crisis.
“Building floating solar farms using vacant land or reservoirs should be the main driver of the energy transition in Indonesia,” said Didit Haryo Wicaksono, campaign manager of Greenpeace Indonesia, interviewed by AFP, while calling for involve the local population in its operation.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy still relies heavily on fossil fuels, mainly coal, to generate electricity.
The new Cirata floating solar farm on November 9, 2023 in west Java island, Indonesia (AFP/BAY ISMOYO)
Faced with air pollution problems, Indonesia has pledged not to build new coal-fired power plants from 2023.
But despite protests from environmental activists, the country continues to build the power plants already planned.
Indonesia is also trying to position itself as a key player in the electric vehicle market as the world’s largest producer of nickel, a metal essential for battery manufacturing. But some industrial parks that house energy-intensive nickel smelters are powered by coal.
© 2023 AFP
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