Indonesia president inaugurates $108 million floating solar plant

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo on Wednesday inaugurated a 192 megawatt peak (MWp) floating solar power plant on a reservoir in West Java province as part of a drive to increase renewable energy sources and switch away from coal.

The 1.7 trillion rupiah ($108.70 million) project was developed by PLN Nusantara Power, a unit of Indonesia's state utility company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) and United Arab Emirates renewable energy company Masdar, a unit of Mubadala Investment Company.

"I spoke with Minister Thani from the UAE that this would be expanded to around 500 MWp and we hope more renewable energy could be developed in Indonesia," the president popularly known as Jokowi told reporters, referring to UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.

The solar power infrastructure was built on Cirata reservoir, 108 kilometers (67.11 miles) southeast of Indonesia's capital Jakarta. A hydropower plant at the dam has an installed capacity of about 1,008 MW.

The plant is the third largest floating solar plant in the world and could be expanded up to 1,000 MWp, PLN chief executive Darmawan Prasodjo said, as the 13 arrays installed so far only occupied 4% of the reservoir's surface.

Regulations permit up to 20% of the reservoir's area to be utilised by the solar plant, Darmawan said, adding that discussions were underway with Mubadala for the next phase of the expansion.

"This is just the beginning. The president instructed us to maintain the momentum so that renewable energy development could be escalated," Darmawan said at the same event.

Renewable energy accounted for 12.3% of Indonesia's energy mix in 2022, and Jokowi said that the target of 23% by 2025 would probably be missed.

"It is not easy because there was COVID-19 pandemic, we could not reach it. But our commitment is to keep moving to achieve the target we have promised," Jokowi said.