Indonesian president inaugurates largest floating solar plant in SE Asia

The Cirata floating solar plant located in Indonesia’s Purwakarta district, West Java province, has a capacity of 192 MWp (Megawatt peak), and is the largest in Southeast Asia and the third biggest in the world.

 

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo (locally known as Jokowi) inaugurated the Cirata floating solar power plant with a capacity of 192 MWp (Megawatt peak), in the country’s Purwakarta district, West Java province on Thursday.

This power plant infrastructure is the largest floating solar power plant in Southeast Asia and the third biggest in the world.

“Today is a historic day, because our big dream of building a large-scaled renewable energy plant finally be realized. We have succeeded in building one of the largest floating solar power plants in Southeast Asia and the third in the world,” the head of state said.

He noted that the floating solar power plant would be operated under a collaboration of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, the National Electricity Company (PLN), and Masdar company from the United Arab Emirates.

The floating solar power plant, he continued, would increase the electricity supply which currently has a capacity of 1,000 MW (megawatts).

“Cirata already has a hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 1,000 MW, and now with the floating solar power plant of 192 MWp, the capacity would be approximately 1,000 MWp. “So, the hydropower can be used as green energy too,” he said.

Furthermore, Jokowi also promoted the utilization of all renewable energy potentials in Indonesia.

“Besides this solar plant, there is also a wind generator. There are weather challenges, but if we can overcome them by building a smart grid, the electricity remains stable. We can also overcome challenge related to the distance between the renewable energy resources and the places where the electricity demand is high. We can build a transmission line to connect the resources in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi islands to economic centers,” he said.

The inauguration of Cirata floating solar power plant was attended by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif, Minister of SOEs Erick Thohir, PLN’s executive director Darmawan Prasodjo, and acting governor of West Java Bey Triadi Machmudin.

The State Minister for Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates, Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, also attended the event.

Reporting by Indonesi Window