Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – The Indonesian government plans to develop solar panel parks in eastern regions of the archipelagic country, said the Director General of Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dadan Kusdiana, here on Thursday (Jan. 14).

"We are planning to build solar park, like the ones in Abu Dhabi (The United Arab Emirates), Portugal and Saudi Arabia, where in a large expanse contains solar panels only," he explained.

The solar panel park development will be located in some regions in eastern Indonesia where the areas are dry, have high amount of solar radiation with low rainfall intensity.

"The more we go to eastern regions, the drier the areas are, the higher the solar radiation, and the lesser the rainfall intensity," Dadan said.

The solar panel park development plan is one of the government's efforts to develop solar power plants massively as they become more economically competitive against the ones generated by fossil fuel, such steam power plants.

The ministry has set a target of increasing the capacity of solar power plants to 17,687 megawatts (MW) by 2035.

Reporting by Indonesia Window