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PLN, Masdar start building large-scale solar power plant
The 145-megawatt Cirata floating solar power plant in West Java is expected to operate in November 2022.
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onstruction on the 145-megawatt (MW) Cirata floating solar power plant in West Java has begun in what developers claim will be the biggest facility of its kind in Southeast Asia.
Plant developer PT PJB Masdar Solar Energi (PMSE) announced on Tuesday that it had reached a financial close over the power plant, which is expected to begin operations in November 2022.
PJB Masdar is a joint venture company between Abu Dhabi-based renewables firm Masdar and PT Pembangkitan Jawa Bali Investasi (PJBI), a subsidiary of Jakarta-based state-owned electricity firm PLN.
“The project is expected to encourage future breakthrough projects in the new and renewable energy sector,” PLN president director Zulkifli Zaini said in a financial close declaration ceremony on Tuesday.
The Cirata power plant is targeted to generate 245 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year with an offtake tariff of 5.8 US cents per kWh.
Once completed, the plant will provide enough electricity to power 50,000 homes, create up to 800 jobs and offset 214,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to Zulkifli.
PLN has big plans to diversify into renewable energy in helping the Indonesian government achieve a 23 percent renewable energy mix by 2025, as per the country’s National Energy Plan (KEN), mainly by using more solar power, the fastest growing green energy source in the world.
The government also announced plans in June to increase renewable energy and slash coal use in an upcoming revision of PLN’s 10-year electricity procurement plan (RUPTL).
Under the revised 2021-2030 plan, renewables are slated to contribute 48 percent of all the new power plants’ installed capacity, up from 30 percent in the 2019-2028 plan.
Read also: We don’t mean to vilify coal: Energy ministry wants cleaner power
PJBI president director Amir Faisal said PMSE needed approximately US$145 million to develop the Cirata plant.
“The project value is roughly $1 million per megawatt. 80 percent [is funded by] foreign lenders and 20 percent by our own capital,” he said.
Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Paris-based Societe Generale and London-based Standard Chartered Bank are financing the Cirata project.
Read also: UAE’s Masdar to support development of Indonesia’s largest solar power plant
A power purchase agreement (PPA) for the Cirata solar power plant was signed during President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s visit to Abu Dhabi on Jan. 12, 2020.
Indonesia Solar Energy Association (AESI) chairman Fabby Tumiwa wrote in an article published in The Jakarta Post that the start of construction on the Cirata solar power plant had brightened the investment climate for renewable energy in Indonesia.
Floating solar is perceived as more attractive as no land is required and grid interconnections are also available for certain dams. These two could drive down costs and ease project development, he added.
