Indonesia Inaugurates Southeast Asia’s Largest Floating Solar Farm

Courtesy of Energy Daily, a report on Indonesia’s recent inauguration of Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar farm

Indonesia on Thursday inaugurated a $100 million floating solar farm, the largest in Southeast Asia, as the country seeks more opportunities to transition to green, renewable energy.The Cirata floating solar farm, which is expected to generate enough electricity to power 50,000 households, is built on a 200-hectare (500-acre) reservoir in West Java, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the capital, Jakarta.

“Today is a historical day, because our big dream to build a renewable energy plant on a big scale is finally achieved,” President Joko Widodo said in a speech to mark the occasion.

“We managed to build the largest floating solar farm in Southeast Asia, and the third biggest in the world,” he said.

The project, a collaboration between Indonesia’s national electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara and the Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar, took three years to complete and cost roughly $100 million.

The solar farm, funded by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered, consists of 340,000 panels.

The Indonesian government has said it will attempt to reach net-zero emissions by 2060.

But solar and wind power each account for less than one percent of Indonesia’s power mix, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy still relies heavily on fossil fuels to generate electricity.

The country has pledged to stop building new coal-fired power plants, but it has proceeded with the construction of those that were already planned despite an outcry from activists.

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 key component of lithiom-ion batteries — but some industrial parks that host energy-guzzling nickel smelters are powered by coal.



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About This Blog And Its Author
As the scarcity of water and energy continues to grow, the linkage between these two critical resources will become more defined and even more acute in the months ahead.  This blog is committed to analyzing and referencing articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between water and energy -- The Watergy Nexus -- and will endeavor to provide a central clearinghouse for insightful articles and comments for all to consider.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy.  Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation.  He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”