State electricity company PT PLN is working on three large-scale floating solar power plant (PLTS) projects at three different locations, with operations expected to begin between 2025 and 2026.
Darmawan Prasodjo, PLN’s President Director, noted that PLN had previously inaugurated the Cirata Floating Solar Power Plant with a capacity of 192 MW in West Java, making it the largest in Southeast Asia and the third largest globally.
“Continuing PLN’s commitment to boosting the renewable energy mix in Indonesia, more PLN renewable energy projects will be operational in the future,” Darmawan said during a hearing with Commission VII of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta on Thursday, May 30, 2024.
Currently, PLN is developing three additional floating solar power plants: the Saguling Floating Solar Power Plant in West Java with a capacity of 60 MW and aims to start commercial operations by 2025, the Singkarak Floating Solar Power Plant in West Sumatra with a capacity of 50 MW and is expected to be commercially operational by 2026, and the Karangkates Floating Solar Power Plant in East Java with a capacity of 100 MW and is targeted to begin commercial operations by 2025.
Darmawan said that PLN is developing green power plants according to the 2021-2030 Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL). PLN aims to achieve a renewable energy capacity of 20.9 Gigawatts (GW) by 2030.
This target aims for renewable energy to account for 52 percent of energy development by 2030. This includes 10.4 GW from hydropower, 5 GW from solar and wind energy, 0.6 GW from biomass, 3.4 GW from geothermal, and 1.5 GW from other sources.
“As of April 2024, PLN has already processed 17.534 GW of renewable energy-based power plants,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to a report from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), the installed capacity of Indonesia’s renewable energy power plants reached 13,155 megawatts (MW) in 2023.
The largest share comes from hydropower, which accounts for 6,784.2 MW or 51.6 percent of the total installed capacity of renewable energy power plants nationwide.
Despite these achievements, the renewable energy mix in the national primary energy supply is only 13.1 percent, falling short of the 2023 target of at least 17.9 percent.