To promote renewable energy sources and move away from coal, Indonesian President Joko Widodo officially opened a 192 megawatt peak (MWp) floating solar power plant on a reservoir in the province of West Java. The United Arab Emirates' Masdar, a renewable energy firm under the Mubadala Investment firm umbrella, and Indonesia's PLN Nusantara Power, a division of Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), the national utility company, created the 1.7 trillion rupiah ($108.70 million) project.
"We hope to develop more renewable energy in Indonesia, and I spoke with Minister Thani from the UAE about expanding this to about 500 MWp," the president, often known as Jokowi, told reporters, referring to UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.
The Cirata Reservoir, located 108 kilometres (67.11 miles) southeast of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is the site of the solar power infrastructure. At the dam, there is an installed hydroelectric plant with a capacity of roughly 1,008 MW. According to PLN Chief Executive Darmawan Prasodjo, the facility is the third largest floating solar power plant in the world and has the potential to grow up to 1,000 MWp because the 13 arrays that have been placed so far only take up 4% of the reservoir's surface.
Regulations allow the solar facility to employ up to 20% of the reservoir's area, according to Darmawan, who also mentioned that talks with Mubadala were in progress on the next stage of the expansion.