Monster floating solar plant could be among planet's largest yet
If it reaches its full potential, Indonesia array planned by Masdar might only be behind gigawatt-sized floating solar array on blocks in South Korea
Abu Dhabi-based renewables developer Masdar has announced plans to expand an existing floating solar plant in Indonesia to up to 645MW, creating a monster array that would be one of the world’s largest.
Masdar announced today (Tuesday) that it has signed a deal to develop the second phase of its existing 145MW Cirata floating solar plant, already claimed to be the largest in the ASEAN group of Southeast Asian nations, adding up to 500MW of new capacity.
Masdar signed the joint venture agreement with PLN NP, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state electricity company PT PLN.
If the plant reaches its full potential, it may only be behind Korea’s Saemangeum floating solar array – planned at up to 2.1GW – as the largest globally.
Masdar says the initial 145MW phase of the floating solar project, located in the Cirata reservoir in West Java, Indonesia, is expected to come online later this year.
It said that recent regulatory changes in Indonesia had allowed for the expansion of the project.
Suhail Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure who attended a signing ceremony for the deal, said partnerships like this “feed into our priorities for COP28,” which the UAE is hosting and where the energy transition will be "front and centre with a concerted push to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.”