The largest floating solar PV plant in Southeast Asia with 192 MW DC/145 MW AC installed capacity has been officially inaugurated in Indonesia, equipped with JinkoSolar modules. Inaugurated by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the project is a joint development of Abu Dhabi's Masdar and local utility PLN Nusantara Power (PLN NP).
For project developer Masdar, the Cirata Floating Photovoltaic Project is the company's maiden floating PV facility to have come online. The project is located on a 250-hectare plot of the Cirata Reservoir in West Java province where there is a hydroelectric power plant of 1 GW capacity. It was built by Powerchina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited.
JinkoSolar has supplied its n-type TOPCon Tiger Neo 570 W bifacial modules for this project after undertaking various advanced structural designs and material selections to suit the water environment, according to the Chinese manufacturer. These modules are expected to generate 300,000 MWh of electricity/year sufficient for 50,000 households.
Deployed as 13 PV arrays on approximately 250 hectares of the reservoir's surface with the deepest point of the water exceeding 100 meters, the Cirata project is already scheduled for an expansion of up to 500 MW additional capacity (see Floating Solar Expansion In Southeast Asian Nations).
Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif said, "The capacity of the Cirata Floating PLTS could be greater, with a maximum total potential reaching around 1.2 GW peak, if it utilized 20% of the total area of the Cirata reservoir. With the operation of the Cirata Floating PV, we hope it will increase investor confidence and encourage technological innovation as a solution to limited land in developing solar energy, where Indonesia has enormous floating PV potential."
Known as the largest energy user in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia sees solar PV as the leading power generation technology in the country as it transitions to net zero. According to a recent draft policy plan proposed by the Just Energy Transition Partnership, the country is looking at a cumulative 264.6 GW PV capacity by 2050 (see Solar PV Leads Indonesia's Just Energy Transition).