Masdar to build world's largest floating solar farm in Indonesia
Abu Dhabi-based clean energy group Masdar plans to build the world's largest floating solar farm with a unit of Indonesian state utility PT PLN. The 200 MW installation will cover 225 hectares of the 6,000-hectare Cirata Reservoir in West Java province, which already provides power for a 1 GW hydroelectric plant. Masdar will moor 700,000 floats to the bottom of the reservoir.
Upon completion, the project will be the biggest floating PV installation in the world. It will cover 225 hectares of surface area on the Cirata Reservoir in West Java province. Masdar will moor 700,000 floats to the bottom of the 6,000-hectare reservoir, which already provides power for a 1 GW hydroelectric plant. It did not reveal additional details about the project, which will include an onshore high-voltage substation.

Masdar’s deal with PT Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali follows a memorandum of understanding they signed in July. The two sides aim to collaborate on energy projects on the islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra, according to an online statement.

“We believe this project development agreement is a milestone in the development of other floating PV solar power plants,” said Iwan Agung Firstantara, president director of PT Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali.

Masdar claimed that a key advantage of floating PV in tropical countries is that can provide energy in forested areas that would otherwise be unsuitable for solar development. It said an additional 60 reservoirs throughout Indonesia could be developed to host floating solar plants.

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Masdar has invested $2.7 billion in renewable energy projects throughout the world since 2006. Its bigger projects include the Hywind Scotland and London Array offshore wind farms, as well as a 200 MW solar plant in Jordan.

Last year, it won the rights to build the 800 MW third phase of the Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, in collaboration with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures and Spain’s GranSolar. The consortium will build the project for $0.0299/kWh, among the world’s lowest winning bids for a solar power installation.