Powering Indonesia with floating solar panels

Floating solar power plants – ‘Floatovoltaics’ – have the potential to meet significant amounts of global electricity needs – and in some cases could supply a country’s entire demand, according to recent academic research¹. 

The clean-energy potential of floating photovoltaics (FPVs) is becoming increasingly apparent, leading to more widespread adoption of the technology since the turn of the decade². Some estimates project the global FPV market will be worth more than USD43bn by 2030³. 

This growth in popularity has been attributed to the numerous advantages of FPVs, including: 

Indonesia fully on board with floating solar projects

Indonesia has identified floating solar as a technology with great potential to help meet its goal of achieving 23 percent renewable power generation by 2025⁴ and 31 percent by 2050.

We’re collaborating with some of the world’s most ambitious FPV projects, such as Indonesia’s 250-hectare floating solar farm on the Cirata Reservoir in West Java, approximately 100km from the capital, Jakarta. The Cirata project is a collaboration between the Indonesian government and the Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy group Masdar.

The plant became the largest of its kind in south-east Asia when it opened in 2023 and is helping to supply reliable, clean energy to 50,000 Indonesian homes. Its panels generate 192MW of clean energy, making it the world’s third largest, with the potential to avoid 214,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

A further 60 floating PV installations, taking Cirata as the blueprint, are being planned in Indonesia, as the country seeks to tap the potential of its 100 reservoirs and 521 lakes.

ABB worked with on-site engineers to install, test and commission medium-voltage switchgear during Phase 1 of the project.

Our solution includes:

Huge global potential of floating solar

Solar power generation is well established and its installation costs have decreased by 90% over the past decade⁵. FPV technology is typically more expensive than land-based solar, though costs are also expected to drop sharply as adoption becomes more widespread⁶.

Covering just 10 percent of global hydropower reserves with floating solar panels could produce as much electricity as all of the world’s fossil fuel plants combined, according to the journal Nature⁷. 

Sources:
1. Floating solar panels could meet total electricity needs of some countries
2. Floating PV: on the rise in Europe
3. Floating solar panels: efficient renewable energy on water
4. IEA case study
5. Our world in data
6. Floating PV: on the rise in Europe
7. Nature.com

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