Reach contract agreement SESM-Golden Blossom Sumatera for 10.5 MW hybrid solar PV power plant South Sumatera pic.twitter.com/2ZSr1NoVn6
— Sumber Energy (@SumberEnergy) February 27, 2020
With that tweet, Indonesian mining, trading, and energy company PT Sumber Energi Sukses Makmur (SESM) announced plans for a 10.5 MW hybrid solar plant in South Sumatra which will sell power to palm oil provider PT Golden Blossom Sumatra.
According to The Jakarta Post newspaper, the plant will exclusively power PT Golden Blossom under a 20-year power supply deal. Construction of the facility is expected to begin in July with completion slated for March 2022. The newspaper did not specify what the word “hybrid” referred to in the project but the planned off-grid location makes it likely to be a solar-plus-storage facility.
According to recent data published by Indonesian thinktank the Institute for Essential Services Reform – based on solar resource mapping by the Re Explore geospatial software developed by the U.S.’ National Renewable Energy Laboratory – the nation has the technical potential to deploy up to 655 GWp of rooftop PV capacity. Indonesia had around 60 MW of solar generation capacity at the end of 2018, according to International Renewable Energy Agency figures.