Government targets 1.8 GW of wind power capacity by 2025

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said the government is pushing for the development of more wind power plants in the country with a target capacity of 1.8 GW by 2025

The ministry said in a statement that country holds a total of 60.6 GW wind energy potential, but currently the total capacity of wind power plants operating in the country only stands at 1.1 MW, or about 0.0002 percent of the potential.

It said that a number of provinces, particularly those with wind velocity of more than 4 meters per second, have potential for the development of wind farms including East Nusa Tenggara (10,188 MW), East Java (7,907 MW), West Java (7,036 MW), Central Java (5,213 MW), and South Sulawesi (4,193 MW).

The ministry said that independent power producer PT UPC Sidrap Bayu Energi is scheduled to start early next year operation of its 75 MW PLTB Sidrap wind power plant in South Sulawesi. The company is also planning to start development of a second phase project with capacity of 50 MW.

Also in South Sulawesi, PT Energi Bayu Jeneponto plans to also start operation of a 65 MW wind power plant in Jeneponto in the near future.

In South Kalimantan, PT Tala Alam Baru is set to soon start construction of the first phase 75 MW PLTM Tanah Laut, with target to complete it in 2019. The company is scheduled to sing the power purchase agreement with state-owned electricity firm on December 11 in Paris on the sidelines of the One Planet Summit, to be attended by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak