Pertamina, LEN develop solar PV industry

Two state owned companies, PT Pertamina and PT LEN Industri, are setting up a joint venture which will operate a manufacturing facility to produce solar photovoltaic (PV), in reference to a technology or component which a solar panel uses to generate electricity.

The establishment of the joint venture was marked by the signing of an MoU between the two firms on Monday in Jakarta.

The firms expect the new venture would help accelerate the development of solar power plant in the country, which currently produces merely around 17 MW, or some 0.05 percent only of national total electricity generation.

The new company would help bridge the chain gap in national solar PV industry from downstream to upstream. At present, national industry can only produce module and miscellaneous other components of the system while for the main component ? the solar PV cell ? it still relies on imports.

Editing by Dadan Wijaksana