PLN to hold tender for 1,000 solar power plants

State-owned electricity firm PT PLN is expected to soon hold tender for the first stage of the plan to develop a total of 1,000 solar power plants with a combined capacity estimated at 600 MW, Investor Daily reported on Monday.

The paper quoted Head of New and Renewable Energy at PLN, M. Sofyan as saying that the solar power plants will be developed in small islands across the country in stages.

He said that in the first stage, PLN will develop solar power plants in 64 locations with a combined capacity of 40 MW, to be followed with the second stage development in 165 locations with combined capacity of 36 MW.

?Tender for the first stage will be held soon. Hopefully, it (the power plants) will be completed next year,? Sofyan said, adding that construction of the solar power plants takes about a year to complete.

He added that PLN has secured US$300 million worth of funds to finance the solar power plant development. He said that financing is one of the key challenges for solar power plant development as the purchasing price of electricity from such power plant is only about 25-30 US cents per Kwh, thus making such project only feasible to be financed by low interest rate loans. (*)