Star Energy secures $50m of loan from GE Energy

US based firm GE Energy Financial Services announced Wednesday that it has provided a loan worth US$50 million for Indonesian energy developer Star Energy to expand the capacity of its 220 MW Wayang Windu geothermal power plant.

?GE Energy Financial Services made the loan to a subsidiary of Star Energy, a privately held Indonesian energy developer, as it completed a turbine and steam feed project to double the plant?s power output,? the company said in statement.

Further expansion is planned to help meet the power needs of Java, Madura and Bali. The power is sold into the state-owned power utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara's (PLN) West Java high voltage grid, it said.

The plant, named for Mt. Wayang and Mt. Windu in the highlands of West Java, provides clean, baseload power, avoiding 1.2 million tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 equivalent).

Indonesia has one of the biggest geothermal resource potentials in the world, estimated at 27,510 MW, but only a total of 1,052 MW, less than 5 percent of this potential, has been developed.

The government aims to install 9,500 MW of geothermal generating capacity by 2025, accounting for 6 percent of the country?s energy consumption.

GE has invested $1.2 billion in Indonesia, where it began operations in 1940. (denny)