Government prepares 24,000 hectares of land in Java for 100 GW solar power programme

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (ATR/BPN) have allocated 24,000 hectares of land in Java to support the 100-gigawatt (GW) solar power plant programme.

‘The land availability, based on our joint identification by the ESDM and ATR/BPN ministries, totals around 24,000 hectares in Java,’ said Deputy Minister of ESDM Yuliot during a meeting at the ESDM office in Jakarta on Friday.

Yuliot added that the 24,000-hectare land will undergo joint verification by the ESDM, ATR/BPN, and state electricity company PLN. He also stated that infrastructure such as transmission lines and PLN’s main substations will be connected to the power plants located on the allocated land.

Yuliot noted that the ESDM is prioritising an initial acceleration phase of 17 gigawatts (GW).

‘This initial acceleration targets 17 GW first, along with approximately 33 gigawatts of battery energy storage (BESS),’ Yuliot said.

The government has prepared an initial phase of 17 GW solar power plant development as part of the larger 100 GW project aimed at supporting the national energy transition.

Strategic Planning Adviser to the ESDM Minister, Jisman P Hutajulu, stated the government aims for a total solar power plant development of approximately 100.7 gigawatt peak (GWp), combined with a battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity of 145.8 gigawatt hours (GWh).

The programme is split into two main schemes: large-scale solar plants connected to the national grid, and distributed small-scale systems to reach remote areas and villages.

Large-scale plants will have a capacity of around 87.5 GWp with 111 GWh of BESS support, while distributed systems target 13.2 GWp with approximately 34.8 GWh of BESS.

Economically, the government estimates electricity tariffs for large-scale solar plants will range from 5.5 to 25 US cents per kWh, while small-scale systems will cost between 9 and 40 US cents per kWh, depending on the energy storage capacity used.

Furthermore, the 100 GW solar project is estimated to require an investment of $71.3 billion, equivalent to Rp1.14 trillion.

President Prabowo Subianto has set a target of developing 100 GW of solar power by 2026-2028, a highly ambitious goal given current installed capacity of just 1.5 GW.