A Singaporean firm is building the 2.2 gigawatt-peak solar farm off the coast of Indonesia.
Singapore’s Sunseap Group will spend $2 billion to build the world’s largest floating solar farm and energy storage system in the Indonesian city of Batam, on the other side of the Singapore Strait, a report from Reuters explains.
The plans for the solar farm, which will double Batam’s renewable power generation capacity, were revealed after a memorandum of understanding was signed earlier this week by Sunseap, Batam Indonesia free zone authority, Badan Pengusahaan Batam (BP Batam).
Singapore’s Sunseap Group recently also revealed it was installing floating solar panels off the coast of Singapore to help it meet its climate goals. Another firm, Sembcorp, opened a 122,000-panel floating solar farm on Tengeh Reservoir in Singapore earlier this month.
“This hyper-scale project is a significant milestone for Sunseap coming soon after we had completed Singapore’s first offshore floating solar farm along the Straits of Johor,” Frank Phuan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sunseap, said in a press release.
“We believe that floating solar systems will go a long way to address the land constraints that urbanized parts of Southeast Asia face in tapping renewable energy.”
Floating solar farms tackle climate change despite land constraints
Firms from the island state of Singapore have turned to floating solar farm technology to meet the country’s renewable energy requirements, as land resources are scarce. Now they are setting their sights on other parts of Southeast Asia facing similar land constraints.
Though the country of Singapore is half the size of the city of London, it is one of the biggest per capita carbon dioxide emitters in Asia, according to a report by AFP.
Sunseap Group’s agreement with the Indonesian city of Batam for a floating photovoltaic system is expected to have a capacity of 2.2 gigawatt-peak (GWp). It will be located on the Duriangkang Reservoir in Batam Island spanning around 1,600 hectares (6 square miles).
Construction on the project is due to start in 2022 and should be completed by 2024, according to Sunseap’s press statement. The majority of the energy generated by the floating solar farm will be consumed in Batam, though some could potentially be exported to Singapore via a subsea cable.
https://amp.interestingengineering.com/the-worlds-largest-floating-solar-farm-will-cover-6-square-miles
