Japan's Marubeni to construct geothermal plant in Indonesia
Japan's Marubeni has secured an engineering, procurement and construction contract from Perusahaan Listrik Negara to build a geothermal plant in West Java, Indonesia.
The plant, which will be located in Patuha, Bandung, will be owned by state company Geo Dipa Energy. PLN will buy the electricity produced by the plant at 6.8 cents per kilowatt hour. The government has set a maximum price for geothermal-generated electricity at 9.7 cents per kilowatt hour.
The Patuha plant is part of the second phase of a project to add 10,000 megawatts of electricity to PLN’s capacity. About 40 percent of that target is expected to be sourced from geothermal energy.
The government has set a target of tapping renewable energy, particularly geothermal, to aid in the country’s development. Indonesia is estimated to have about 28,000 megawatts of geothermal power reserves — about 40 percent of the world’s potential reserves — thanks to the country’s abundant volcanoes.
Upon completion, the plant is expected to generate 400MW of power, which is sufficient to supply electricity to 60,000 households.
The plant is expected to start supplying electricity from 2013 to the electricity grid for Java and Bali.
The full story is available at Jakarta Globe.