JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - Coordinating minister for Maritime and Investment affairs, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, said a solar power plant with total capacity 2,000 megawatts (MW) to be build in Weda Bay, Halmahera, North Maluku. Currently, one project with a capacity of 750 MW was being built.
The construction of the projects takes 3 - 5 years. One of the users are the copper smelter build by PT Tsingshan Steel Indonesia and PT Freeport Indonesia. Both parties plans to build a smelter with a capacity of 2.4 million tons in the special industrial zones.
The Indonesian Solar Energy Association has said Indonesia needs to build solar power plants more than 1,000 MW every year to meet the gap in the 2025′ National Energy Mix program. The country aimed to achieve 23 percent renewable energy mix target according to the roadmap.
The chairman, Andhika Prastawa, said the contribution from solar power plants is projected to reach 6,500 MW in the next five years. Currently the installed capacity in Indonesia is still less than 200 MW. He asserted, “This is our big homework, considering the huge gap between what we have today and the targets.”
According to him, the efforts has made by the government to boost the development of solar power plant in Indonesia. One of them is by providing a legal umbrella for the use of roof power plant for state-owned power producer, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) through the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministerial Regulation Number 13 of 2019.
Based on data from the regulation, the potential for solar power plant development in Indonesia reached 207.8 Gigawatt peak (GWp), with the realization reaching 0.15 GWp. Especially for North Sulawesi, the potential for solar power is 2.1 GWp, said the department.
According to the existing Electricity Supply Business Plan, in 2020 the additional capacity for new and renewable generators is targeted at 933 MW with solar power plants 78 MW. To support the government targets, last year, PLN joined with state-owned energy firm, PT Pertamina and PLN agreed to form a joint venture in the electricity business based on gas, LNG and renewable energy.
The construction of the first integrated industrial zones for mineral resources Weda Bay Industrial Park was started marked by the laying of the first stone by Panjaitan in 2018. The construction of the industrial zones need an investment around US$10 billion by the joint venture company own by Chinese investors namely Tsingshan Holding Group, Huayou Cobalt Co., and Zhenshi Holding Group.
Tsingshan joined with France’ Eramet SA and local miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (IDX: ANTM) has planned to develop nickel smelter in the Weda Bay Industrial Park. Its unit PT Weda Bay Nickel plans to build a cobalt and nickel smelter and processing plant in two stages. The Weda Bay Nickel project is an industrial and mining project aiming to recover one of the largest nickel deposits in the world.
Its measured, indicated, and inferred resources are valued at more than 9.3 million tons of nickel. After the put option exercised by Japan’ Mitsubishi Corp., in April 2016, ERAMET holds a 100 percent stake in Strand Minerals Pte. Ltd. which owns 90 percent of Weda Bay Nickel.
On Feb. 23, 2017, the Eramet signed with the Chinese steel producer group Tsingshan to develop the asset. The partnership would entail producing a nickel ferroalloy from Weda Bay ore in Indonesia based on a pyrometallurgical process, for a nameplate capacity of 30,000 tons of nickel per year.
This partnership would be reflected by the entry of Tsingshan in Singapore-based Strand Minerals Pte Ltd. ERAMET would hold 43 percent of the shares and Tsingshan group 57 percent. Weda Bay Nickel has invest $3.3 billion for the construction of the first phase of the smelter in 2014.
The first phase project have nickel production capacity of up to 35,000 tons of nickel per year and cobalt of 1,300 tons per year and absorbed 3,500 workers. For the second phase need an investment of $2.2 billion or in total worth of $5.5 billion.
Weda Bay’ production capacity will increase to 65,000 tons per year for nickel and cobalt as much as 3,000 tons per year. In addition, the Weda Bay also expressed its commitment to using local raw materials for the construction of the smelter plant. Other companies also have potential to start smelter construction projects in Weda Bay is Dubai Aluminum, which wants to build aluminum smelters in Indonesia.
In addition to facilitating metal refining activities, the industrial zones its expecting will attract investors to build downstream processing facilities including nickel sulfate to end products in the form of Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
Written by Editorial Staff, Email: theinsiderstories@gmail.com