President Jokowi in Sulawesi to Inaugurate Indonesia’s First Wind Farm

President Jokowi inaugurates Wind Power Plant in Sidrap Regency, South Sulawesi Province, Monday (2/7) (Photo: BPMI)

As part of his working visit to South Sulawesi province, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Monday (2/7) inaugurated the 100-hectare Sidrap Wind Farm located in Sindereng Rappang regency in South Sulawesi province.

It is the first wind power project in the country and the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia. The wind farm has 30 windmills, each with a 80-meter high tower and 57-meter long propeler blade that generates a 2.5 MW turbine to produce a total capacity of 75 MW.

The Sidrap Wind Farm, which is set to produce 75 megawatts (MW) of electricity and can power up to 70,000 households, is part of the Government’s 35,000 MW electricity program. The electricity produced from the farm will be channeled to the networks of state-owned electricity company PLN and will be distributed to South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and West Sulawesi.

According to the President, the Government is committed to continue developing power plant using renewable energy sources. “(We are) not only developing this wind farm. A similar project is also being developed in Jeneponto with construction progress of 80 percent. Other wind-powered plant projects are also to be developed in Tanah Laut Regency (in East Kalimantan province) and in Sukabumi regency (in West Java province),” the President said.

Jokowi added that besides energy generated from, Indonesia also has big potentials to develop renewable energy sources from geothermal, solar, and hydropower. “We have geothermal energy potentials of up to 29,000 MW but we have only developed approximately 2,000 MW. It has not even reached 10 percent. We also have solar power plants and hydro power plants with great potentials as well,” the President added.

The operation of Sidrap wind farm, the President said, is expected to reach the target of a 23-percent contribution of renewable energy by 2025.

The President added that the development of electricity infrastructure projects are expected to meet electrification ratio in Indonesia.

“The Government is committed to reaching 23 percent contribution of renewable energy by 2025,” the President concluded.

During the South Sulawesi visit, President Jokowi also inaugurated Punagaya steam power plant with the capacity of 2×100 MW and Jeneponto steam power plant with the capacity of 2×135 MW.

Joining the President during the visit  were Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Rini Soemarno, President Director of state-owned electricity company (PLN) Sofyan Basir, and Acting Governor of South Sulawesi Sumarsono. (BPMI/EN) (STU/EP/Naster)