Masdar, partners weigh 1.2 GW of solar exports from Indonesia to Singapore

Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar and a group of partners are considering developing 1.2 GW of solar plants and potentially energy storage capacity in Indonesia and exporting the electricity to Singapore which is seeking to cover about a third of its low-carbon power supply in 2035 with imports.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Masdar, Singapore’s Tuas Power, France’s EDF Renewables, and PT Indonesia Power, the Abu Dhabi-based company said on Tuesday.

The initiative follows a request for proposal (RFP) that Singapore's Energy Market Authority issued in October for the import of 1.2 GW of electricity, starting in 2027. The deadline for submitting proposals, including generation and interconnector supply as well as the source of supply, is April 1, 2022.

Southeast Asia's smallest country is looking to import 4 GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035, representing about 30% of its total supply, as it aims to diversify its energy sources and support regional decarbonisation efforts. A second RFP for the remaining 2.8 GW will be issued in the second quarter of this year.

The potential partnership between the four companies will benefit from Tuas Power's location for power imports and the expertise of its parent company Huaneng Power International in large-scale renewable projects as well as from PT Indonesia Power's capabilities for power export from Indonesia. EDF will be in charge of the development of the sub-sea cable project.

Masdar is already active in Indonesia. In 2020, it set up a joint venture with a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state electricity company to develop the 145-MW Cirata Floating Photovoltaic Power Plant which is expected to go online in the last quarter of 2022.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!