Indonesia s plan to export solar power to S pore spurs investment amid low green energy adoption

JAKARTA – A new manufacturing plant producing floating solar panel systems was officially launched in Batam on Feb 14 to tap opportunities created by a major deal to supply solar power from the Indonesian island to Singapore.

Surabaya-based Utomo Solar Panel Terapung Erpo (Usopater) will produce equipment, including anchors and pontoons, used in floating photovoltaic modules, its managing director Anthony Utomo told The Straits Times.

Usopater is an Indonesian company owned by Utomodeck Group that builds electric vehicle charging stations across Indonesia. Mr Anthony declined to give figures about the size of the investment to build the plant, which has been running for three months.

The 8,000 sq m Batam plant, which employs 100 workers, is one of the bright spots in Indonesia’s green energy market, with the industry seeing fast expansion despite the slow national adoption of solar power.

Experts have attributed the country’s slow embrace of green energy to the government’s continued preference for cheaper coal-fired power.

Singapore is set to start importing two gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy annually from Indonesia within five years, in what is the Republic’s biggest effort so far to import low-carbon electricity, ST reported in November 2024.

The imports would account for about 15 per cent of Singapore’s annual needs.

To attract investments, the Indonesian government is promoting floating solar farms located in reservoirs, or installing them offshore, to avoid the high costs of land procurement and having to relocate local residents.

“We are aiming to support that project,” said Mr Anthony, referring to the plan for Batam to export renewable energy to Singapore. “We are glad the government is imposing a 40 per cent local content (requirement).”

Until 2023, Indonesia applied a 60 per cent locally produced material requirement for solar farm systems, before reducing it to 40 per cent to