Indonesia’s OTEC gets French funding boost

Akuo Energy, together with Pertamina and the French Agency for Development (AFD), have signed a grant agreement to foster the development of renewable energies in Indonesia.

Under the agreement, the partners will mobilize a total amount of €1.5 million in order to facilitate the development of up to 200 MW additional renewable energy capacities over the coming years.

The funding will be used for developing renewable energy projects using ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), solar photovoltaic, and wind energy technologies.

France, through the AFD, is contributing to this joint effort by providing a €500,000 grant specifically dedicated to the development of OTEC technology in Indonesia.

OTEC technology uses the temperature difference between cooler deep waters and warmer shallow waters of the oceans to produce electricity. It is particularly suitable for equatorial waters, and hence Indonesia, which has one of the largest potentials in the world for OTEC, according to the French renewable energy player Akuo Energy.

To remind, in February 2015, Akuo Energy and Indonesia’s state-owned energy company Pertamina, signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of renewable energy projects in Indonesia using above mentioned technologies, when it was stated that the construction of the power plants was expected to begin in 2018.

This grant agreement, signed on April 6, is expected to contribute to Indonesia’s renewable energy target of achieving 23% of renewable energy in the energy mix by 2025.