Indonesian firm in tie-up to build country's first tidal power project

Jakarta

A WELL-CONNECTED Indonesian marine renewable energy company and OpenHydro, a unit of French state-owned naval defence company DCNS, aim to be the first to plug into the vast untapped tidal energy potential of the world's biggest archipelago.

Renewables have so far played little part in Indonesia's power sector, despite the country sitting on the world's biggest geothermal reserves and being bathed in sunshine, crowded out by an abundance of cheap coal and bureaucratic bottlenecks.

But declining costs of renewable electricity and a new push by President Joko Widodo to develop renewables in the remote eastern parts of the archipelago are changing the picture.

With narrow straits straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans, Indonesia has significant tidal power potential, and PT Arus Indonesia Raya (AIR) and OpenHydro plan to build the country's first such project. "This project is important for Indonesia and the world so we can stop burning coal," AIR president director Panji Adh…