Construction of a 2000 MW coal-fired power plant in Indonesia is set to begin in the coming weeks after a legal dispute over land rights was closed.
Construction of a 2000 MW coal-fired power plant in Indonesia is set to begin in the coming weeks after a legal dispute over land rights was closed.
The Batang power plant in Central Java is being developed by PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia, a joint venture between Indonesian coal miner PT Adaro Energy and Japan’s Itochu Corporation and Electric Power Development Co., and has been delayed by several years due to opposition from landowners and environmental groups.
In March Indonesia’s Supreme Court threw out a landowner’s lawsuit on technical grounds, enabling the acquisition of the remaining land for the power plant to go ahead, Reuters reported.
The project was initially scheduled to be commissioned in 2016. Indonesian President Joko Widodo held a groundbreaking ceremony at the plant site in mid-2015 even though activists said that landowners accounting for ten per cent of the land needed for the project refused to sell.
Operation of the first unit is now scheduled for 2020.