The Indonesian government secured US$11.5 billion of investment commitment from a Chinese company during President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi’s) two-day visit to Chengdu, China.
Reports were released recently that Indonesia was eyeing to become the world’s largest solar panel producer in the world, and this investment comes from one of the world’s largest glass producers, Xinyi, which aims to develop a glass and solar panel manufacturing facility.
According to the Investment Minister, Xinyi is committed to building a manufacturing plant in Rempang Island, Batam., he added that it will be the second-largest factory in the world after China.
The Xinyi factory will also later become a downstream factory of quartz sand and other raw materials with almost 95% of output being for the export market. The project will generate around 35 thousand jobs. The company had already invested US$700 million in Indonesia last year to build a factory in Gresik, East Java.
Indonesia has a potential resource of 25 billion tons of quartz sand, with total reserves reaching 330 million tons, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources data in 2021. Quartz sand is the main raw material for making glass and solar panels.
Currently, China is the largest producer of solar panels worldwide, based on data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2021, China manufactured 75 percent of modules, 85 percent of cells, 97 percent of wafers, and 79 percent of polysilicon.
