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GE Energy Financial Services (GEEFS) will lend up to $50m to Indonesia’s biggest geothermal power producer, the 220MW Wayang Windu plant about 200 km southeast of Jakarta.

The loan to plant operator Magma Nusantara LtdMNL), a subsidiary of privately-owned Jakarta-based Star Energy, is the first geothermal power investment outside the US by GEEFS and its first investment in the Indonesian energy sector in a decade.

“It illustrates two strategic themes for GE: the rise of Indonesia and the growth of renewable energy in our ecomagination programme,” says James Berner, head of Asia for GEEFS.

Star Energy acquired the then 110 MW plant in November 2004, four years after it began operations. Capacity doubled in March 2009 with the addition of a second turbine and another two units are planned to come on stream next year, bringing total capacity to 500 MW at a cost of around $450m.

Named after nearby twin volcanoes, Mt. Wayang and Mt. Windu, the plant taps into underground steam and hot water via five producer wells up to 3 km in depth. The geothermal fluid is brought to the surface to drive a conventional steam turbine generator and returned underground through two injector wells.

MNL operates the plant under a Joint Operation Contract with state-owned oil and gas major Pertamina which enables it to develop geothermal resources within a 12,960 hectare contract area. Power is provided to the West Java grid under an Energy Sales Agreement between MNL, Pertamina and public utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara.

Indonesia’s geothermal resource potential has been estimated to be over 27 GW, with existing generation capacity totaling around 1 GW. The central government aims to install 9.5 GW of new geothermal generating capacity by 2025 to provide around 6% of the country’s energy needs.