QMB studies 40 MW solar expansion at IMIP facility
Wednesday, April 22 2026 - 08:02 AM WIB
By Dominikus
PT QMB New Energy Materials, a subsidiary of China’s GEM Co., Ltd., is studying the development of a 40 MW distributed solar power project at its facility in the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), Central Sulawesi, as part of efforts to increase clean energy use at the site.
According to the company’s sustainability disclosure on 22 April, the proposed project would adopt a solar-plus-energy storage model and is expected to generate more than 48 million kWh of electricity annually, with potential carbon emission reductions of around 40,000 tons per year.
The disclosure indicates that the solar initiative forms part of a broader low-carbon transformation at QMB’s ore processing plant, where the company has moved mineral processing closer to the mining area and adopted an integrated on-site processing and slurry pipeline transportation system. This has reduced truck haulage distances from 55 km to 5 km, cutting transportation-related carbon emissions by more than 90%.
Read also : Govt halts QMB nickel operations after fatal landslide
QMB already operates a 6.6 MW solar photovoltaic installation at the IMIP facility, according to the 2025 annual report of its parent company. The same report also shows that the site has a 180 MW waste heat power generation system, bringing QMB’s total existing green power configuration to about 186.6 MW, based on the company’s classification.
The annual report states that the overseas QMB park has achieved a 100% green electricity ratio, although the company did not detail the methodology behind that classification.
PT QMB New Energy Materials operates a high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) plant producing battery-grade nickel materials used in the electric vehicle supply chain.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak