Companies Awarded Over 491 MW For The Solar Project Investments
13
Sep

Five Companies Awarded Over 491 MW For The Solar Project Investments In Malaysia

Ram Tumuluri “Renewable energy has come a long way in Malaysia since the country embarked on the Four Fuel Diversification Strategy in 1980, with the goal of balancing the use of oil, gas, coal and hydro in the energy mix. The outlook beyond 2020 is that Malaysia’s solar power is expected to outperform all other forms of renewable energies.”

Solar Energy Outlook in Malaysia

Malaysia is a developing economy, with increasing demand for oil. The country is planning to increase its share of renewable energy by 2025 from 2% to 20%. It was only in 2011 that the country’s Renewable Energy Act was gazetted and also introduced the appropriate framework to promote development in the renewable energy sector. Finally, the government set a goal in 2018 to achieve 20 percent of renewables in the energy mix by 2025. 

Malaysia’s Third Solar Auction Secured by Five Bidders

Malaysia’s energy commission has awarded five companies with over 491 MW (490.88 MW) of large-scale solar projects. The selected companies include JKH Renewables and Solarpack Asia, Coara Solar, ib vogt GmbH, Cypark Resources Berhad, Impian Bumiria, Konsortium Beseri Jaya, ENGIE Energie Services, TTL Energy and Hanwha Energy Corporation Singapore. 

Upon commission, the projects will be connected to the grid and would sell electricity under a power purchase agreement to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). This was the third big-scale tender for a solar project under the country’s large-scale solar policy. All projects selected under the LSS program through the competitive bidding process will be constructed in Peninsular Malaysia and are scheduled to be completed by 2021.

The Large‐scale Solar System (LSS)

In 2016, the Malaysian government implemented the LSS system to replace feed-in tariffs (FiTs). In the first two tender rounds, the power awarded was 450 MW and 536 MW, respectively. However, the response to the third round of the programme has been the largest. The tender was issued in February 2019 to develop 500 MW of large-scale solar projects, which could range between 1 MW and 100 MW.