Malaysia To Invest $943 Million For Upcoming 1 GW Solar Projects

The Malaysian Ministry has recently announced that 1 gigawatt of solar tender is coming soon. This project will provide contracts for 500 megawatts (MW) worth of projects in the 10–30 MW capacity and contracts for 500 MW worth of projects in the 30–50 MW capacity.

This is the fourth round of its large-scale solar (LSS) program, but it is directly tied to the coronavirus recovery efforts in the country. The bidding time for this project is 3 months. 

By the end of 2020, the projects are expected to begin and it is anticipated that the operation will occur within 3 years. 

It has been highlighted that the bidding firms have to be 100% locally owned or incorporated.

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources expects 12,000 jobs will be created and 4 billion Malaysian ringgit will be invested in the 1 gigawatt (GW) worth of projects.

This 4th round of the LSS is the largest amongst the other three. The previous tenders had a capacity of 250 MW, 563 MW, and 500 MW.

According to IRENA, Malaysia in recent years, has installed total solar PV power capacities from 25 MW in 2012 to 346 MW in 2019.

In May, TNB Renewables Sdn. Bhd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), the national electricity utility company, is partnering Envision Digital International Pte Ltd (Envision Digital) announced that it will deploy big data analytics applications in its large scale solar (LSS) farm in Sepang, Selangor in Malaysia to improve energy productivity and operational efficiency.

The 50 megawatts (MW) solar farm is one of the largest in Malaysia with 238,140 solar panels generating more than 110,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy in its first year of operation in 2019.