Renewable Energy in Malaysia

Renewable energy (RE) such as solar, wind and hydro are getting more attention lately due to its environmental friendly nature.  The cumulative utility-scale (plant larger than 4MW) capacity of installed Solar Power hit 120GW on first half of 2017, see Diagram 1 for details.

Diagram 1. (source:  www.wiki-solar.org)

People may have the perception that the cost of renewable energy is high, and require government’s subsidy to make it feasible.  However, thanks to more recent technological advances, cost of renewable energy, especially solar, has come down significantly.   The solar power module cost is estimated to go as low as US$ 0.36/Watt (See Diagram 2 for details).

Diagram 2: (source: http://solar-power-now.com)

This brings the average cost utility-scale solar plant to US$ 1.03/Watt (See Diagram 3 for details).

Diagram 3: (source: https://www.nrel.gov/)

 

Malaysia is targeting to generate 2,080 megawatts (MW) RE by 2020, which is about 4x from current installed capacity – 500MW.  Several incentive programs have been deployed to support the initiative such as Net Energy Metering, Large-Scale Solar, Green Sukuk Financing Scheme, tax incentive and Feed-in Tariff (FiT) mechanisms (Read more here).   With plenty of room to grow, lower cost and ample supporting programs, the prospect of RE sector in Malaysia is very attractive.