Malaysia Could Contribute Up To 20 Pct Of Gentari’s RE Capacity In Five To 10 Years
By Muhammad Fawwaz Thaqif Nor Afandi
KUANTAN, June 19 (Bernama) -- Gentari Sdn Bhd expects Malaysia to contribute between 10 and 20 per cent of its renewable energy (RE) capacity over the next five to 10 years, underpinned by stronger domestic growth prospects and supportive government policies.
The clean energy solution company’s head of renewables in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, Syed Malek Faisal Syed Mohamad, said Malaysia is expected to record much stronger growth as new RE initiatives and projects are rolled out.
He said Malaysia’s improving policy and regulatory framework, including initiatives such as the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS), Community Renewable Energy Aggregation Mechanism (CREAM), Solar for Rakyat Incentive Scheme (SolaRIS) and utility-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) programme, would accelerate RE growth and encourage more investments.
“Currently, India is our largest market. However, with the programmes like that, we can undertake more projects in Malaysia. We are projecting much stronger growth here,” he told reporters after a media visit to Voltage Renewables Sdn Bhd (VGSB) 10-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in the Gebeng Industrial Area, Kuantan.
According to Gentari, VGSB’s Gebeng solar power plant was commissioned under Malaysia’s Feed-in Tariff (FiT) mechanism in January 2014, making it one of the earliest solar power plants in Pahang. The facility, now under Gentari’s purview, comprises 29,960 solar modules across a photovoltaic area of 50,569 square metres.
Globally, Gentari has achieved a cumulative installed and under-construction renewable energy capacity of 9.1 gigawatts (GW).
“From Gentari’s 9.1 gigawatts of capacity that is either operational or under construction, at least 80 per cent is currently solar,” Syed Malek added.
On market demand, he said the rapid expansion of hyperscalers and data centres in Malaysia would drive significant demand for green electricity. “We are seeing significant demand coming from hyperscalers and data centres, and we are developing several projects to support this growth,” he added.
Malaysia is targeting renewable energy to account for 70 per cent of its installed power generation capacity by 2050 under the National Energy Transition Roadmap.
Syed Malek noted that solar technology is already mature, with technologies such as artificial intelligence being used to improve weather forecasting and optimise solar farm management. He said Malaysia is also now in a much stronger position than before in the RE sector, following the introduction of various new policies and mechanisms to support the country’s energy transition agenda.
-- BERNAMA