Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (PETRA) has opened a tender seeking 2GW of large-scale and floating solar PV.
The tender opened yesterday (20 January) and is seeking applicants under two packages. The first package offers 1,500MW of capacity and is dedicated to large-scale solar PV power plants between 30MW and 500MW in capacity.
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The second package is dedicated to water-based or floating solar PV with a capacity between 10MW and 500MW. 500MW has been allocated to this package.
The solar PV power plants that are accepted from these packages will be scheduled to commence operations in 2027.
PETRA confirmed that Suruhanjaya Tenaga, the Energy Commission, will conduct the quota bidding. Interested applicants must submit a request for proposal.
This is the second large-scale solar PV tender to be opened in Malaysia in less than a year. In April 2024, a tender with four packages was unveiled, seeking 2GW of capacity with projects anticipated to be online from 2026.
Malaysia is tipped to be a hot market for solar PV over the coming decades; a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) from March 2023 predicted that the country could deploy up to 153GW of solar generation capacity by 2050.
Solar PV forms a key part of the government’s goal to decarbonise. In 2023, the Malaysian government unveiled plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, targeting 70% of renewable energy by then, with solar contributing almost 60%.
Floating solar PV in Southeast Asia
The wider solar industry will likely welcome the inclusion of a floating solar PV and water-based project package. Malaysia and much of Southeast Asia have untapped potential in this field.
Early last year, research firm Rystad Energy predicted that Southeast Asia would add around 300MW of new floating solar capacity in the first few months of 2024. This was quickly followed by SolarDuck and Tokyu Land constructing the first floating solar project in Japan.
In August 2024, Malaysian energy company Cypark Resources Berhad commissioned a 100MW hybrid project featuring 35MW of floating solar PV in Merchang, a coastal town in the northeastern state of Terengganu, Malaysia.
