MALAYSIA needs RM33 billion in investments in renewable energy (RE) to to generate 20% of its electricity from such sources by 2025, said Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin.

She said the investments would be contributed by the government, public-private partnerships and private financing.

“The Securities Commission has already done a six-month study on green financing; it had formed the financing task force (for this purpose). It gave a report on 21 action items to facilitate the RM33 billion investment in RE and the government will look at all the action items and implement them accordingly,” she told reporters after officiating the inaugural 5-In-1 Power and Energy Asia Series exhibition in Kuala Lumpur today.

Yeo said the government would continue incentives, such as the Green Technology Financing Scheme and the Green Investment Tax Allowance, to spur the growth of RE. 

She said the third round of large-scale solar (LSS3) bidding, which ended last month, saw the cost of generating per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from solar energy lower than energy generation from natural gas sources.

She said the lower cost of solar generation was due to the advanced solar panel development technology that allowed the project to be bid at a cost of as low as 17.77 sen per kWh.

Earlier in her speech, she said LSS3 projects were in the offing for Malaysia in an effort to provide more affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity to the people.

She said Malaysia was already seeing solar energy being cheaper than the gas generation cost; thus in  the future, the government expected the cost to trend down further for RE.

Citing an example, she said in the LSS3 bidding which had just been completed, the first four projects which encompassed 365 MW out of 500 MW were actually bid below the gas-generation price of 23.22 sen per kWh.

“In the second round of LSS bidding, 32 sen per kWh was the lowest price; that became our reference price when we opened LSS3 for bidding this year. But when the bidding exercise closed, the lowest bid was at 17.77 sen per kwh.

“That is a 45% reduction in just a few years. That is why we are very confident that RE price will reach parity (with that of gas) in the foreseeable future,” she said, adding that Malaysia was also working on other types of RE in order to achieve parity with or below the gas-generation cost.

The 5-In-1 Power and Energy Asia Series, featuring POWERGEN Asia, Asian Utility Week, DISTRIBUTECH Asia, SolarVision and Energy Capital Leaders Asia, kicked off today and will run until Sept 5 at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre.

The event, hosted by Tenaga Nasional Bhd, is expected to draw over 11,000 visitors and 2,000 international buyers, in addition to the 350 exhibitors, to engage in the exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge. 

The series covers the whole chain focused on conventional and renewable generation, transmission and distribution, digital transformation and the financing of the energy transition by the industry. – Bernama, September 3, 2019.