Report: Malaysia Renewables Growth Impeded by Unrealistic Targets

Malaysia has set a target to achieve 31% of its total power generation from renewables by 2025 and 40% by 2035. However, according to a report, both objectives are highly unrealistic, as only 3.3% of electricity is generated through renewables at present.

As per the current growth trend, Malaysia is expected to achieve only 5.5% of its power generation through renewables by 2025 and 6.6% by 2035, due to the absence of robust policy support, states data and analytics company GlobalData.

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Malaysia Power Market Size, Trends, Regulations, Competitive Landscape and Forecast, 2022-2035’, reveals that solar PV, biopower, and small hydro are the only three renewable sources utilized by the country.

In 2015, Malaysia took a step towards exploring geothermal power by launching the 30MW Tawau project, which was later abandoned as there were no obvious signs of activity detected.

Also, the country has only one small onshore wind plant with a capacity of 0.2MW. The growth of wind power projects has been hindered by low wind speeds during off-seasons, however, several small wind projects could still make a difference.

In 2021, thermal power accounted for almost 82.8% of the electricity generation in Malaysia and is expected to account for 80.4% in 2035. Gas-based thermal power will continue to be a crucial element of the country’s electricity mix whereas coal-based generation will see a drastic reduction.

“The government has implemented feed-in tariffs (FiT) (for up to 1MW capacity) and net metering policies to encourage the adoption of renewable energy. But there are no major incentives or support for large-scale renewable projects,” says Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, Power Analyst at GlobalData.

The report concludes, for Malaysia to achieve its climate goals, the country should look to create partnerships to enable technology transfer to improve the efficiency of renewable power plants.

A detailed policy with a clear roadmap with strict implementation measures is required for renewables growth. The government can look to offer incentives and tax breaks to bring in private and foreign investments.

#renewables #hydro #geothermal