Economic Minister Rafizi Ramli
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) seeks to open up investment opportunities between RM435bil to RM1.85 trillion by 2050.
The first part of the roadmap, which is launched on Thursday, comprises 10 flagship catalytic projects. The second and final part will be launched in a month’s time, according to Economic Minister Rafizi Ramli.
Speaking during the launch, Rafizi lamented that Malaysia’s investments into renewable energy (RE) lagged behind its regional peers over the past years.
“A key reason for this is that past administrations have not made the RE industry a sufficiently profitable venture for businesses to undertake.
“In fact, a race to the bottom was normally how the industry was structured.
“NETR is this administration’s effort to change the economics of RE so that we could rapidly scale up our installed capacity with the right infrastructure and technology,” he says.
One of the projects under the NETR is the Integrated RE Zone which will be championed by Khazanah Nasional Bhd and carried out through a joint venture between UEM Group and ITRAMAS.
At 1GW, this hybrid solar photovoltaic power plant is the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia.
“The scale of our ambition has attracted high-profile global investments from major economic blocs totalling RM6bil,” says Rafizi.
The memorandum of understanding for the Integrated RE Zone was inked today following the launch of the NETR.
The minister also says that the roadmap will open up the hydrogen gateway in Sarawak as it implements rounds of projects to emerge as the hydrogen hub in the country.
This will put in place the framework of carbon capture and storage so that catalyst projects could be implemented in these two years.
“We will continue to take advantage of the declining technology cost in RE and build first-mover advantage in nascent levers, as we move our investments into these high-growth, high-value areas,” says Rafizi.
