Loo: The sale of RE energy can be done via a government-owned entity.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia should speed up the process of upgrading the country’s grid to handle more renewable energy (RE) in order to attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs) and discontinue being a net energy importer, say RE industry players.
“The sale of RE energy can be done via a government-owned entity,” said former Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association committee member Edmund Loo.
“This entity can also resell to the single buyer in case the buying country decides to restrict the import when it has too much of RE in the grid and to prioritise the supply of energy from existing local conventional power plants.
“RE is regarded as having higher value than the conventional energy resources and Malaysia should sell RE at a premium as it takes up land and other resources,” he said.
Recently, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the government had agreed to lift the ban on renewable energy exports to enhance the country’s green economy policy.
He said lifting the ban would benefit local renewable energy companies through cross-border exports.
He also said the government agreed to increase RE capacity by up to 70% by 2050 through the Renewable Energy Strategic Development proposal presented to the Cabinet on May 3.
On the lifting of the renewable energy export ban, Loo said it was a good move and would make Malaysia more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient.
“This will position us as one of the foremost countries in exporting RE in the region and lives up to the Asean spirit and open up a new market for Malaysian players,” he said.
Loo also lauded the decision to allocate RM50mil by the end of the year for installing solar panels in various government buildings and facilities.
“Focus should be given to government schools, especially those insufficiently funded ones.
“Installation of solar panels at schools will provide students with a good exposure to solar panel technology as well as the importance of adopting RE and reducing carbon emission to achieve net zero carbon,” he said.
Another industry player said it was high time to review the Energy Commission’s regulations and guidelines to support and smoothen these targets such as lifting of the limitations of maximum PV capacity allowed under Net Energy Metering (NEM) programmes.
NEM is an incentive under the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) that allows homeowners to instal a solar photovoltaic system to generate electricity for their home to offset their monthly electricity bills.
At present, only a maximum of one MW is allowed for commercial and industrial consumers and just 10KW for residential customers.
According to Seda, the potential of rooftop solar in Malaysia is more than 48,000 MW.
“Transmission and distribution network infrastructures need to be upgraded to handle and support the sharp increase in rooftop solar PV installation capacity for homes, commercial and industrial premises,” said the industry player.
“An increase for electrical vehicles and also the presence of huge data centres will result in high demand for solar charging stations and large-scale solar farms.
“With these high demands for solar energy as well as improved and upgraded electricity transmission and distribution networks, it is possible to achieve 40% grid penetration by solar PV instead of 25% envisaged currently,” the industry player added.
