Malaysia: 1 Gigawatt Solar Tender Coming
Malaysia isn’t messing around. Many countries are focusing on renewable energy as part of their economic revival coming out of the coronavirus crisis (too bad the USA doesn’t have that foresight), but Malaysia’s 1 gigawatt play seems big enough for its own story.
The country of 31.5 million will provide contracts for 500 megawatts (MW) worth of projects in the 10–30 MW range and contracts for 500 MW worth of projects in the 30–50 MW range.
This is the 4th round of its large-scale solar (LSS) program, but it is directly tied to the coronavirus recovery efforts in the country. Further, the bidding timetable is being cut from 6 months to 3 months. Projects are expected to begin development by the end of 2020 and be in operation within 3 years. Also, the bidding firms have to be “100% locally owned or incorporated.”
The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources expects 12,000 jobs will be created and 4 billion Malaysian ringgit ($943 million) will be invested in the 1 gigawatt (GW) worth of projects.
This 4th round of the LSS is the largest. The previous tenders had the following totals:
- 250 MW
- 563 MW
- 500 MW
The bid pricing for 3 awarded contracts in the 3rd round averaged out to about $42/MWh.
According to IRENA, the total solar PV power capacities added in recent years were as follows:
- 2012 — 25 MW
- 2013 — 72 MW
- 2014 — 69 MW
- 2015 — 63 MW
- 2016 — 50 MW
- 2017 — 91 MW
- 2018 — 166 MW
- 2019 — 346 MW
*Map obtained from the “Global Solar Atlas 2.0, a free, web-based application is developed and operated by the company Solargis s.r.o. on behalf of the World Bank Group, utilizing Solargis data, with funding provided by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). For additional information: https://globalsolaratlas.info (CC BY 4.0 license)
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