Malaysia launches fourth round of solar tenders

This tender could restart investment flow post-pandemic.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (KeTSA) 1GW Large Scale Solar (LSS) program is launching its fourth and largest round of auctions dubbed as LSS-4, which is expected to boost the government’s post-pandemic economic recovery efforts.

According to GlobalData, this tender is expected to restart the investment flow and result in a possible generation of 12,000 job opportunities.

GlobalData’s senior power analyst Somik Das commented that Malaysia’s cumulative solar PV capacity is expected to grow by 8% to about 1.1GW in 2020, which is considered as a growth shot of an ailing economy to fight the COVID contraction.

Under LSS in 2016, the government allocated 250MW for the first round, and 360MW in the peninsula and 100MW across Sabah and the islands of Labuan for the second round. The third tender went undersubscribed by 10MW, but the government maintains high hopes for the fourth round amidst the current scenario and its impacts on the economy.

Across Asia-Pacific, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for renewables remains significantly higher compared to coal power plants, but is expected to drop if not vanish in the next eight to nine years. The fall in the LCOE from $88/MWh in Malaysia is expected to greatly benefit the local bidders, Das added.