The Malaysian government has set a target of increasing the share of renewable energy in the country’s electricity generation to 5% this year from 2% currently.
Malaysian Investment Development Authority Deputy Chief Executive Officer Datuk Phang Ah Tong said the target was already set in the 10th Malaysia Plan, but production from clean energy was below target. “We have to catch up as by the 11th Malaysia Plan, we are looking at a 11 per cent contribution from clean energy,” Phang was quoted by national news agency Bernama as saying.
Malaysia’s installed power capacity stands at 21,000 megawatts, of which only about 2,500MW comes from renewable sources. “We hope this will increase our energy mix as we are currently relying more on coal and natural gas. We plan to increase power generation from biomass, biogas and solar power this year by 1,250MW from each source,” he said.
Most of the clean energy capacity is dominated by biomass, but Phang expressed optimism that solar can play a bigger part.