VATIS UPDATE Article

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has approved 2.42 billion ringgit ($544 million) of solar investments in the 12 months to the end of December. Roughly 1.77 billion ringgit was invested in seven PV production facilities last year, with investments in 83 undisclosed renewable energy projects rising to 650 million ringgit.

About 11.1 billion ringgit of unspecified solar products were exported from Malaysia in 2016, while 1.42 bil-lion ringgit of equipment was sourced in the country, MIDA said, citing data collected from an undisclosed number of companies. MIDA pointed to Chinese monocrystalline silicon producer Longi’s recent $240 million investment in a new wafer, cell and module plant in the state of Sarawak as the biggest solar investment in the country last year.

“We are building up local capabilities to develop further in areas such as system integration and balance of system components, which are important parts of the PV system value chain,” said Dato’ Azman Mahmud, at MIDA. About 95% of investments in solar production in Malaysia comes from outside of the country. The Malaysian government is targeting 2.08 GW of installed renewables capacity by 2020.