KUALA LUMPUR: The Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia is completing the second biogas e-bidding and inaugural e-bidding for small hydropower systems, according to Minister of Energy, Technology Science, Climate Change and Environment Yeo Bee Yin.
In a statement yesterday, Yeo said the e-bidding’s aim is to facilitate price discovery for renewable energy (RE) generated from biogas and small hydro resources through healthy competition.
The inaugural e-bidding for biogas was carried out in the last quarter of 2018 and SEDA is into the second e-bidding for 2019. In the same period, it will be conducting its inaugural e-bidding for small hydro.
SEDA is the authority and implementer of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme.
In its statement, it said as at end-June 2019, it had approved 12,540 FiT applications with a total capacity of 1,744.38 megawatts (mws) — consisting of 34.6% small hydro, 25.4% solar photovoltaic (PV), 23.5% biomass, 14.4% biogas and 2.1% geothermal.
In the same period, however, total RE projects achieving commercial operations amounted to 10,254 with a total installed capacity of 621.96mws (61.8% solar PV, 15.4% biomass, 11.5% biogas and 11.3% small hydro).
As a result of the FiT scheme introduced in 2011, SEDA said the estimated capital investment for the RE project is RM9.8 billion with a projected carbon dioxide emission avoidance of 3.3 million tonnes up to 2023.
Yesterday, Yeo launched Goodyear’s solar PV system — the largest recorded under the net energy metering (NEM) scheme in the country. Located in Shah Alam, the PV system is rated 2.5mw peak and is expected to meet 11.5% of Goodyear’s daily electricity consumption.
Yeo said Goodyear’s PV system is exemplary of more corporates with a strong commitment to meeting their environmental, social and governance obligations.
The NEM concept is the energy produced by an installed solar PV system that will be consumed first, and the excess energy exported to Tenaga Nasional Bhd.
The NEM was implemented at end-2016 and the total approved capacity as at end-2018 was 27.81mws.
Since January 2019, the NEM scheme has been enhanced to allow surplus solar electricity to be sold on a one-on-one basis. In the first six months of 2019, SEDA had approved 20.72mw of NEM from a total 500mw quota allocated valid until end-2020.
Yeo said the government’s target is to achieve 20% of RE in the national installed capacity mix (excluding large hydro) by 2025. As at end-2018, it had achieved 6%.
Source: The Edge Markets