The Energy Commission or Suruhanjaya Tenaga in Malaysia has received lowest bid of RM 0.17777 ($0.042) per kWh for its 500 MW large-scale solar (LSS) PV plant tender which Yeo Bee Yin, the country's Minister for Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, said is lower than energy generated from natural gas sources while speaking at an event.
The LSS 3 tender was launched by the commission in February 2019 for the entire 500 MW to be established in Peninsular Malaysia (see Malaysia Tenders 500 MW Large Scale Solar). The lowest bid has been offered for a 100 MW project.
As per the document uploaded by the commission on its website, the tender is clearly oversubscribed, like the previous two rounds, having received bids for over 6.7 GW (AC) of cumulative capacity against 500 MW offered. Every bidder can offer to build up to 3 plants. Submissions made will now be evaluated based on the requirements spelt out in the request for proposals.
Local media quoted Yin as saying that her country needs investments totaling RM 33 billion ($7.85 billion) to be able to achieve its 20% target of generating power from renewable energy sources by 2025. According to a June 2019 whitepaper by solar events company Solarplaza, till 2018 Malaysia had 438 MW of large scale solar PV capacity installed with another 1 GW in the pipeline back then (see Multiple GW Future Solar Markets In Asia).
Winning projects need to come online in 2021.
A few companies, namely HSS Engineers, SSTSB, SGSB and PRESB, have got together to jointly bid for solar capacity in the LSS 3 round (see Malaysian Firms For Solar Project Consortium).