On 5 April, Malaysia adopted a system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs and renewable energy targets differentiated by technology.
Malaysia joins Thailand and Taiwan in implementing such a policy. The Philippines has been delaying launch of a similar programme for the past year. Japan has a much more limited programme that only applies to solar photovoltaics PV) and only pays for excess generation.
Ahmad Hadri Haris, the Chief Technical Advisor to Malaysia's Minister of Energy, announced that the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysian House of Representatives) passed both the Renewable Energy Bill creating the feed-in tariff policy and the Bill for the Sustainable Energy Development Authority. Haris says that the legislation will be officially published in May and will likely go into effect in mid-summer.
Like a growing list of countries that implement systems of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, such as Uganda, Malaysia's policy includes specific targets for each technology by year. For example, in 2011 Malaysia's quota for solar PV is 29 MW and in 2012 the target is an additional 46 MW. Approximately, one-third of the solar PV capacity is set aside for projects less than 1 MW in size.
In contrast to the Philippines, where its Renewable Energy Act was passed as early as 2008, Malaysia made steady progress from public consultation through passage of legislation, to expected implementation this summer.
By 2020, Malaysia expects to have installed more than 3 GW of new renewable energy of which about one-third (1250 MW) will be from solar PV, and another one-third from biomass (1065 MW).
Like sophisticated programmes in Ontario, Canada, and Germany, Malaysia's feed-in tariffs are divided into multiple tranches. As in Ontario, solar PV is divided into 6 tranches, not including Malaysia's four separate bonus tranches for locally manufactured components.
This feed-in tariff news update is partially supported by An Environmental Trust and David Blittersdorf in cooperation with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The views expressed are those of Paul Gipe and are not necessarily those of the sponsors.
Paul Gipe
661 325 9590, 661 472 1657 mobile
pgipe@igc.org, www.wind-works.org