Sarawak is said to expect an inflow of US$20 Billion in investments for potential investors for large-scale solar power projects by multinational companies from China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, state-owned clean energy provider Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, also known as Masdar, may invest US$10bil to produce solar power from hydroelectric dams in the state. Shanghai Electric and China Three Gorges International Ltd are considering investments totaling US$10bil.
“The combination of the two is expected to produce an estimated three gigawatts (3GW or 3,000MW)) of solar power,” Abang Johari said at the Natural Resources and Environment Board’s 30th-anniversary celebration dinner here.
According to him, Sarawak can generate a minimum of 3,000MW of power through the installation of floating solar panels on activated hydroelectric dams, such as Bakun and Murum.
Floating solar farms on the reservoirs of the 2,400 MW Bakun project and the 944 MW Murum dam in the upper Rejang basin in Kapit Divisions can generate 500 MW and 600 MW of electricity, respectively.
Developer Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) has set a completion date of the fourth quarter of 2028 for the 1,285MW Baleh dam project, which is another significant dam.
Recently, Abang Johari visited the Batang Ai hydro dam reservoir in Sri Aman Division, where the SEB is developing a floating solar farm project. It is anticipated that in October of this year, Malaysia’s largest and first significant hybrid generating plant integrating solar and hydropower will go online: a 50MW floating solar farm.
A joint venture between SEB, Trina Solar, a solar energy company, and China Power International Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Power Investment Corp., is the solar farm project.
Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Datuk Sharbini Suhaili of SEB said that the company is investigating the viability of a Phase 2 floating solar complex at Batang Ai, with a maximum capacity of 160MW. The first hydroelectric facility in Sarawak, the 108MW Batang Ai dam, came online in 1985.
Of the 8,500 acres in the dam’s reservoir, the 50 MW Batang Ai floating solar farm project takes up just 86 ha or roughly 3% of the space. According to Sharbini, SEB is considering offers from prospective independent power providers eager to fund solar energy initiatives in Sarawak.
UAE’s Masdar is interested in making investments in the development of solar energy, according to Abang Johari.
A memorandum of agreement was signed by Masdar and SEB in December 2023 at the 28th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai, to cooperate on the development of sustainable energy in Sarawak.
Being a global leader in green hydrogen and one of the biggest renewable energy firms in the world, Masdar has established the UAE as a frontrunner in the energy transition with its presence in over 40 countries.