Malaysia’s energy transition slows as industry bemoans lack of transparency

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim last year launched the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR), which aims to raise the share of renewable sources in Malaysia’s energy mix to 70 per cent by 2050, from 25 per cent last year.

The pledge came with a US$430 million seed fund to kick-start the transition and develop renewable energy as a new growth sector.

More than a year later, the government still has not laid out a concrete plan on how the private sector can participate and eventually lead the transition, industry players say.

“The NETR launched last year was an overarching policy. How to get there is not very clear,” said Bhaskar Kannan, vice-president of CGN Edra, one of Malaysia’s largest independent power producers.

“We are a private company, and when you look at the [energy transition] champions named under the NETR they were all either government entities or government funds. Doing just that will not help achieve the objective.”