Panel play

Suria Infiniti has increased its capacity over the years and has taken on bigger projects including deisgning and installation works for solar farms.

It is not uncommon for people to hear complaints about the hot weather these days.

But the scorching heat is more boon than bane for Mohd Syahrul Nizar Ghani, co-founder of Suria Infiniti Sdn Bhd. For him, the sunny weather is a reminder of the growth potential for solar companies such as his.

Suria Infiniti designs, supplies and installs solar photovoltaic systems, more commonly known as solar panels, that convert sunlight into electricity.

Syahrul had been an engineer in the renewable energy industry for about seven years before he decided to start his own solar company. Together with a partner, Syahrul started the firm in 2009.

Back then, the National Renewable Energy Policy was still being formalised and while the industry had potential, it was still a very small market.

“When we first started, the market was growing but there were very few companies in the business. But the government had plans and we wanted to grow in line with the government’s ambition for renewable energy and contribute to the target,” Syahrul said.

He recalled that there were fewer than 30 firms in the market then, compared to over 100 companies in existence today.

Consumer awareness was still low and funding was an issue as financial institutions were not fully aware of the renewable energy industry then.

Thankfully, Syahrul only needed around RM5,000 as start-up capital for Suria Infiniti as the company was mainly focused on consultancy and installation work at the time.

Although the team at Suria Infiniti has had years of experience in the field, Syahrul, noted that transitioning from an engineer to a business owner was not an easy process.

“Previously, we looked more into the technical aspects of solar energy. When we started the company, we have to look into the business aspect as well. It was not a very easy switch and there was a lot to learn,” he acknowledges.

Suria Infiniti started out with small residential projects but has grown over the years to take on bigger projects worth RM5mil to RM6mil.

“We started concentrating on large projects involving megawatt capacities over the last two years. Apart from undertaking our own projects, we provided services such as system design and installation work to other system integrators,” Syahrul said.

The company’s clientele is mainly made up of independent power producers including Cypark Resources Bhd, which recently completed its third renewable energy park project in Negri Sembilan. The project was worth some RM65mil with an annual generation capacity of 6,475MW.

More and more commercial premises, such as the factory in this picture, are starting to install solar panels.

 

In a country like Malaysia where sunshine is plentiful, the solar industry should be one that is thriving. But Malaysia came rather late to the renewable energy sector and there is much room to grow.

Under the 10th Malaysia Plan, the government has set a target for renewable energy to account for 5% of total capacity mix by 2015 with solar power contributing a minimum of 220MW.

According to Malaysia’s Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), the cumulative installed solar capacity to date is 85.54MW.

However, the growth of the industry is limited by caps on installed capacities for renewable energy.

In Malaysia, consumers using more than 300kWh of electricity a month have to pay an additional charge of 1.6% for the Renewable Energy (RE) Fund. The fund is used to support the feed-in tariff (FiT) programme, which obliges licensed electricity distributors such as Tenaga Nasional to buy electricity produced from renewable resources from approved producers.

Due to the low percentage allocated to the RE fund, there is limited funding to purchase the electricity from these producers. Hence, a need to limit capacity produced annually.

Other challenges plaguing the industry are the lack of skilled workers and the high cost of equipment as 80% of solar equipment is imported.

But Syahrul noted that improvements in technology could eventually mean a cheaper methods of manufacturing here. This could potentially make solar power production more affordable over time.

While he acknowledges that more can be done to boost the growth of the renewable energy sector, particularly for solar power, Syahrul is optimistic that there are a lot more opportunities to explore.

“There are many more areas of services which are untapped and we believe the growth of the solar industry will create more openings for skilled workers. Many foreign companies are looking at South-East Asia as the next area for solar photovotaic growth and with the few manufacturing companies we have here, Malaysia can certainly benefit more,” he said.

Suria Infiniti is also in the midst of setting up a branch in Sabah over the next two months to tap into the market there. Syahrul believes Sabah will bring in 40% of the company’s revenue this year as the state has recently been added back in the FIT scheme after a two year delay.

“We believe there is a strong growth potential in the residential and commercial market based on recent electricity price hike, increment of RE fund collection from 1% to 1.6% as well as awareness among Malaysians on the long term commercial benefits of going solar.

“We have the right weather here. There is no reason why we can’t expand,” he added.