PETALING JAYA: Analysts continue to maintain a positive stance on the renewable energy (RE) sector, underpinned by structural policy tailwinds in line with the targets set under the National Energy Transition Roadmap or NETR.
MBSB Research said in a note to clients that solar remains a multi-year growth engine.
“We previously estimated that solar would be increasingly dominant accounting for 25%, 39%, 52% and 58% of the capacity mix in 2035, 2040, 2045 and 2050, respectively, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 14% between 2025 and 2050.
“This underpins a multi-year growth story for solar engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning companies and also asset-owners, through power generation over the long term,” the research house said.
However, as solar penetration rises, intermittency and system balancing constraints become more pronounced, reinforcing the critical role of battery energy storage systems (Bess) or grid stability, the research house said.
It added that, for the week ended Dec 19, several RE-related announcements were made, revolving mainly around solar and Bess.
The research house said the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Ministry (Petra) announced that applications for the Solar Accelerated Transition Action Programme (Solar Atap) will commence on Jan 1, 2026, adding that applications can be submitted via the website of Sustainable Energy Development Authority. The guidelines will be uploaded on Dec 31.
Among the enhancements to Solar Atap initiative that were announced last Friday include the removal of the fixed quota, which helps to alleviate potential risks of a slowdown in rooftop solar, such as what was seen in the second half of this year after the Net Energy Metering (NEM) expired in June, it said.
That said, Petra has the right to re-impose caps if grid stability is threatened.
Other improvements are the retention of the NEM principle, which allows excess energy to be exported to the grid as an offset. Rates for non-domestic users will be based on the system marginal price while that of domestic users will be based on the prevailing energy tariff, the research house said.
The solar installation capacity limit is set at 100% of maximum demand while single-phase domestic users are allowed to install up to five KW while capacity for three-phase residential premises has been increased from 12.5KW to 15KW.
“We believe the 100% cap is crucial as it prioritises self-consumption and ensures the stability of the grid,” said MBSB Research.
It also noted the list of four shortlisted bidders for the MyBeST Bess project was also announced.
This is by far the country’s largest competitive international open bidding programme for grid-scale storage systems.
MyBeST will feature four grid-connected Bess projects, each with the capacity of 100MW to 400MW hours, which will be commissioned in 2027.
