TUCKED away in an industrial area in Kuantan is one of Pahang’s earliest solar farm projects.
The Voltage Renewables Sdn Bhd (VRSB) solar farm, operational since 2014, is a 10MW facility comprising 29,960 solar modules installed across a total photovoltaic (PV) area of 50,569 sq m.
Commissioned under Feed-in Tariff (FiT) mechanism, the farm is under a 21-year contract with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) as part of a renewable energy power purchase agreement.
All of the electricity it generates is supplied to the national grid, contributing to Malaysia’s renewable energy (RE) mix and supporting the diversification of the country’s power generation sources.
According to Gentari’s data, the solar farm has generated more than 125 million kWh of clean electricity, equivalent to reducing an estimated 83,745 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions or powering approximately 44,147 homes for one year.
Throughout its operations, VRSB has undertaken ongoing upgrades to enhance plant resilience and performance.
“A key initiative involved transitioning from a central inverter system to string inverters, which improved operational flexibility and fault tolerance,” said Gentari Malaysia head of asset management and operations and maintenance excellence Meor Mohd Zaki.
“Inverter placements were also elevated to higher ground to better protect the equipment,” he added.
Alongside the inverter upgrades, the team carried out a comprehensive assessment of the solar panels using thermal drone inspections and artificial intelligence analytics.
Meor said the assessment identified several abnormalities, allowing the team to selectively dismantle and replace only the affected panels to improve the facility’s overall efficiency.
The facility, managed by PETRONAS’ clean energy solutions company Gentari, is part of the company’s RE portfolio.
Globally, Gentari has a combined RE and storage capacity of 9.1GW across operational and under-development projects, of which 257MW is in Malaysia.
Gentari Malaysia head of renewables Syed Malek Faisal Syed Mohamad described solar as the cornerstone of Gentari’s RE strategy.
“Malaysia’s geographical conditions make solar the most viable and scalable technology here, and we are committed to developing it further across ground-mounted and floating solar installations,” he said.
Building on its solar legacy, Gentari is developing a 150MWp large-scale solar PV facility in Kuala Muda, Kedah, after a successful bid under Malaysia’s fifth Large-Scale Solar (LSS5) programme in December 2024.
Once completed, the facility will supply up to 150MWp (megawatt peak) of clean electricity to the national grid under a 21-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
Looking ahead, Gentari is also exploring opportunities in floating solar through a joint study with Sarawak Energy Berhad and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company.
The three parties signed a Trilateral Malaysia Joint Study Agreement to assess the feasibility of developing a floating solar project in Sarawak.
He said the company’s focus is to scale up solar capacity in support of Malaysia’s goal of achieving 70% RE by 2050, while pursuing its own ambition to become Asia Pacific’s most valued clean energy solutions partner by 2030.
“The demand outlook has never been more compelling. Hyperscalers and data centre operators entering Malaysia carry significant sustainability mandates; a substantial portion of their power must come from green sources.
“TNB has projected at least 5GW of new capacity driven by data centres alone by 2035, and we are actively developing projects to support that growth.”
