Malaysia’s water reservoir to host 150 MW floating solar plant

Japanese EPC contractor Shizen Energy announced that its Malaysian unit, Shizen Malaysia Sdn Bhd., has joined the Nusa Baiduri Consortium, which is planning to build a 150 MW floating solar power plant at the Durian Tunggal Dam in Melaka, a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula.

Shizen Malaysia will conduct the feasibility study for the project and will cooperate directly with the consortium's largest shareholder, Malaysian real estate manager Nusa Baiduri Sdn Bhd. “A feasibility study of floating solar equipment will be conducted from March 15, 2022, for a maximum duration of 12 months, and following a favorable result, the floating solar facility of 150 MW will be constructed in a sequence of Phase 1 and later Phase 2,” Shizen said in a statement.

The facility will sell power under unspecified conditions to the local utility Syarikat Air Melaka Bhd (SAMB).

“Should the feasibility study yield positive results, the completion of the 150 MW floating solar project would mean Malaysia having one of the first and largest floating solar plant in South East Asia. This is an initiative to support the state government towards green technology, and zero carbon by 2030,” said SAMB CEO Abdu Rashid Abdul Rahman. “Floating solar is an exciting opportunity and we can clearly see the benefits of our contribution to the water utility sector across Malaysia,” said Shizen Malaysia CEO Alvin Koh. As such, the company will continue to focus on materializing these projects, he added.

Shizen Malaysia has developed renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 200 MW in Malaysia to date. The country's largest floating PV plant is a 13 MW array deployed in the state of Selangor on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The plant is selling power to local utility TNB under a 21-year PPA. The project’s levelized cost of energy is MYR 0.21608 ($0.051).