Following the end of Malaysia’s net metering program (NEM) in June 2025, the government has launched the Solar ATAP to continue the country’s commercial and industrial and residential rooftop PV rollout.
The new scheme has been effective since 1 January 2026.
“The program provides a cost-neutral and transparent mechanism for consumers to install and operate solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for self-consumption, while allowing surplus energy to be exported to the grid,” said Malaysia's Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) in a statement.
In allowing excess solar energy produced by rooftop PV system owners to be exported to the grid as an energy offset, the Solar ATAP maintains the core principles of the NEM.
The installation capacity limit for solar PV systems for non-domestic consumers has been set at 100% of the consumer’s maximum demand, or 1 MW. For domestic consumers, the limit varies between 5 kW and 15 kW.
Once the Solar ATAP contract begins, the tenure will last for 10 years. After that, the system will be strictly for self-consumption and no offset and roll-over will be allowed for any excess energy exported.
Capacities will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, and the government determines opening and cessation dates.
Malaysia hopes the guidelines will promote wider participation in its renewable energy rollout and increase fairness and transparency in the industry overall.
The program covers rooftop PV, but solar carparks and covered pedestrian walkways may also be included provided they are contained within the same grounds as the applicant.
Customers who wish to take part in the Solar ATAP program can do an outright purchase of the solar PV system via cash, personal loans or credit card. Applicants can also opt to purchase solar electricity by signing power purchase agreement (PPA) with solar investors, via a solar leasing program or a hybrid of both, as offered by Registered Solar PV Investor (RPVI).
According to SEDA, applicants to the Solar ATAP must meet a set of criteria. They must be a registered consumer of electric utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), and only applicants who are not registered under the Self Consumption (SelCo) or NEM programs are eligible.
During the supply application process, a ‘domestic group’ is required to do a Connection Assessment Study after which consumers can apply to participate in Solar ATAP.
Any consumer who is also a generator – such as but not limited to co-generator and back-feed or TNB accounts registered under tenant sub meters in the multi-tenant scheme – is not eligible to apply for Solar ATAP.
Malaysia’s cumulative solar capacity reached 2,306 MW by the end of 2024, up from 2,146 MW in 2023, according to the latest figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.