KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 15): The government will undertake an open tender in 2019 for an estimated RM2 billion worth of projects under the third cycle of the large-scale solar (LSS3) scheme, to increase electricity generation from renewable energy (RE).

Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin told Parliament today that the LSS3 project has a total electricity generation capacity of 500 megawatts (MW).

It was reported earlier that RE constitutes 2% of the country's total energy generation mix as at 2016. Today, Yeo said the government hopes to increase the RE portion to 20% by 2025.



“To achieve the 20% RE target, more LSS needs to be added to the system. So far, the government has implemented two LSS project cycles with an installed capacity of 958MW. Out of the total, three projects with a capacity of 32.5MW have reached the date of commercial operations. Other projects are expected to start generating energy by the end of 2018 to 2020.

“In the government's electricity supply planning, the increase in the proportion of RE in electricity generation would not only reduce carbon emission intensity in the electricity supply sector by 49%, but could also result in system cost savings of RM270 million for the period from 2018 to 2037,” Yeo said in a written reply today.

Yeo was responding to Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong's request for the ministry to state whether it plans to increase the LSS power generation project to achieve the 20% target of RE by 2025.