Malaysian Government policy towards Renewable Energy

Malaysia has started to promote the use of renewables since the year 2000 through the introduction of the Five Fuel Policy where renewable energy sources such as biomass, biogas, mini-hydro and solar PV have been identified as alternative fuel sources for power generation. The principle adopted was to use market forces to deliver the intended outcomes towards electricity generation and the Small Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) was introduced by the Government in 2001 to support the policy. However, through the mechanism the progress of RE development in the country has been quite minimal. These results provide valuable lessons in identifying the barriers from such an approach and the key lesson is that a ‘business-as-usual’ approach is not sustainable, appropriate or productive. Thus the Government of Malaysia introduced National Renewable Energy Policy and Action Plan (NREPAP) which was implemented starting from the 10th Malaysia Plan (2010). The REPAP provides long-term goals and a holistic approach with the main objective to spearhead the sustainable development of renewable energy. The NREPAP seeks to increase generation of RE power capacity in Malaysia to 2,080 MW by 2020 and 4,000 MW by 2030.