On January 21st, Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy and Water Transformation announced a new round of tenders for photovoltaic (PV) power generation, aiming to develop 2GW of PV projects. It is reported that this additional quota will be divided into two parts.
The first scheme is targeted at ground-mounted solar power plants with a generating capacity of 30-500MW, allocating a total of 1.5GW of capacity.
The second scheme focuses on floating or water-based solar projects, allocating a total of 500MW of capacity, with the publicly tendered capacity range under this package being 10-500MW.
As an important economy in Southeast Asia, Malaysia boasts abundant solar energy resources and renewable energy, as well as a vast international market and convenient international trade conditions. Additionally, as a popular investment destination for PV companies, Malaysia also has relatively complete industrial supporting facilities and attractive investment incentive policies, making it a preferred destination for many Chinese companies to invest in and construct PV manufacturing projects.
However, with the United States initiating investigations into PV products from Southeast Asia, PV products exported from the region to the United States have also faced trade restrictions. Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily ruled that solar products imported from Southeast Asian countries were sold in the U.S. market at prices below their production costs, constituting unfair trade, and plans to impose tariffs as high as 271% on solar panels imported from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, attracting widespread attention from the global solar industry.
Not long ago, Malaysian Deputy Minister of Trade Liew Chin Tong also warned at a forum, urging Chinese companies not to use Malaysia as a base for “rebranding” their products to avoid U.S. tariffs. And just recently, U.S. President Trump announced plans to impose a 25% tariff on goods exported from China to the United States, escalating the China-U.S. trade war.
Noor Suziyanti Saad, Director of the Power Electronics Division at the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, pointed out during the “Online Sharing Session on Investment Opportunities in the Malaysian PV Industry” hosted by the China Photovoltaic Industry Association that several Chinese PV giants have already established vertical integration capacity in Malaysia. Among them, LONGi’s Malaysian factory covers all aspects of silicon rods, silicon wafers, cells, and modules, while JinkoSolar and Risen Energy focus on cell and module manufacturing. Over the past year, Malaysia has also attracted investments from Chinese PV companies.
