PETALING JAYA: A former Pakatan Harapan (PH) minister has urged the government to lift the ban on renewable energy (RE) exports to Singapore, saying it will attract more investments and create more green jobs.
Bakri MP Yeo Bee Yin, a former energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister, said Malaysia had been engaging with Singapore on RE exports to the country from the end of 2018 until the Sheraton Move, which led to the fall of the 22-month-old PH government.
She said Singapore would need more RE in its electricity mix because more multinational companies were making a commitment towards carbon neutrality. Many of them had their regional headquarters in Singapore.
“We were keen to export RE as it was another growth area for the green economy and green jobs,” she said in a statement.
“As anticipated, on Oct 25, 2021, the Singapore government announced that it would import up to 4 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon RE by 2035.”
Yeo said Malaysia lost out on this opportunity when, in October 2021, the government “suddenly” announced a ban on RE export.
She said that when she asked for the reason for the ban in the Dewan Rakyat, the reply was that RE exports (including the carbon credits that come with the exported RE) would hinder Malaysia from fulfilling its own carbon reduction target, also known as the National Determined Commitment (NDC), under the Paris Agreement.
She claimed this argument was “mathematically flawed”.
“Overall, in Malaysia, the untapped potential of solar, bioenergy and small hydropower is 269 GW, 3.6 GW and 2.5 GW, respectively.
“To put things into perspective, our national total installed power generation capacity as of 2020 was only 34.6 GW – comprising 27.2 GW for Peninsular Malaysia, 5.7 GW for Sarawak and 1.7 GW for Sabah.
“The untapped potential of RE can power up more than eight times the size of Malaysia,” she said.
She said it was important for the government to learn from its previous “mistake” and reverse the ban on RE export.
The Singapore Energy Market Authority (EMA) had issued the first Request for Proposal (RFP) on Nov 12, 2021 for the import of up to 1.2GW of electricity.
The deadline for RFP submission is June 14 this year, and Yeo said it was likely that the RE players would miss this round.
However, she said, the second RFP would also open this quarter.
“I call upon the government to reverse its decision to ban RE exports so that Malaysia-based RE players can participate in the second RFP.
“Recently, I see the prime minister and many Cabinet ministers going around the world in the name of attracting investment to the country.
“I hope they realise that there is one very low-hanging fruit, lying at our doorstep, waiting to be picked.” - FMT
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