KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 29): Malaysia is anticipating the implementation of its newly launched National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) 2050 to spur new growth areas that will bring about a 10% to 15% uplift to its gross domestic product value, Minister of Economy Rafizi Ramli said.

Part of this will be supported by potentially higher value of green foreign direct investments (FDIs) into the country, Rafizi said at the launch of the second phase of the NETR earlier on Tuesday that was held in conjunction with The Energy Transition Conference 2023 here.

“For businesses, infrastructure and technology would become the impetus for investments to flow through. Cleaner energy mix and energy efficiency would also future-proof our industries so that we are prepared for a world where money responds to the greenest products,” said Rafizi.

The NETR has made strong projections on the benefits of Malaysia’s accelerated pivot towards net zero carbon emissions, including some RM120-180 billion of investment opportunities in co-funded government facilities for energy transition.

In total, investment opportunities are projected to be above RM1 trillion from now to 2050, the NETR report showed.

Malaysia’s grid readiness itself will require RM180 billion in investments in the period, according to energy minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd, which is currently the sole operator of Malaysia’s transmission grid, has pledged to invest RM90 billion for the grid infrastructure in the next six years, president and CEO Datuk Baharin Din said at the conference.

In one of the panel sessions, Energy Commission chairman Mohammed Rashdan Mohd Yusof pointed out that the grid investments estimate would include costs to fund future infrastructure such as battery storage.

The shortfall, he said, could partly be addressed with the setting up of an energy exchange to “tap into other markets at higher prices”.

Aside from grid infrastructure, the NETR also highlighted a slew of flagship catalyst projects, including a large-scale integrated renewable energy (RE) zone led by Khazanah Nasional Bhd; the development by Tenaga of a 500MW solar park and hybrid hydro-floating solar plant with a combined capacity of 2,500MW; and biomass co-firing at Malakoff Corp Bhd’s existing 2,100MW Tanjung Bin coal plant.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also announced plans to set up the National Energy Transition Facility (NETF), beginning with RM2 billion from the government as seed fund, to finance marginally bankable energy transition projects or those yielding below-market returns, such as electric-vehicle charging, hydrogen and carbon capture technologies.

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