BCorp eyes solar power plant but govt help crucial

BERJAYA Corp Bhd (3395), a diversified group with interests in property and gaming, wants to venture into the solar energy business but its plan hinges on the government.

Essentially, the government will have to agree to buy electricity produced from the sun at higher prices to make its project commercially viable.

Currently, state-owned Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) buys some electricity generated by renewable sources like hydro and biomass.

TNB pays about 21 sen per kilowatt-hour for power from a biomass plant for instance, which is more than what it pays independent power producers that use gas or coal as fuel.
"For solar, the feed-in tariff should be at least RM1.00 kW/h," Berjaya Solar managing director Chock Eng Tah told Business Times in a telephone interview yesterday.

Berjaya Solar Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned unit of BCorp, plans to spend RM180 million to set up a 10-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Bukit Tagar, Selangor. The plant would cover 50ha or the size of 200 football fields.

It is designed to feed into the national power grid and will be the precursor to a 50MW solar power plant.

But this will only start when the government finalises feed-in tariffs for renewable energy.

"If everything goes as planned, we hope to start construction in the second half of this year and complete it next year.

"In reducing reliance on fossil fuel, Malaysia aspires to use more renewable energy. The advantage of solar is that there's no pollutants," he said.

Berjaya Solar will work with China-based Wuxi Erquan Solar Energy Science & Technology Co Ltd (EQ Solar) which will set up a solar panel-making plant in Johor. EQ Solar will produce mono-and poly-crystalline photovoltaic modules for the Asean market.

Chock estimates that Berjaya Solar's 10MW power plant could power up to 3,000 homes equipped with an average of two air-conditioners.