The Malaysia’s first solar plant will be located in Putrajaya and to execute the plan Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has already completed the pre-qualification tender process, TNB president and chief executive officer Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said.

The power generated by this plant will be too small to make the profit out of it, but it will be a major step forward in the country’s drive to harness renewable energy sources to wean itself from an over-reliance on fossil fuels, which will run out one day. The solar power plant would take 12 months for completion and would be located in the buffer zone of an existing power station in Putrajaya.

The Press report says, as the solar power plantation requires large tracts of land, so they have decided to build the solar power on the 500m buffer area in the existing power plant. And the added advantage is that the cost will be lower as there is already a substation in the location to immediately connect to the system.

The estimated cost of a solar power plant is about US$4mil per megawatt (MW) which is roughly six times more costly than putting up an open cycle gas-fired plant, four times more expensive than a combined-cycle gas plant and just under three times higher than a coal-fired plant.

TNB solar power project will be based on three types of solar technology silicon, thin film and polycrystalline. (There are various technologies used in the making of solar panels and they vary in terms of cost, panel surface, durability and longevity.)