PETRONAS shines with solar solutions

Two years ago, PETRONAS launched its flagship rooftop solar business in Malaysia, known as M+ by PETRONAS, to offer a wide variety of affordable and customer-centric solar energy solutions.

These solutions for businesses and households include on-site rooftop solar, off-site solar, battery storage, hybrid solutions and advanced analytic energy monitoring solutions. M+ by PETRONAS aims to make the switch to cleaner energy like solar accessible by offering zero CAPEX investment, which means zero techno-financial risks for customers.

These exciting offerings have been making waves in the local solar scene where M+ is powering 15 Lotus’s stores nationwide, helping the hypermarket chain to reduce more than 13,500 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

Besides powering its customers’ business with renewable energy, PETRONAS has also started to solarise its own assets and operations via solar rooftop installations. This effort includes the installation of solar rooftops at Malaysian Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE) West facility, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Institut Teknologi Petroleum PETRONAS (INSTEP), PETRONAS Refinery and Petrochemical Corporation (PRPC) and selected PETRONAS stations nationwide.

PETRONAS is not new to solar energy with its first foray in 2013 through the development of a 10MW solar farm in Gebeng, Pahang. The company then made significant inroads into the international solar market with the acquisition of Amplus in April 2019, symbolising its strategic intent to become a global leader in the renewable energy space. Amplus is now a leading distributed solar energy solutions provider and developer with a strong presence in India and Dubai , with over 300 locations globally.

In the same year, the Group also established its Gas + New Energy (GNE) business, which acts as its one-stop solution centre for cleaner energy. GNE looks at the advocacy for cleaner energy, as well as the development of innovative customer-centric solutions. With GNE, PETRONAS is able to further focus its commitment to provide customers with a wide range of low-to-zero carbon fuel covering natural gas, renewables and hydrogen.

Today, PETRONAS’ renewable energy portfolio in Malaysia and India has a combination of distributed assets with more than 1GW of solar capacity in operation and under construction. This is contributed by a mix of organic and inorganic growth, which includes leveraging the expertise of Amplus.

Amplus boasts over 910MW of solar capacity under operation and development in India and Southeast Asia. In 2020, Amplus acquired 135MW of solar assets located at Pavagada Solar Park, Karnataka, from Acme Solar. With this growth strategy, Amplus is now providing diversified solutions to commercial and industrial customers as well as utilities.

All in all, PETRONAS’ renewable ventures have put the energy giant on the right track to achieve installed renewable energy capacity of 3GW by 2024. Its progress as a global renewable energy player reflects the level of focus and commitment that it has embraced towards its net zero carbon emissions by 2050 aspiration.

Moving forward, PETRONAS aims to remain focused on solar and wind as both renewables possess the biggest growth potential with decreasing costs and technological improvements.

While its renewable ventures will be concentrated in Asia Pacific, the company has several undertakings in the pipeline.

This includes leveraging the experience of Amplus in India such as their expertise in Open Access Solar Plants and Third-Party Access to supply clean energy via the grid to consumers who want clean energy but do not have the necessary infrastructure such as roof or land space.

PETRONAS, via Amplus Energy Solutions in India, is also operating over 200 electric vehicles (EV) at 14 hubs across India signing up major clients such as Amazon, Flipkart and Big Basket. The start-up, known as Yelo aims to ramp up 600 vehicles by year end and provide EV delivery solutions for B2B customers in four main cities in India.

Besides introducing hybrid solutions together with storage technologies, PETRONAS also aspires to make its first entry into onshore and offshore wind energy.

This is part of PETRONAS’ future-proofing strategy as energy outlooks have forecast renewables to be the largest energy source for electricity generation worldwide by 2025. Amidst the pandemic, renewables were the only energy source to register demand growth.

With the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the energy transition with renewable sources at the forefront, PETRONAS is ready with its solid renewable and cleaner energy portfolio to continue ensuring reliable supply of sustainable solutions as well as enriching lives for generations to come.

Source: NST