Reports from the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power Systems Program (IEA-PVPS) show that Malaysia added more than 1.4 GW of solar energy by 2025, with more than 5.7 GW now deployed across multiple government schemes.
According to figures from the International Energy Agency’s IEA-PVPS, Malaysia’s solar capacity stood at 5,777 MW at the end of 2025.
The figure includes the solar energy used in the large-scale solar energy systems (LSS), the feed-in tariff (FiT) and the net energy metering systems (NEM). An IEA PVPS 2024 report estimated the country’s cumulative solar capacity at 4,329 MW at the end of that year, implying an addition of about 1,448 MW in 2025.
The country’s total solar capacity could be even higher, as this figure does not take into account solar installed outside government schemes, such as off-grid installations.
Malaysia’s LSS program is a competitive auction program targeting utility projects that had deployed 2,648 MW of solar energy by the end of 2025. The most recent auction round started in January 2025, tendering 2 GW of large-scale solar projects with capacities ranging from 10 MW to 500 MW.
In September 2025, it approved 13 projects with a combined capacity of 1,975 MW. Figures from Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, published in October, show that the LSS has now approved 6,028 MW of solar capacity for 117 companies since its inception.
IEA-PVPS added that a total of 345 MW of solar energy was deployed under the Malaysian feed-in tariff system, a previous policy offering a fixed rate for small-scale rooftop solar, before this was replaced by a net metering scheme in early 2016.
The three rounds of Malaysia’s net metering programs, which over time have expanded to include residential, commercial and industrial (C&I) and government buildings, had deployed 2,747 MW of solar power by the time they concluded in June 2025, the IEA-PVPS figures added.
In early 2026, Malaysia replaced its net metering program with the Solar Accelerated Transition Action Program (ATAP), aimed at both residential and commercial customers.
Lam Pham and Alnie Demoral, energy analysts at Ember, specialized in Asian markets, said this pv magazine that the LSS program and the third net metering program were the main drivers of the Malaysian solar market last year, as well as the high commercial tariffs that helped make solar competitive for the C&I market.
Looking ahead, Pham and Demoral predict that more solar energy will be deployed in Malaysia in 2026 than in 2025, driven by the launch of the ATAP and the completion of utility-scale solar projects awarded in the most recent LSS rounds.
“The 2026 ATAP will lift quota restrictions and expand rooftop adoption, which previously restricted distributed solar,” the couple said. pv magazine. They explained it too the program will gain approval more easily compared to the NEM, but focuses on domestic consumption by not offering export benefits.
Pham and Demoral said allowing the monetization of excess generation under ATAP would help further support the Malaysian solar market. They also proposed standardizing and accelerating grid connection approvals and publishing hosting capacity maps for greater transparency, as well as reforming electricity prices and subsidies, explaining that natural gas and coal remain indirectly subsidized, which in turn distorts the competitiveness of solar energy.
Developments in data centers also appear to be playing an increasingly important role in the development of Malaysia’s solar energy sector. One of the largest solar projects being developed in the country is a 1.5 GW project to be linked to battery storage to supply hyperscale data centers under the country’s Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme, which allows companies to buy green energy directly from renewable energy developers via the electricity grid.
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