KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has begun a programme to deploy solar energy at the group's assets throughout Malaysia to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions through its new energy business.
Petronas' head of new energy Dr Jay Mariyappan said the group's deployment of solar energy on its assets is part of its journey to achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050. (NZCE 2050).
Mariyappan said while Petronas is actively involved in supplying clean energy to businesses, it recognises that the transformational effort should begin at Petronas' home ground.
"In this regard, we will be using our very own M+ by Petronas solar solution for the installations, where we integrate high-quality systems and products that we've provided for our customers across the world.
"This would help power our assets with a reliable supply of solar energy for decades to come, whilst optimising performance using the Hawk AI Data Monitoring System that we currently offer," he said.
In a statement today, the national oil company said that four Petronas assets would be equipped with ground-mounted and rooftop solar systems by the end of the year as part of this initiative.
When completed, the solar systems will have a combined capacity of over 66 megawatts (MWp) and will assist Petronas in achieving annual carbon emissions reductions of 58,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
This effort includes the recently completed 8.33MWp solar rooftop installation at Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd (MMHE) in Pasir Gudang, Johor, dubbed MMHE West Malaysia's largest of its kind in a single compound.
Additionally, a 7.3MWp rooftop solar installation at Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Seri Iskandar, Perak, is on schedule to be completed by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, it said the remaining two projects in the pipeline include a 49.0MWp ground-mounted and rooftop solar installation at Pengerang Integrated Complex in Johor, which is targeted for completion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, as well as a 1.4MWp solar rooftop installation at Institut Teknologi Petroleum Petronas (Instep) in Terengganu.
The installation at Instep will also see an additional 5 kilowatts (kWP) solar training system installed to provide students with hands-on experiential learning and the renewable energy modules and products the institute offers.
"The combined installed capacity at the four assets, for scale, can generate enough energy to power more than 20,000 households.
"Moving forward, Petronas will continue to assess the energy consumption of its assets and the group's portfolio to identify opportunities for electrifying processes and maximising renewable energy use as part of a phased approach towards achieving NZCE 2050," it added.