'World's most beautiful island' to get pioneering offshore solar power

Malaysia is set to trial offshore floating solar off its coast for the first time under a link-up between the Asian nation’s largest utility and sector pioneer SolarDuck.

Dutch-Norwegian firm SolarDuck plans by 2025 to deploy a 780kW offshore solar plant off Malaysia’s Tioman island – once declared by Time magazine as the world's most beautiful – to “assess technical and economic feasibility” of the technology.

SolarDuck aims to install the PV offshore in partnership with the green power arm of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Malaysia’s main utility player and one of the largest in Asia. The two, plus another TNB unit and Norway’s Hydro Extrusions signed a letter of intent for the project this week.

“For SolarDuck this means that we are building a footprint in Malaysia, a country in a region with the world’s largest potential for OFS,” said CEO Koen Burgers.

SolarDuck – which is planning North Sea floating solar arrays in conjunction with RWE – is one of a clutch of pioneers aiming to take PV out to sea, adding to the growing boom in deployment of floating solar on lakes, reservoirs and other inland water surfaces.

Other contenders include Norway’s Ocean Sun, Netherlands-based Oceans of Energy and contractor heavyweights DEME, Tractebel and Jan De Nul, which are aiming for a first pilot outing for their Seavolt system off the coast of Belgium this summer.

In Asia, Ocean Sun has already been involved in what was claimed as a world-first offshore floating PV plant integrated with a wind turbine off China’s Shandong province.(Copyright)

cover photo:The Guam Daily Post