Malaysia’s solar leader to ramp up output as battery prices drop
Solarvest currently has around 1.2 GW of capacity in the South-east Asian country
Published Fri, Feb 13, 2026 · 09:27 AM
[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia’s biggest solar company Solarvest Holdings plans to more than double its generation capacity in the next two years, as declining battery costs enables further deployment of renewables.
Power-hungry artificial intelligence (AI) data centres operating in Malaysia are expected to require 7.7 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by the end of the decade, giving Solarvest “huge room” for growth, Solarvest chief executive officer Davis Chong said on Wednesday (Feb 11). Solarvest currently has around 1.2 GW of capacity in the South-east Asian country and is set scale up another 2 GW through next year.
This expansion is enabled by a decline in prices of battery systems, which now cost between US$90 to US$100 per kilowatt-hour (KWh) in the country, down from as much as US$230 per KWh about a year ago, Chong said. Prices could drop further to US$60 per KWh, he said.
A global decline in battery costs is resulting in an acceleration of installations, which help grids integrate intermittent renewables. Battery additions are forecast to grow 33 per cent in 2026 to an all-time high, according to BloombergNEF.
Chong also sees further growth opportunities overseas, especially in Vietnam and the Philippines, by the decade’s end.
Solarvest, co-founded by Chong in 2012, is Malaysia’s first listed solar firm. Shares are up 27 per cent in the last year, supported by new projects and expectations that data centres will drive higher power demand. BLOOMBERG
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