Transitions to low carbon distributed energy systems in Malaysia: Environmental, economics and policy implications

Nurfarhana Alyssa Ahmad Affandi, Norasikin Ahmad Ludin, Mirratul Mukminah Junedi and Han Phoumin

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 242, issue C

Abstract: Distributed energy systems’ levelized cost of energy is becoming competitive compared to fossil fuels. The only issue is the resource intermittency and the requirement for backup supply. This study aims to analyse the performance of distributed energy systems for the energy transition in Malaysia by using techno-economic and life cycle assessment under different scenarios. The environmental and economic impacts of rural electrification solar photovoltaic, wind turbine, mini-hydropower and biomass are analysed under the functional unit of 1 kWh energy production. Results show that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions avoided through distributed energy systems is about 1850 kg CO2/kWh/year, and if the implementation increased by only 10 %, Malaysia could reach its carbon emission reduction target of 45 % by 2030. Under a capacity of 50 %–80 %, the distributed energy system can replace fossil with a cost ranging from US$18.2/MWh to US$54.06/MWh. An increment of 0.05%–1.30 % is noted in system storage costs, ranging from US$41.8/MWh to US$70.1/MWh. This study highlights a 0.5 % reduction record in the payback period, with a 33 % decrement in capital cost from 4.50 to 15.50 years to only 3.07–10.91 years. Thus, the distributed energy system is viable in Malaysia with the need to improve infrastructure and policy support.

Keywords: Distributed energy system; Techno-economic analysis; Life cycle assessment; Levelised cost of storage; Policy transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125001065
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:242:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125001065

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.122444

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().