Reports from the International Energy Agency's Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA-PVPS) indicate Malaysia added over 1.4 GW of solar in 2025, with more than 5.7 GW now deployed across multiple government schemes.

The figure includes solar deployed across Malaysia’s large-scale solar (LSS), feed-in tariff (FiT), and net energy metering (NEM) schemes. An IEA-PVPS report from 2024 put the country’s cumulative solar capacity at 4,329 MW at the end of that year, implying additions of around 1,448 MW in 2025.

The country's total solar capacity may stand even higher, as the figure does not account for any solar installed outside the government schemes, such as off-grid installations.

Malaysia's LSS program is a competitive auction scheme targeting utility projects that had deployed 2,648 MW of solar by the end of 2025. The most recent auction round kicked off in January 2025, tendering 2 GW of large-scale solar projects with capacities ranging from 10 MW to 500 MW.

It approved 13 projects in September 2025 with a combined capacity of 1,975 MW. Figures from Malaysia's Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation published in October said the LSS has now approved 6,028 MW of solar capacity to 117 companies since its inception.

IEA-PVPS adds that a total 345 MW of solar was deployed under Malaysia's feed-in tariff scheme, an earlier policy offering a fixed tariff for small-scale rooftop solar, before it was replaced by a net-metering scheme at the start of 2016.

The three rounds of Malaysia's net-metering schemes, which have expanded over time to include residential, commercial and industrial (C&I), and government-owned buildings, had deployed 2,747 MW of solar, IEA-PVPS' figures add, by the time of its conclusion in June 2025.

At the start of 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 specializing in Asian markets, told pv magazine that the LSS program and third net metering scheme were key drivers of Malaysia's solar market last year, as well as high commercial tariffs helping to make solar competitive for the C&I market.

Looking ahead, Pham and Demoral forecast that more solar will be deployed in Malaysia in 2026 than in 2025, driven by the launch of the ATAP and completion of utility-scale solar projects awarded in the most recent LSS rounds.

“The ATAP in 2026 removes quota constraints and expands rooftop adoption which previously constrained distributed solar,” the pair told pv magazine. They also explained the program will bring easier approval compared to the NEM but focuses on self-consumption by offering no export benefits.

Pham and Demoral said allowing the monetization of excess generation under ATAP would help support Malaysia’s solar market further. They also suggested standardizing and speeding up grid connection approvals and publishing hosting capacity maps for improved transparency, as well electricity pricing and subsidies reform, explaining that natural gas and coal remain indirectly subsidized, in turn distorting solar competitiveness.

Data centre developments also appear poised to play a growing role in the development of Malaysia's solar sector. Among the largest solar project under development in the country is a 1.5 GW project to be tied with battery storage to supply hyperscale data centres under the country's Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme scheme, which allows businesses to purchase green electricity directly from renewable energy developers via the grid.