Planet QEOS and China’s CMEC propose US$2.12bil privately funded solar plus sustainable agri project in Sarawak

• 1000MW Agrovoltaic complex to be developed in Baram over a 1.2k ha site
• Generate 1430 GWh of energy, 170k MT of carbon neutral animal feed a year

Sarawak Premier, Abang Johari was briefed yesterday by Planet QEOS, a Sarawak sustainable agriculture and energy company, and China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) on an innovative model for a US$2.12 billion (RM10 billion) privately funded, technologically advanced, 1,000MWh solar plant integrated with Sustainable Animal Feed Economics (SAFE) in a 1,200ha site in Baram, a region in the Marudi district of Sarawak.

SAFE Agrovoltaic technology and the investment commitment by CMEC are the ambitious brainchild of three tech entrepreneurs including Sarawakians Dino Bidari and Dr Gabriel Walter, along with Lam Poh Lian a long-time senior executive who joined Gabriel, a former R&D Scientist in semiconductors from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who returned to Malaysia in 2008 to launch a deep tech startup.

CMEC has a long history in Sarawak when the China firm built the first coal fired plant Sejingkat 1998, and is now setting its sight to build the first SAFE Agrovoltaic for Sarawak by committing RM10 billion in financing and investment together with Planet QEOS.

CMEC and Planet QEOS will co-develop and complete the 1000MW solar SAFE Agrovoltaic, across 1200ha within 24 months of starting construction with the SAFE Agrovoltaic complex to create 1,200 new non-construction jobs, including 250 highly skilled engineering jobs in renewable energy, production, agriculture and veterinary, while supporting thousands of local farmers and agro-entrepreneur businesses in Baram.

CMEC has just completed the world largest solar power plant in a record speed of 19 months, the 2.1GW Al Dhafra plant in UAE.

With a patent pending technology powering the SAFE Agrovoltaic farm, the project is expected to generate an annual 1430 GWh of energy, 170,000 MT of carbon neutral Animal Feed, and 25 million carbon neutral broiler chickens, at fixed, predetermined and sustainable prices for 30 years. In a statement, Planet QEOS said this novel concept will ensure that the Sarawak market will have access to both sustainable energy and poultry prices for decades to come.

Another notable component of the SAFE Agrovoltaic is its promise of enabling 24-hour, grid scale energy supply, thus allowing solar powered energy to play a competitive role as a major and stable energy source. This will be achieved by installing the world’s second largest energy storage system at up to 2000 MWh capacity. The world’s largest battery energy storage system at 3,000 MWh is in California.

Planet QEOS said the implementation of the Baram Agrovoltaic project will allow green solar energy to directly substitute for energy generated by natural gas power plants, resulting in Green House Gasses (GHG) reduction of 640,000 mtCO2eq/year or equivalent to removing the emission from 140,000 ICE vehicles.

Inspiration from Premier Abang Johari’s drive to transition Sarawak into a green economy

Planet QEOS credits its innovative approach in combining sustainable energy with agriculture to the vision of Premier Abang Johari whose drive to transform the industrial and agriculture dominated Sarawak economy into a green economy with emphasis on green energy generation, modern sustainable agriculture while ensuring equitable distribution of wealth to the population.

The Premier has instructed the state Economic Planning Unit to form a special technical committee to study all related issues such as land needed, grid requirement etc with the report to be submitted to him by June.

Data was the key reason why Baram chosen as the location for Planet QEOS’ Agrovoltaic project. Citing 20 years of continuous data compiled by SOLARGIS, a database funded and provided by the World Bank Group, Baram’s solar irradiance is among the best in Malaysia and the region, said Planet QEOS, receiving 4.8 to 5.2 kWh/m2 global horizontal irradiance (GHI) per day average.

As a result, Baram has more than 200,000MW capacity of solar energy potential spread over more than 10,000 sq km of agriculture land. That is a land area larger than the Northern Malaysia state of Kedah with 9,500 sq km.

Data to be key component of project

This first privately funded, fully digitalized, land based Agrovoltaic in Sarawak will mine valuable large-scale data for research and development, to unlock and optimize the full potential for the integration of green energy economy and carbon neutral agriculture in Baram. For starters, the agriculture component of the project will see a 100ha grown with high yield rice planting, a staple food for the population in this region. The rice will be grown amidst the solar arrays with new solar technology designs.

Planet QEOS said the SAFE Agrovoltaic project can also scale up to 2400MWp which can generate power equivalent to a 400MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine plant (CCGT) but at a much lower long term energy cost and with the reduction of GHG by 1.54 million mtCO2eq/year.