Renewables deal targets Malaysia’s hyperscale data centres

Details: Vaughan O'Grady; Category: Energy & Sustainability; 27 August 2025; 7198 views

Two Malaysian companies, clean energy solutions provider Gentari, the renewable energy arm of Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas, and construction and engineering company Gamuda, through its energy arm Gamuda Energy, have entered into a data centre-focused energy collaboration.

The companies aim to develop approximately 1.5 GW of renewable energy capacity through solar photovoltaic power plants paired with battery energy storage systems. Established under Malaysia’s national Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS) framework, the new capacity is intended to meet the energy demands of strategic hyperscale data centre players.

The Data Centre Dynamics website says CRESS permits corporations to directly contract power from renewable energy developers for electricity while paying a system access charge to the grid system operator for grid access.

This partnership brings together Gentari’s expertise in large-scale renewable energy development and operations with Gamuda’s regional track record in engineering, construction and delivery of complex infrastructure projects, including renewable energy.

As the partners point out, given their role as critical facilities for cloud computing, AI, and digital services, hyperscale data centres are projected to require over 5 GW of reliable power by 2035. This, they say, underscores the urgent need to expand renewable energy capacity to meet rising demand.

Data Centre Dynamics explains that the capacity additions will significantly increase Malaysia’s current solar generation capacity. At the end of 2024, it had 2GW of installed solar capacity, representing 5% of its total installed capacity. By 2035, the country aims to have 40% renewable capacity.

At the start of the year, Gamuda announced its move into the data centre sector after acquiring a 390-acre plot outside Kuala Lumpur that could reportedly support up to 1GW of capacity. The company claims to have more than 8GW of installed and under-construction renewable assets across the world.

In August we reported that Gentari and cloud services giant Amazon Web Services (AWS) had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for an 80MW wind power project in Tamil Nadu, India. Before this, in May, Gentari signed a series of power purchase agreements with Telekom Malaysia to power six of the operator’s sites across Malaysia.