The World Bank Group, through the International Finance Corporation, and with Permodalan Darul Ta’zim – PDT, Johor State’s strategic investment arm, as well as Ditrolic Energy, have gone on to enter into a collaboration in order to develop the Southern Johor Renewable Energy Corridor – SJERC, a renewable energy corridor in Malaysia. The corridor goes on to cover a 2,000 square km zone, which is planned as a combined solar and battery energy storage system development area that is intended to supply clean electricity for the industrial growth of Johor and also support the cross-border power trade objectives of ASEAN Power Grid – APG.
It is well to be noted that the initial phase of this renewable energy corridor in Malaysia is planned to include almost 4 GWp of solar capacity as well as 5.12 GWh of storage capacity across the 10,000-acre site. The $6 billion project is anticipated to supply renewable electricity when it comes to local as well as multinational companies in Johor, including taking care of manufacturers, data center operators, and other industrial users in Johor. Besides this, the project is also going to support clean power transmission to Singapore. This will be as part of the APG initiative in order to make the regional electricity networks more robust by 2045.
The initiative is anticipated to support regional economic activity through creating almost 125,000 jobs, which would be linked to construction and operations as well as maintenance. It had been formalized along with the release of the Johor Renewable Energy Policy 2030. It outlined the coordinated work all through the project development, technical inputs, and potential financing. In addition to this, the plan is aligned with the Johor Green Development Policy 2030 and also goes on to form a major component within the master plan of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.