Thinking about getting solar for your home, and feel overwhelmed?

Don’t stress!

That’s what this beginner’s guide to solar power in Malaysia is for.

After reading this guide, you’ll know more about solar energy than most Malaysians, you’ll feel confident speaking to a sales person, and know you’re paying the right price for a residential solar power system installation for your home in 2026.

In recent years, the global push towards renewable electricity sources has gained significant momentum, and Malaysia is no exception.

With its abundant sunlight hours and growing energy demands, solar power in Malaysia has emerged as a key solution to meet the country’s electricity needs while reducing its carbon footprint.

Learn the basics of solar in 15 minutes (or less)

Understanding Solar Energy

Solar energy is derived from the sun’s energy, which is harnessed using photovoltaic (PV) panels or solar thermal systems. In Malaysia, where sunlight is plentiful throughout the year, solar energy presents a viable alternative to traditional fossil fuels.

Potential of Solar Energy in Malaysia

Malaysia generates so much sunlight (between 4 – 6 hours a day), offering ground-installed, roof-mounted, and floating solar systems with a potential of over 269 gigawatts for solar power. Hydroenergy and bioenergy also contribute, with potentials of 13.6 gigawatts and 3.6 gigawatts, respectively.

Under the Malaysia Renewable Energy Roadmap (MyRER), the government has set a goal to provide 31 percent (13 gigawatts) of the nation’s energy needs by 2025 and 40 percent (18 gigawatts) by 2035. The long-term goal is to achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2050, aligning with the national targets for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

How Solar Panels Work

Solar panels are made up of photovoltaic (PV) cells, which are typically made of silicon. When sunlight hits these cells, the photons (particles of light) are absorbed by the semiconductor material.

A residential solar panel has around 60 cells that are roughly 6 Watts each, arranged in a 6 by 10 matrix. Each cell produces about 0.6 volts and 10 amps.

The peak power of the most commonly installed panel these days is 60 x 6.92 watts = 415 Watts.

If you connect 18 of these 415W panels together, you have enough for a 6.6 kilowatt solar system (16 x 415W = 6,600 W = 6.6 kilowatts). 6.6kW solar systems are the most commonly installed size in Malaysia currently.

Solar Power System Components

Here are what a solar power system is made of:

1) The Solar Panels

The Solar panels absorb the sun’s energy and generate Direct Current (DC) electricity. They do this via the photovoltaic (PV) process.

2) Solar Charge Controller

Charge controllers are sometimes referred to as solar regulators with its main purpose of preventing overvoltage. It regulates the voltage of your Solar Battery Storage to avoid overcharging. Most 12 volt solar panels put out about 16-20 volts, making your battery more prone to damage if there’s no regulation.

3) Inverter

The solar inverter is a device that converts the DC electricity generated from your solar panels to AC electricity that can be used by your home.

Inverters come in 2 different forms and they serve 2 different purposes:

• Microinverter – these are a small book-sized component mounted on the back of the solar panels where they convert the direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) at the source, making microinverters a safer option.  
• A string inverter – is mounted usually on the ground floor against a wall and converts the electrical currents from all solar panels at a central location. 

Microinverters operate at a lower voltage, which is safer if there’s a fault in the installation. But this can be mitigated by choosing a reliable installer (see below) and carrying out an inspection every 5 years.

If you opt for a string inverter, make sure it stays out of direct sunlight.

Choose a shaded spot, a cool room, or ask the installer to build something to shade and cover over the inverter. Direct intense sunlight will ruin the inverter as you know it can get pretty hot in Malaysia. Installing an inverter where it is exposed to direct sunlight may also void its warranty.

The inverter is the part most likely to fail in the first 10 to 15 years. If your string inverter fails, it will stop your whole system unless you’re using micro-inverters.

That’s why, even if you’re on a tight budget, we recommend choosing a mid-range or high-end solar inverter. I’m confident they’ll last longer than the cheapest ones.

You can read about the pros and cons of each inverter choice in detail here.

4) Racking & Mounting

The racking is what attaches your solar panels to your roof.

There is a wide variety of racking brands out there.

These shouldn’t make much of a difference in terms of brands but depending on your roof material your installer might need to make some custom parts to make the panels fit your roof.

It’s important to check this when your solar installer comes to your property to do a site inspection.

Make sure to ask this so you don’t get suprised with some unexpected costs.

5) Grid Meter

As part of the installation 2 types of meters will get installed:

1. TNB’s bi-directional meter (with import-export feature) to record the amount of electricity consumed, produced or exported by your solar panel system;
2. PV meter/data logger/inverter with monitoring feature to record the total amount of electricity generated by your solar PV system.

Optional – You could all install a measurement meter for measurement of the energy export (if applicable) and shall be of the same or equivalent to the standards of the consumer meter installed at the premises by TNB;

How Your Solar Power System Will Use Electricity

Your home’s solar system installation will only ever operate in one of 2 modes:

Mode #1 Your solar system is generating more power than your home needs.

Here, my residential solar power system is producing 6.6 kW.

2 kW is going into my home, with the surplus 4.6 kW is going back into the grid.

As part of the Net Energy Metering (NEM) program in Malaysia, any excess energy generated is exported to the grid, and you’ll receive a credit to be used on your electricity bill. These credits can roll over for up to 12 months!

Mode #2 Your home is using more power than your solar panels are producing.

In this scenario, your solar power system installation is not producing enough electricity for the usage. The grid makes up the electricity difference which you pay like you would if you didn’t have solar panels installed.

How Much Electricity Will My Solar Power System Produce?

The amount of electricity your solar power system will produce will depend on the sunshine hours daily.

The average peak sun hours for Malaysia is between 4.0 to 5.5 hours a day (during the hottest part of the day) depending where exactly you are in Malaysia.

Peak sun hour refers to how much sun exposure that is usable for efficient energy production per area (in meter square) during a typical day of the year.

The map below shows the solar radiation for Malaysia which is linked to peak sun hours.

More radiation (more red) means more peak sun hours)

To estimate how much electricity your solar panel system will produce you can multiply the the kW of your system by the peak sun hours.

EG. a solar panel system of 4kW in Kuala Lumpur where the peak sun hours is 4.5 hours will produce approximately (4kW x 4.5 hours) 18KWh of electricity on an average day.

Remember, this is only an estimate.

The amount of solar energy generated will also change based on the weather, such as cloudy weather, storms which affect the peak sun hours of the day.

There are other factors that can change this output including which way the panels are facing, you want to face the panels south towards the equator.  If most of the panels face east or west you may expect to generate around 15% less and north facing panels may generate up 30% less.

How Solar Energy In Malaysia Saves You Money

Solar power in Malaysia saves you money in 2 ways:

1) Self Usage: When your home is using solar power instead of using the grid, you save the cost of buying that electricity.

2) Electricity Credit: When you generate more electricity than your home can use, you export the extra electricity to the grid. Your energy retailer pays you a credit which can use to lower your electricity bill for the next 12 months.

Solar Batteries

The right sized solar system for your home is able to give you a zero, near zero or even negative electricity bill but it has some potentially problems.

a) It doesn’t provide electricity at night.

b) If the grid goes down, your system switches off as a safety measure.

Batteries can solve this by:

a) Storing excess solar power for use at night

b) Backing up the circuits in your home in the event of a blackout.

These features are nice to have – but batteries cost a lot of money. Currently in (currentyear), they cost about RM70,000 to RM100,000 to install.

Will they save you money? At this stage probably not.

Also to protect yourself against a blackout that might happen once every 12 months the cost is probably not worth it.

If your primary aim is to save money, any honest solar installer will give you the same advice: For most households in (currentyear) batteries are not yet at a price where it makes sense to invest it, yet.

Also with the way NEM 3.0 in Malaysia works. Any excess electricity generated from your solar panels is exported into the grid and this can be stored for up to 12 months, for businesses 1 month. This effectively works as your battery.

As electricity prices in Malaysia rise, subsidies lower, batteries will pay back faster and may become more viable.

At this time they’re more suited to rural households who can’t rely on the grid and are trying to protect against regular blackouts.

If you really want a battery it’s better to wait until your NEM expires in 10 years and then opt to add a battery to your existing solar system set up. By this time solar battery prices would have also decreased and the technology will likely be much better than it is in (currentyear).

Financing Your Solar Power System

Most Malaysians buy solar power systems with cash. If you are in a position of having low debt or being debt and have cash looking for a place to go, investing in a home solar system could be a great option.

A solar power system installation currently generates a tax-free, reliable return, with most solar systems return the capital invested in about 4-6 years.

However, some of us don’t have the luxury of stacks of cash lying around. Many solar installers offer “no interest” finance – and if that sounds too good to be true, it’s because it probably is.

 If you see a deal that claims ‘no interest’, you should be on high alert. All finance has a cost. The “no interest” solar deals often charge the installer a fee of around 15-25% on top of the ‘cash’ price. That extra cost is then passed on to you.

Plenty of reputable solar installers, not just the shady installers, offer “no interest” finance because many customers demand it.

You should be able to get a much better deal overall by shopping around for a low-interest finance provider and avoiding the easy-sign-up, ‘no interest’ deals.

The Next Steps

So there you have it, that’s our getting started guide to solar power for your home.

The next step is to start getting a quote to install solar panels for your home you can check out the process here – going over everything you need to know when seeking, comparing quotes and installing for solar

If you’re considering installing solar panels or batteries for your home or business, TopSolar can help you get quotes from high-quality, trusted installers quickly and easily just click the button below