Within weeks of each other, two of Southeast Asia’s largest state utilities opened the region’s biggest solar tenders to date. Malaysia’s LSS6 and Indonesia’s Mentari Nusantara I are comparable in ambition and timeline, but they differ on one design choice that matters more than either headline capacity number: whether storage is part of the procurement at all. What each tender actually covers LSS6, launched by Malaysia’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (PETRA), carries a quota of 2,500MW of solar paired with 1,250MW of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity, plus a further 150MW of standalone solar reserved for Bumiputera companies. The programme is expected to attract RM13–15 billion in investment, with commercial operation targeted by 31 December 2029. Mentari Nusantara I, launched by Indonesia’s state utility PT PLN on 30 April 2026, covers 1,225MW of solar spread across six regions: Java (600MW), Kalimantan (340MW), Maluku and Papua (120MW), West Nusa Tenggara (80MW), Sulawesi (50MW), and Sumatra (35MW). It runs through a new procurement model called Giga One, which bundles multiple project sites into a single package to improve

Founder Group Limited, a NASDAQ-listed, Malaysia-headquartered EPCC (engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning) provider, has confirmed that its subsidiary Founder Energy Sdn. Bhd. is actively tendering for packages under LSS6, Malaysia’s largest-ever utility-scale solar tender. The announcement is a useful marker for anyone tracking who the real players will be as LSS6 packages get awarded. LSS6 is Malaysia’s largest utility-scale solar tender to date. The Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (PETRA) launched it in July 2026 with a total quota of 2,500MW of solar capacity paired with 1,250MW of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity, plus a further 150MW of standalone solar reserved for Bumiputera companies. The programme is expected to attract between RM13 billion and RM15 billion in private investment, with commercial operation targeted by 31 December 2029. Who is Founder Energy? Founder Energy is not a new entrant. Since 2016, it has completed or worked on more than 70 solar EPCC and sub-EPCC projects across Peninsular Malaysia, spanning most phases of the government’s LSS programme, the Corporate Green Power Programme (CGPP), independent power producer (IPP) and Self-Consumption

China’s Ministry of Finance and State Taxation Administration announced in January that the VAT export rebate for battery products will be cut from 9% to 6% between April 1 and December 31, 2026, before being eliminated entirely from January 1, 2027. The change directly affects the cost base of every Chinese battery cell and system exported from that point on, and Malaysian developers are already adjusting their procurement timelines because of it. What’s changing, and when The rebate cut applies specifically to finished battery products, not to lithium carbonate or raw materials directly, though analysts expect the accelerated production and shipment activity ahead of the deadline to tighten lithium supply in the near term regardless. Export rebates for photovoltaic products are being phased out on a faster timeline, disappearing entirely from April 2026. For Chinese exporters, the removal of the rebate is a straightforward margin problem: unless the higher tax cost can be passed on to overseas buyers, exporters absorb it directly. Industry reporting since the announcement has already noted battery makers renegotiating export contracts to test how much of