A community-led blueprint for clean, reliable power in Sabah

Feature Story

SABAH RE2 CONSORTIUM (FACILITATED BY FOREVER SABAH)

A community-led blueprint for clean, reliable power in Sabah

In Malaysian Borneo lies Pitas Laut, home to 117 Indigenous Suluk people in the Lower Kinabatangan-Segama Wetlands, a 78,000-hectare mangrove ecosystem recognised for its extraordinary biodiversity.

“Our original purpose is to restore marine life on this beach – to change our own village. And it turns out, with clean and reliable power, we can finally achieve what we want.”

Fauziah, Pitas Laut Women’s Group

The community has long been a steward of this landscape, advocating for sustainable fisheries management while a women-led group runs a turtle conservation program. For decades, they protected these ecosystems without reliable power or quality rural infrastructure. Pitas Laut is among the 400 unelectrified villages that the Sabah Renewable Energy Rural Electrification (Sabah RE2) Roadmap aims to reach.

The Sabah RE2 Roadmap is a public-civic partnership working toward 100% rural electrification in Sabah, Malaysia through more than 200 community-based renewable energy mini-grids. Developed by Forever Sabah, TONIBUNG, PACOS Trust, Energy Action Partners, and Green Empowerment with the Sabah government, the Roadmap shed new light on the realities of energy access in rural Sabah, offering a fuller picture beyond the assumption that Malaysia is fully electrified. Rather than viewing access as simply with or without electricity, the Roadmap introduced a more nuanced understanding based on the quality and reliability of power. Supported by the first-of-its-kind Energy Demand Map, it created a clear, community-led pathway to advance equitable rural electrification.

Today, Pitas Laut presents compelling evidence of the strength and impact of community-led energy access. After approaching the Sabah RE2 consortium with a proposal for a solar project in 2024, the community successfully installed a 30 kWp solar PV mini-grid with support from members of the consortium and funding partners EKOenergy and Seacology. Today, all 20 households and community buildings enjoy reliable, 24/7 electricity, managed by their own Community Energy Committee. Diesel generators have been replaced, local businesses are thriving, and the community continues its turtle conservation efforts.

The goal of Sabah RE2 is to replicate the success of Pitas Laut 400 times over across the state. With support from Tara, the Sabah RE2 consortium facilitated meaningful engagement across 17 government agencies, contributing to Sabah’s commitment to 100% rural electrification and the formal integration of the Sabah RE2 Roadmap into the Sabah Energy RAMP 2040. These efforts also contributed to the establishment of Jawatankuasa Elektrifikasi Luar Bandar Sabah (JELaS) in 2025, a dedicated inter-agency committee coordinating resources towards universal energy access by 2030. Across Asia, stories like SabahRE2 and the Pitas Laut community demonstrate how trust-based partnerships can help turn local, community-led solutions into lasting and positive change.

Featured Stories

PEACE AND EQUITY FOUNDATION

Renewable energy for the coffee growers of Mindanao

As manager of a coffee cooperative in Bukidnon, a leading coffee-producing province in the Philippines, Leonila Secadron has spent years navigating power outages while helping farmers bring their harvest to market. Now, solar energy is helping the community finally realise the full value of what they already know how to grow.

RENEWABLES FIRST

The solar boom Pakistan built for itself

Rubina Bibi once relied on oil lamps, worrying for her children after dark. Today, a single solar panel lights her home in Taunsa — one of millions of self-built systems nationwide. Pakistan shows that the energy transition doesn’t always start top-down; sometimes, it begins with people who decide to build it themselves.

ENERGY TRANSITION FORUM

Shared fields, shared prosperity in South Korea

As growing seasons turned tougher, agrivoltaics — growing crops beneath solar panels — offered the farmers of Wolpyeong Village a possible path forward. Skeptical, they travelled to see it for themselves, and came home resolved, building South Korea’s first 1 MW resident-led agrivoltaics initiative — demonstrating that clean energy, done right, can support the livelihoods of farming communities.

NEW ENERGY NEXUS

Building Southeast Asia’s clean energy entrepreneurs

A blackout back home pushed Jose Magallanes Jr. to teach himself solar — now he runs his own business in Davao after going through entrepreneurship training. His story reflects a wider truth: the region’s clean energy future depends as much on skilled people as on new solutions.

SABAH RE2 CONSORTIUM (FACILITATED BY FOREVER SABAH)