Energy security and hydropower development in Malaysia: The drivers and challenges facing the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE)

This article investigates the drivers and challenges associated with the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy in Malaysia, or SCORE, on the island of Borneo. SCORE constitutes a multi-hundred billion dollar infrastructure development plan in Sarawak, one aiming to achieve US$105 billion of investment and to build 20,000 MW of hydroelectric dams along a 320 km corridor crisscrossing 70,000 square kilometers. Based largely on primary data collected through site visits, original field research in Sarawak, and more than eighty research interviews, the article identifies the genesis of SCORE, its expected benefits, and challenges with implementation encountered to date. The article begins by describing its research methods and then summarizes four sets of anticipated benefits discussed by respondents associated with SCORE: industrialization, energy security, equitable development, and spillover effects. It then dives into a longer discussion of the technical, economic, political, legal and regulatory, social, and environmental challenges facing the project. The article concludes by offering implications for those wishing to promote other large-scale, energy infrastructure projects throughout the world.

► SCORE is a hundred billion dollar infrastructure energy development plan in Sarawak, Malaysia.
► We find that SCORE could improve industrialization and energy security.
► We also conclude that such benefits will be likely outweighed by a variety of obstacles.