Renewable Energy in Malaysia

Renewable Energy in Malaysia Known and conventional energy sources are exhausted rapidly due to increasing the energy consumption. Therefore, alternative and renewable energy sources are very much important for the future energy demand. Over the past few decades, renewable energy has become very popular in many countries. Malaysia has a huge potential for renewable energy generation (Bayar, 2011). Due to its equatorial location, the future is bright for solar power in Malaysia. Furthermore, solar energy has proven to be front-runner among the renewables with a market share of 43%, followed by small hydropower (26%), biomass (26%) and biogas (5%). The average solar radiation is 400 to 600 MJ/m2 per month in Malaysia. Therefore, it is promising to establish large scale solar power installations (Mekhilef et. al, 2012) The most popular way to utilise the solar energy is by capturing sunlight and turning them into electricity for daily usage using a photovoltaic system that has been applied in Malaysia in early 1980s. Nowadays, photovoltaic technology grows rapidly worldwide in both developing and developed nations. Photovoltaic technology is growing fast due to the awareness of climate change, thinning ozone layer and carbon emission (Rahim, 2012). With the new implementation of net energy metering (NEM), solar power users can now generate and use their own electricity, as well as sell the excess to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). This is known as a type of distributed generation allowing consumers to balance the cost of their electric usage with energy they export to the grid with solar panels. Furthermore, the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) has approved this implementation, now everyone in Malaysia will be able to generate electricity for their own consumption, using renewable sources, knowing they are dong their part in helping the environment. Malaysia’s increasing presence in the renewables arena is also due to a generous feedin tariff (FIT) policy which requires energy providers such as Tenaga Nasional and Sabah Electricity to purchase power from Feed-In Approval Holders (FIAHs) at a rate that ranges from RM0.85 to RM1.23 per kilowatt produced. The FIT system is part of a larger development initiative brought about by the Malaysian government in June

2010, the 10th Malaysia Plan, which targeted 5.5% of energy production to be derived from renewable sources by 2015 and targets 11% by 2020. Due to the fact that renewable energy projects thus far have been developed on a relatively small scale by diminishing natural gas, it has forced the utilities towards using more coal in order to meet their immediate needs. Just like any industry in relative infancy, technological efficiency remains a hot topic of debate among those for and against solar power production. The amount of energy produced per solar panel, a maximum of only 33.5% efficiency is on the minds of many looking to invest in the technology. In comparison to conventional energy sources, the cost of solar power is also relatively high. Although Malaysia’s feed-in tariff (FIT) policy system claims to take the high cost of solar panel installations into account when considering what users eventually see a return on investment, the rates received by the Feed-In Approval Holders FIAHs are dependent on the date of installation. Those that installed PV equipment earlier will receive higher rates than those which do so later on. This is assuming that the price of solar technology will decrease as it becomes more efficient and widely available. As for the future of solar energy, many new technologies are being invented to allow solar energy to become a sustainable form of energy. One of them is the innovative solar panel roadways. It is simply the way of placing the tar roads with replaceable solar panels in which tempered glass material are able to withstand the weight of vehicles. At the same time, electrical cars become a viable option with this technology because recharging stations can be built where these solar panels are located. Not only that, it has LED on these panels to illuminate the road at night and warning signs can be shown on the surface of the roadway. This decreases the amount of traffic accidents as well as costs for painting traffic signs on the road. Solar paint is also an interesting prospect. The paint is used to coat the exterior of houses and roofs at low cost. At the present time, the paint is using roll-to-roll processing techniques to coat surfaces with the solar cells. However, the efficiency rates of these solar-paint based cells is not promising. Commercialization seems like a long way to go until the technology improves. In the future, the paint may be used directly on a roof or building surface. Since solar paint technology has been invented, this leads to the creation of flimsy solar panels. These flexible panels are very versatile and are

extremely thin and this causes less materials to be used thus lowers the cost. If developed further, we could see shirts with solar cells that functions to charge portable electronics such a mobile phones. A machine that resembles a 3D printing desktop machine that makes small solar panels can be made cheaper than commercial production which means that solar panels can be easily obtained by the public. In addition, the panels created are more efficient, better at collecting light and has a longer life span. The prices of solar panels have dropped by 80 percent in the last decades. However, it will still be more expensive than fossil-fuel energy in the years to come. Malaysia can be big player in solar technology as we receive more than 8 hours of sunlight every day. One of the huge problems Malaysians face in adopting solar energy is the high cost of installing solar panels. Although the price is dropping steadily day by day, it is still a steep price to most Malaysians. One way of convincing more Malaysians to adopt solar energy is to encourage users of solar energy to sell their energy to the government according to FIT scheme.