Reading the business news, >Nanopac sees transforming industry with new solar cells,
it is heartening to know that efforts to increase tapping the most
abundant renewable resource that Malaysia has, ie sunlight, is being
vigorously pursued.
However, it is also surprising to read of the fact that “There is a lot of room for growth in this market {photovoltaic cell}
as solar only makes up a fraction of the 0.7% of renewable energy
sources." Surprising because, even though Malaysia has so much sunshine,
and plantation waste, less than one percent of our energy requirements
come from renewable sources. (solar, hydro, biomass, etc)
In view of the fact that our natural oil reserves may not last
beyond this decade, unless massive new oil bearing areas are
'discovered', and the fact that the Sun will continue burning for a few
billion years more, I feel the natural step for the Government to take,
is to embark on a "mother of all" projects using the solar source as its
primary renewable energy resource. To do this successfully would entail
huge investments into technology research and human capital, but the
infrastructure for harvesting solar energy would be mostly in place. If
Malaysia can increase its reliance on renewable energy sources to say,
40% of its total requirements (like in Germany for example), it would be
able to wean the country away from the debilitating subsidies that are
holding us back from becoming a high income nation, among other things.
Is harvesting most of our energy from the Sun far fetched? Not so,
if we look at the situation around the country. Malaysia is fortunate to
have the Sun almost 365 days a year, even during the monsoon seasons,
and we have a good house ownership to population ratio. If all roofs of
residential, commercial buildings an institutions are required to be
used as solar harvesting platforms, think of the amount of energy we can
tap and use, and even feed it back to the national grid.
Of course this will require a massive effort in technology research
and commercialization, and it will also require the redesign of the
national grid to cater wholesale for the FIT concept. It will also
require Government incentives to ensure the changes take place, like
heavily subsidized roof solar panels for example. But what will be the
benefits arising out of this tremendous effort?
Malaysia will be able to wean itself from the deleterious effects of
traditional and depleting energy sources, and cut itself away from the
burden of ever increasing fuel prices and worse, the ill effects of
pollution as are being witnessed in great cities like Beijing even
today. Sunlight is free, and will be free for a long time. Unlike hydro,
which though by itself is a 'clean' energy source, solar energy has no
negative environmental effects like dams and destruction of natural
habitats and life.
There is no easy way out for the world in its continuing search for
affordable, and possibly clean energy. In the long run, sun, wind and
water seem the best bets for humankind. Malaysia is blessed in these
resources, so let's seize the opportunity and show the world that there
is a better way..
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2 comments:
Hi Mr Tham,
I am really glad to receive your reply, and I appreciate your tolerance of my general ignorance on this subject. I am aware that solar PV generation of renewable energy is relatively at a nascent stage, and I feel the Government should be appreciative of the industry's efforts to make the technology work.
It is also correct that the Government should not be excessively strained in supporting the FiT scheme as it would be counter productive to the economy of the country. However, what I am thinking aloud, as a layman without much knowledge of the PV industry is, that unless we get the economies of scale, we can never make the solar electricity generation program affordable enough to be widely accepted by the public, all the more so, in the case of Malaysia, which is not yet by any stretch of imagination a developed country.
While it is right for the Govt to adopt a prudent approach to the Renewable Energy program, in my view, in such a 'ground breaking' project like solar electric generation, the Government should take a bold and massive step to make the program work. The major obstacle to this is the cost of installing the system for individual use,[eg. about RM45000 for a link house] and unless the Govt take steps to get the cost down, this project is turning citizens like us into doubters, who see that, just like bailouts and subsidies, the Government seems to only want to assist the elites and the rich.
If humongous computers that require large rooms to house them in the '50s now sit in our pockets as I-Phones, I fail to see why the cost of solar PV panels should remain so high, and for so long. If volume is the only way we can get industry players like you to get the cost down, the Government should be the spearhead to get the volume. That is my intention in the letter that I wrote earlier. The Government should also regulate the amount of profit that the industry should make, in such a world saving industry as the solar electricity generation business.
If we look just into the near future, like 2013 or thereabouts, we have a world situation of depleting fossil fuel, (peak oil) increasing demands and prices that can top US$300 a barrel {if the Arab Spring turns to become the Arabmegeddon} and when we view this against free sunlight {especially in Malaysia} for the next several billion years}, the choice to switch to solar electric generation is really a no brainer, don't you think so?
My final view is that, the Government is the right party to accelerate the cost reduction of the price of materials, and if we can buy condominiums to house a lot of cows at a lot of expense, amongst many other Govt transformation programs, I am sure the citizens will appreciate the Government's efforts and big ticket budgets to wean Malaysia from the catastrophe of dependence on non renewable energy sources and tap solar energy for billions of years to come.
The only reason I did not ask Ditrolic to implement the system at my house is the cost, though I fervently support such a 'beautiful' idea of utilising green energy forever.
Warmest Regards Mr Tham and wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Thank you for your feedback to us and the solar industry as a whole.
As you may have know, with the enactment of Renewable Energy Act in April 2011, Malaysia is entering into a new era of energy generation using clean and sustainable renewable energy.
The feed-in tariff (FiT) programme is a policy instrument meant to promote the use of renewable energy by utilities company energy buyback at premium rate from the RE fund.
The government has shown commendable effort to introduce this policy to kick start the RE industry in the country.
However, the policy is still in infancy stage and there may be some weakness in it and we feel the government is putting in effort to improve it.
With the RE act 2011 and tax incentives, our solar policy is already on par with some of the already successful renewable energy friendly countries such as Germany.
We feel that the government has taken a conservative approach of putting an annual cap on the FiT programme limited by the amount of levy collected from electricity consumer which is at 1% currently.
This is to allow for a controlled and balanced growth in tandem with the growth of people awareness regarding RE adoption and its benefit.
Based on our interaction with customers, we could see that the understanding is still very much lacking among general public especially on the environmental benefit of such policy.
The solar electricity generation would not be widely adopted until the general public is fully supportive and are aware of the benefits. Ultimately, FiT is a consumer funded programme.
Whether the programme should be fiscally funded by the government is arguable as we have seen some European governments heavily strained by the annual FiT payout.
Best Regards,
C.A. Tham
Project Director
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