Climate Change and Renewable Energies In Malaysia

Have you ever imagine, the days when our country’s oil and natural gas supply come to an end?

Have you ever think of, the fuel that we are using to move around by car, and the generation of electricity supply is coming from burning of fossil fuel which causes global warming and climate change?

Source: http://assets.knowledge.allianz.com

Have you ever experience, the more frequent natural disaster that we are facing in our country especially the major flooding at the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia?

Source: www.thestar.com.my

If not, you must have heard of the damage of Typhoon Haiyan that have caused in the Philippines. No?

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au

Scientists all around the world have already warned since years ago, that the climate change is the greatest mankind civilization threat of all and it has been happening without any turning back. According to the recently published IPCC 2013 Climate Change report, exceptional rainstorms are “very likely” to become more intense and more frequent over mid-latitude countries and the wet tropics. The area encompassed by the monsoon systems is likely to increase over the 21st century, and monsoon rainfall is likely to intensify. The monsoon season is likely to lengthen in many regions. 

The effects of climate change are already being felt in Malaysia. Erratic weather results in unpredictable rainfall patterns and Malaysia has experienced unexpected prolonged droughts – recently in Sarawak and Sabah in year 2011. This has caused water stress in these states. Flash floods and big floods have caused billions of Ringgit of losses both economy wise and human lives.

Source: Malaysia National Communication 2, 2010

On top of it, our fossil fuel sources are depleting in which oil can only last for 11.8 years and natural gas for another 39.4 years. Without energy, we can only dream on to become a developed nation in the future. Energy is the cornerstone of any country’s economy thus energy security is a very important issue which must be managed well to ensure economic growth is not hindered.  

All the signs and impact from climate change have clearly shown that we need a paradigm shift in our way living and consumption pattern. One of the key to mitigate climate change is through the development and utilization of the renewable energies and also energy efficiency.

In the year of 2011, in order to spearhead the development of RE market in Malaysia, the Government has gazette the RE legislations i.e. the Renewable Energy Act 2011 (RE Act 2011) together with its subsidiary legislations and has established SEDA Malaysia, a statutory body formed under the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Act 2011 and functioned to administer and manage the implementation of Feed-in tariff mechanism which is mandated under the RE Act 2011.

Source: www.seda.gov.my

The future of Renewable Energies in Malaysia

“The staggering growth in renewable energy has the potential to fundamentally change the way we generate and use power. Previously dismissed as marginal technologies, renewables have become “increasingly mainstream and competitive with conventional energy sources.”

Conclusion of REN21’s Renewables 2013 Global Status Report.

The above statement has clearly shown that Malaysia has taken the right path to promote and develop renewable energies (RE).

In order to fund the development of the RE, Malaysia government has introduced the 1% surcharge of RE fund for Feed-in-tariff and has recently raised the rate to 1.6% beginning 1 January 2014. This RE Fund is the most crucial part in ensuring that the RE development in Malaysia is sustainable. As of end of October 2013, the achievements of the FiT can be found in the tables below:

FiT Statistics as at end of October 2013 (Approved)

	Applications		Capacity (MW)
Solar PV (Ind)	2,392	89.1%	26	5.4%
Solar PV (Non-ind)	239	8.9%	167.63	34.8%
Small Hydro	22	0.8%	130.99	27.2%
Biogas	17	0.6%	24.23	5.0%
Biomass	16	0.6%	133.49	27.7%
Total	2,686		482

Operational RE Capacity (MW) as at end of October 2013

No.	Renewable Resource	No. of Applications	Capacity (MW)
			Overall	Sabah
1	Biogas	5	8.53	-
2	Biomass	5	50.4	36.9 (3)
3	Small hydro	5	15.7	6.5 (2)
4	Solar PV (Individual)	755	10.15	-
5	Solar PV (Non-individual)	52	34.68	-
Total		822	119.47	43.4 (5)
% of total			100%	36.33%

The total operational RE capacity (under the FiT) as at end of October 2013 represented approx. 1.8% of the total power generating capacity.

Now, take a deep breath and think of the future of Malaysia.

We have achieved sustainable energy security thanks to the renewable energies such as solar power, biomass and biogas.

There is no coal fired power plants at our backyard emitting tonnes of greenhouse gasses and cause climate change.

Our country is free of the obnoxious nuclear power plant and we are clear of any radioactive contamination.

All of us have a solar panel on our house rooftop, harvesting clean energy from the sun and we use it recharge our electric cars, for our own house consumption without relying to the big power plant and also as a passive income generator.

I dream of the days where all these scenarios above will come true in the near future. How about you?

In the next article, I will explain thoroughly about the process and also the importance of the Feed-in-Tariff (Fit). Stay tuned!