Sunday, September 15, 2013

Malaysia at forefront of renewable energy in Southeast Asia

SEDA claims that Malaysia is at the forefront in Southeast Asia in managing renewable energy as it has established strong mechanisms for this purpose.


Malaysia's objectives for the introduction of renewable energies. Source: Asia Biomass Office


Chief operating officer of the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), Ir Dr Ali Askar Sher Mohamad said the Malaysian government was committed to encouraging the public to contribute to producing renewable energy by establishing Seda and introducing the Renewable Energy Act 2011, thus making Malaysia a role model.

After we launched the feed-in tariff on Dec 1, 2011, then only the Philippines and Indonesia did the same project. We already have confidence, especially in solar photovoltaics (PV).

"Because of that, we are actually able to offer training and capacity building not only to Malaysians but also to others in the region," he said after a dialogue with the feed-in approval holders in George Town, Penang on Thursday.

SEDA CEO, Badriyah Abdul Malik, meanwhile, said although Malaysia was at the forefront in managing renewable energy, public awareness on renewable energy like its safety aspect and importance to the economy as well as the issue of global warming was still low, especially in the rural areas.

"A country's economy depends a lot on its energy supply. If it does not have enough of this, it will have a big problem.

"We need to have more promotions, to explain to the people on the importance of renewable energy as at alternative source to complement electricity supply," she said.


1,500kW Solar PV Quota for Individuals

The final release of 1,500kW of solar PV quota for individuals would kick-start on Sept 18 at noon. To date, there were 1,585 applications from individuals, with 882 from the northern region.

500kW individual quotas for solar PV was released on Aug 28 and the response was overwhelming. The release of the second batch of 500kW solar PV quotas which should have been done on Sept 4, was called off due to an unexpected overwhelming number of incoming traffic to Seda Malaysia's portal.


TheGreenMechanics: At the forefront? I'm not too sure about that because Thailand is known to be more aggressive in promoting renewable energy and it has more installed capacity of RE.

But I agree that Malaysia is in the right track. We have the policy, and the necessary Act in place to promote and implement renewable energy projects.

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