Open bidding for solar power Feed-in Tariff

In Malaysia, the 4 renewable energies covered under the government's feed-in tariff  are biogas, biomass, small hydro, and solar PV.

Of these, Solar PV is the most popular and the current first-come-first-served system utilized by SEDA in granting FiT to consumers has so far received some criticism from political figures because of the perceive transparency issues. "The PV quota is snapped up within minutes of opening" seems to be the complaints. This is especially the case for non-individual quota.

So, the Energy, Green Technology and Wa­­­ter Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili, has an idea: Those intending to cash in on renewable energy (RE) production using solar power may need to go through an open bidding process in the future if demand continues to outstrip the funds available.


Response on solar PV overwhelming

Response to the solar photovoltaic (PV) segment of the Government’s Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) system – which pays consumers monthly for energy sent back into the national power grid – had been overwhelming since it was launched in 2011.

Under the FiT system, which has an annual fund size of RM300mil and currently only applies to the West Malaysia, participating consumers are paid for feeding energy produced using renewable power sources back into the national grid.

For example, a medium-sized house with a 4kW solar PV system can earn around RM550 a month based on monthly generation of 400kWh (units) of power fed back into TNB grid.

Dr Maximus spoke to reporters at the launch of Alliance Bank’s Home Complete PlusSolar Panel Financing scheme at the Sustainable Energy Development Agency office in Putrajaya.

Solar PV, which cover both individual and non-individual categories, accounts for around 41% of the total power production quota set aside under the FiT:-

• Solar PV (141.58MW)      - 41%
• Small hydro (99.35 MW)  - 28.8%
• Biomass (88.89MW)        - 25.7%
• Biogas (15.53)                 - 4.5%

Solar PV quota a good problem to have?

The minister in charge of energy indicated that this was a good problem to have as the government was keen on increasing the number of households and commercial operations involved in RE production, adding that the quotas would likely be revised upwards if there was a strong enough demand.

That is good but he must also look at the loopholes in awarding solar PV quota, especially with questions raised previously on companies (or companies under the same roof) sweeping most of the quota.

The toughest animal on the planet

Not really the kind of animal you see everyday as they are only about 1 mm to 1.5 mm long but still, they are animal.

The toughest, hardest creature is a tardigrade, also known as a water bear. They are found everywhere in the world, from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, and there are more than 900 species of them.


Tardigrades or water bear. Freeze them, dry them, expose them to radiation and they're so resilient they'll still be alive! Image credit: Dailymail



Image credit: Dailymail


Tardigrades can dehydrate their bodies to just 1% of their normal water content. Without water, most chemical reactions happen too slowly to harm them and ice crystals can’t rupture their cells. They are extremophiles – animals that can exist in the most hostile of conditions.

They have been boiled at over 150ºC and frozen in liquid nitrogen without any noticeable harm. They can survive pressures of 6,000 atmospheres and in 2007, the Russian FOTON-M3 spacecraft took tardigrade passengers into orbit.

After 12 days exposed to the vacuum, cold and radiation of space, they hadn’t just survived; they had laid eggs that hatched! Pretty cool.


Now, for a comparison, the bears, despite their big and tough body build, is nothing compared to the toughness and survivability of the tardigrades.


The Bear that we know; only more than a thousand times bigger. Image credit: fanpop.com


References: Dailymail, Sciencefocus

Facebook admits data breach exposed 6 million users

If you are accessing your Facebook account from a mobile device, chances are you have stored your telephone number in your page, privately or publicly.

This disclosure should be a good reason for you to be alarmed and be prudent with the sort of information you store online:


Facebook has blamed the data leaks on a technical glitch in its massive archive of contact information.


6 million users exposed?

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc has inadvertently exposed 6 million users' phone numbers and e-mail addresses to unauthorised viewers over the past year, the world's largest social networking company disclosed late Friday.

Facebook blamed the data leaks, which began in 2012, on a technical glitch in its massive archive of contact information collected from its 1.1 billion users worldwide. As a result of the glitch, Facebook users who downloaded contact data for their list of friends obtained additional information that they were not supposed to have.

Facebook's security team was alerted to the bug last week and fixed it within 24 hours. But Facebook did not publicly acknowledge the bug until Friday afternoon, when it published an "important message" on its blog explaining the issue.

"We currently have no evidence that this bug has been exploited maliciously and we have not received complaints from users or seen anomalous behavior on the tool or site to suggest wrongdoing, it's still something we're upset and embarrassed by, and we'll work doubly hard to make sure nothing like this happens again."
- Facebook, on its blog.

The breach follows recent disclosures that several consumer Internet companies turned over troves of user data to a large-scale electronic surveillance program run by US intelligence.

The companies include Facebook, Google Inc, Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and Yahoo Inc. - Reuters


TheGreenMechanics: Sometimes I feel registering with social network such as Facebook is not worth it. What say you?

Source