Wind power, biogas and biomass are types of RE with potential in Malaysia. While there is no deployment of wind power in Malaysia, biogas boasts more than 10 plants in Malaysia generating electricity using biogas and biogas engines. Biogas can also be transformed into other sources of energy such as heat and power (co-generation) and biomethane. The sources come from cattle manure, palm oil mill effluent (POME) and landfill. Within the Malaysia’s context, biomass has an advantage over other types of RE in terms of availability and huge resources, plus this type of resources can easily be stored. This potential is further enhanced with approximately 168 million tons of biomass, including resources from palm oil waste, rice husks, coconut waste, sugar cane waste, municipal waste and forestry waste produced in the country on annual basis. In terms of RE technology deployment via the feed- in-tariff (FiT) mechanism, biomass has shown significant deployment status compared to other technologies which stands at approximately 17% of total deployment. Mini (small) hydro power is an untapped potential source of RE despite being cleaner than large scale hydro. Mini hydro in Malaysia are categorized as being under 30 MW. Unlike large scale hydro which typically developed by TNB (a Government linked company), the mini hydro supposedly attracting private players yet due to current unfavourable terms probably not providing strong pull factors to private developers. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) is the support crucial at a certain point of RE penetration. Based on studies, at the level of 20% targeted by the Malaysian government, support from batteries in the system is needed. For instance, for behind the meter (BTM) services, BESS can be used for back-up power,
peak demand reduction, energy arbitrage and increased PV solar consumption. In Malaysia, BESS for behind the meter and virtual power plant (VPP) project have been deployed as research projects. However, for utility-scale batteries, there has not been any deployment yet. As far as developingRE inMalaysia is concerned, while technical know-how is a challenge, but it is being mitigated by research projects especially by the top research universities in Malaysia such as Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). However, most of the challenges come from commercial perspectives. RE as a new energy resource for Malaysia requires high investment values. Incentives from the Government are particularly important at the initial stage of deployment. The FiT mechanism seems to be working in terms of implementation, but the rates might not be sufficient for some technologies after considering all other risks. For example, for mini hydro projects, compensations to Aboriginal communities and other affected communities can impact the total project cost. FiT for biogas generation from municipal solid waste (MSW) or food waste should be revised to allocate specific FiT allocation for this type of technology, as this technology can be a solution to the existing problem to treat MSW and to prolong the life of landfills in this country. On the social front, challenges could be seen from the perspective of procuring land especially for big projects such as large hydro and large scale solar. Large hydro will impact the surrounding community and have other environmental effects due to large dam construction. Support from the local community is essential for all types of project construction to mitigate the ‘not in my backyard’ (NIMBY) syndrome.
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Malaysian Technology Strategic Outlook 2019/2020 Intergration of High Technology
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