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ENERGY
Democratisation of Malaysia’s
electricity supply industry
using solar photovoltaics
Independent & free solar energy or harnessing the sun’s energy using Solar PV for electricity
GREEN+ had the opportunity
to visit and interview Ahmad
Shadzli, President, and Chin
Soo Mau, Vice-President of
the Malaysia Photovoltaic
Industry Association (MPIA). MPIA’s
ambition is to make Solar PV a mainstream
energy source through
programmes which are measurable
with reasonable payback period. Its
possibly the most proven self-sustaining
operation and may be one of the
most viable solutions for free energy
source to power our future generations
with democratising of electricity supply.
This is especially true since the energy
source is free forever.
Shadzli and Chin were both very
enthusiastic about renewable energy,
especially their solar PV industry systems,
displaying their wide knowledge
and experience during our discussion.
They were ever-ready to forward their
BY
ALEXANDER
LEE
much-collated statistical reports and
propositions on interesting possibilities
to use Solar PV as one of the most reliable
way of forever harnessing the solar
energy from the sun.
Their reasons and concerns are
obvious – in the coming decades more
than 70% of fuels for electricity generation
comes from imported coal and
gas. The forecast energy mix issued by
government authorities are as follows:-
Consequently, the propositions
were tabulated systematically and are
calculated based on scenarios for viable
return on investments that are measurable.
It will also be meaningful for the
electricity supply industry on many
fronts in terms of investment, distribution
and transmission, independence,
sustenance, savings and also job creation
and good spin offs for the industry
and its alternative use of technology
under their proposals.
It is without question using Solar
PV through the existing Feed-in-Tariff
(FiT) mechanism has benefitted many
PV developers, solar farms investors
and Rooftop installations for home,
commerce and industries for the overall
PV Industry. However, they reckon the
FIT quota system needs to be more
balanced especially in benefitting
direct consumers and those who are
making contributions for the 1.6% levy
on electricity.
Most of the investments for solar
farms are capital-intensive projects
and usually taken up by the “big
boys”, whereas rooftops for homes,
industrial and commercial applications
were quite limited going by the quota
system for FIT applications approvals.
MPIA requested the authorities to
democratise the energy supply market
to benefit the solar PV Industry.
MPIA is keen to propose applying
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november-december, green+.2014