The fundamental tool adopted by the government to accelerate the growth of renewable energy is to use the feed-in tariff mechanism. THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that based on the 2007 Climate Change Synthesis Report, warming of the climate system is unequivocal.

The IPCC report also showed that 60% of the current CO2 emission level is from the energy sector.
It stated that global warming is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level.

The current events of extreme weather patterns are said to be the effects of global warming.

Apart from the looming effects of global warming, the importance of conserving and managing our natural resources is undoubtedly paramount.

Our non-renewable natural resources are finite and eventually, the supply will end.

Our current fuel mix for power generation in Malaysia is skewed too much in favour of natural gas and coal – fuels that account for much of our electricity generation.

Such imbalance needs correcting if we aim to become a low carbon economy.

Environmental considerations aside, soon it will simply be too costly to continue using coal and gas.
This suggests a prudent need over the medium- to long-term use of fossil fuels, and migrate to alternative sources of energy that are cleaner and more efficient.

We have plenty of indigenous renewable energy (RE) sources where we could tap the abundance of sunlight in our country while not forgetting opportunities that may arise from biomass and other sources.

Innovation is critical so that we find new ways to become more efficient as we strive to become a developed nation.

The government has in the 8th Malaysia Plan incorporated renewable energy as the fifth fuel in the country’s energy mix where the sources identified are biomass, biogas, hydropower (mini/micro and pico), wind or from other natural energy flows (geothermal, tidal, wave, and ocean thermal energy) and the list is growing.

As of end of December 2009, the total renewable energy capacity connected to the grid is only 53 MW from RE sources and 1MW from solar photovoltaics.

Not surprisingly, RE hardly makes any significant contribution (about 0.15%) to our electricity generation mix.
However, today, RE has been widely recognised as a vital part of energy use reform.

Countries such as Germany, Spain, the United States and Italy have many supporting renewable energy programmes and have become world leaders in the race for renewable energy development.

Globally, it has been proven that renewable energy can only grow if there is a strong government intervention in the country’s energy policies.

The Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water announced on April 4 that the government approved the new RE Policy and Action Plan.

The RE Policy statement reads “enhancing the utilisation of indigenous renewable energy resources to contribute towards national electricity supply security and sustainable socio-economic development”.

The Action Plan has five strategic thrusts and the main objective is to spur the growth of RE industry in the country.

The fundamental tool adopted by the government to accelerate the growth of RE in the country is to use the feed-in tariff mechanism.

The feed-in tariff is a special mechanism that allows electricity that is produced from indigenous renewable energy resources to be sold to power utilities at a fixed premium price and for a specific duration.

Many reports such as from the Interna-tional Energy Agen­cy, United Nations Deve­lopment Pro­gramme and the Stern Review Report agreed that feed-in tariffs (FiTs) have proven to be an effective government incentive programme for renewable technologies.

Countries that have adopted FiTs have been shown to have the largest growth rates in RE technology deployment.

With the new RE Policy and Action Plan in place, Malaysia aspires to be a leader in renewable energy deployment in the region.

The target is by the end of the 10th Malaysia Plan and the year 2020 we should have approximately 1 giga watts or 6% and 2 giga watts or 11% respectively of our electricity generation mix coming from RE.
The FiT could cumulatively avoid 11.1 million and 42.1 million tonnes of CO2 from the power generation sector by 2015 and 2020 respectively.

The ministry has started drafting the Renewable Energy Bill. It will incorporate all the critical factors needed to ensure the success of the RE sector in the country.

They include guaranteed access to the power grid for private producers, FiT rates that will produce attractive returns on investment.

With the legal framework to be in place, we will be able to address the failures and barriers encountered for the past 10 years when we embark on the fifth fuel policy.

Renewable energy deserves much more focus and there must be commitment from all parties towards green energy.

Green policies are no longer just “feel good” concepts but real issues we must embrace.

Source: The Star