Demonstration Project - Is it necessary or compulsory?

The hype of Renewable Energy (RE) is perpetuating like a point on a wheel. It goes up and down depending on the momentum, geopolitical context, economic downturn (or upturn) as well as the attitude of policymakers, the lobbyist groups and of course the end users.

It is not simple to adopt RE at once, let alone with gradual steps. Remember those old hypes in the 70s where, due to oil shortage and those geopolitical tensions between the west and the east triggered by the six days war and the change of regime in Iran, the option for nuclear power had become prominent to secure energy dependencies?

Not the same story, but it is repeated again. Between 2007 - 2008, oil price had gone, or precisely had surpassed, through the psychological barrier of US $ 150. Then, it was followed by the financial crisis (blame it on those financial institutions) which created weaker demand for consumptive goods and energy. This nightmare definitely has encouraged the US administration to reposition its energy policy from the use of conventional energy sources to renewable energy.

But will it work? Probably. Given the maturity of the technology in the western world, it may work. But what about the rest of the hemisphere?

Take an example a nation in ASEAN. The Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications Malaysia issued the 2007 National Energy Balance Malaysia detailing figures of energy supply and demand in the country. It was noted that although the country has addressed potential issues on the future of thermal energy, its reliance on such sources will not decrease, at least in the medium term.

For electricity sector, the total installed capacity at the end of 2007 was recorded at 21,815 MW. But most importantly, the contribution from natural gas for fuelling power plants took the share of 56.6 percent. Compared to coal (34.2 %) and hydro (6.9 %), natural gas will remain significant to contribute at least form some years to come. If hydro is counted as renewable energy without accounting its environmental impacts, then the contribution of RE for electricity is small.

But there seems to be a promising future for solar energy. The installed capacity of PV increased from 474 kWp in 2004 to approximately 1.7 MWp (both on-grid and off-grid) in 2008. The country initiated Malaysia Building Integrated Photovoltaic (MBIPV) project where commercial and residential buildings are installed with solar PV panel to power some lightings.

This demonstration project is essential to show that RE can also be adopted in the place where the density of the population is high. We will look forward on the progress of MBIV in the future.