Renewable energy update: Malaysia

RenewableEnergy,Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 435~-39, 1995

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Pergamon 0960-1481(94)00070-0

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Renewableenergyupdate: Malaysia MOHD NOH D A L I M I N University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Locked Bag 62, 88996 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

(Received 20 June 1994 ; accepted 3 August 1994) Abstract--Recent renewable energy development in Malaysia is described. Three major sources, namely hydro-electricity, biomass and solar energy are discussed, focussing more towards the needs of electrical energy for electrification, and the need to dispose biomass waste generated from forestry and agricultural industries.

palm oil industry has contributed to the national energy supply as follows :

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N

Renewable energy and national energy policy The Malaysian government has adopted three key objectives which constitute the framework for present and future energy programmes in the energy sector :

• fibre and shell--217 million 1 of diesel equivalent; empty fruit bunch--112 million I of diesel equivalent ; • biogas from oil mill effluent--289 million 1 of diesel equivalent ; • total ~ 618 million I of diesel equivalent.

• a supply objective--to provide adequate and secure energy supplies ; • a utilization objective to promote efficient energy utilization ; • an environmental objective to ensure the environment is not neglected ;

Thus the palm oil industry is already actively contributing towards renewable energy, generated from waste.

Renewable energy from other sources of biomass [2] Land under natural forest and agriculture in Malaysia covers a total of about 76% of total area. One of the major characteristics of these areas is the production of large q uantities of processing residues, which have no economic value other than energy generation. In 1990, availability of biomass residues in Malaysia were as follows :

These broad objectives enable a fuller appreciation of the strategies and policies formulated by the government. As Malaysia is located in the tropics, and receives a fair amount of sunshine, coupled with large forest and agricultural activities, the interest in renewable energy sources via solar energy use, biomass and hydro-electricity is high and therefore in line with the three objectives above. Most renewable energy conversion can be done with no environmental consequences, and in the case of biomass, renewable energy generation provides a cleaner environment, from reduced waste or agricultural residues. Thus, new and renewable energy is indeed in line with the national energy policies and should be pursued equally with other sources stipulated in the plan.

• forestry residues ~ 13,581,000 m 3 ; • agricultural residues ~ 14,730,000 m 3 (excluding oil palm) ; • total ..~ 28,311,000 m 3. Various studies conducted in Malaysia have indicated that the use of biomass as a source of energy is one of the most promising ways of effectively using the residues.

Renewable energy [~'om solar radiation [3] Solar radiation we receive on the Earth's surface comes directly or indirectly, and the sum of both components is measured as the global radiation. Solar radiation is received on the Earth's surface after being subjected to attenuation, reflection and scattering in the Earth's atmosphere. The radiation received without change in direction is called direct radiation, while that received after its direction has been changed by scattering is called diffuse radiation. The sum of both components is called the global radiation. Most radiation data are measured for horizontal surfaces. In Peninsular Malaysia, the monthly means of daily solar radiation vary from about 4.80 k W h m 2 in the states of

2. S O U R C E S OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

Renewable energy from the palm oil industry [1] Oil palm is grown for its palm oil and palm kernel oil. For each bunch of fresh fruit (FFB), about 21% palm oil, 6-7% palm kernel, 14-15% fibre, 6-7% shell and 23% empty fruit bunch (EFB) is obtained. With more that 2.1 million hectares of land under oil palm, Malaysia produced about 6.37 million tonnes of crude palm oil in 1992, from a total of about 31 million tonnes of FFB, with the remainder generated as waste. From the above, in 1992 alone, renewable energy from 435

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436

Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang and Northern Perak to about 3.00 k W h m -2 in the east coast with areas in Langkawi receiving the highest, and K u a n t a n , the lowest. Data for Sabah and Sarawak are only recently available, with the coastal region receiving higher solar radiation, but the highlands m u c h lower levels. This variation is similar to that obtained between the east coast and the west coast of the peninsula. Measured data from more than 10 years of direct and diffuse solar radiation are available only for Penang and Kuala Lumpur. Data available for Penang show that the a m o u n t of direct radiation is normally less than 60% of the global solar radiation. This m a y give some reduction in performance of the collector system using a concentrator. Information on the availability and seasonal variability of global solar radiation for most regions of the country is sufficient for successful operation of solar powered devices that do not require focusing by concentrator. Statistical analysis shows that days with low daily solar radiation occur rarely in the west coast of the peninsula, while the east coast experiences a larger variability of daily global radiation. The issue of rainfall has been raised in several forums, mainly related to the high a m o u n t of rainfall experienced by the country, especially along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and on the highlands of Sabah and Sarawak. One m a y have to look at the total solar radiation of these areas, which obviously has some effect. However, the duration of rainfall is short and the effect is less than what was earlier thought, as the downpour is normally very heavy and only for short periods. The issue of days with no sunshine has also beon raised. The concern is mainly related to the a m o u n t of storage needed to cater for energy needs during the sunless days. F r o m statistical data obtained, it has been found that the occurence of total days without Sun is basically not happening in Malaysia. However, in most solar energy systems, in which storage is required, three days of storage capacity are normally designed.

Renewable eneryy from hydro-power [4] Hydro-power contributed more than 2.8%, or about 504 ktoe, of the total primary supply of energy in Malaysia in 1990. This is a three-fold increase in hydro-electricity since 1980 (Table 1). Hydro-power potential is indeed substantial, estimated at about 29,000 M W and energy output of about 123 T W h per

year (Table 2). In energy terms, this renewable energy source, in theory, supplies all the country's electricity needs now and for some time in the future. However, this resource is unevenly distributed with 86% located in Sabah and Sarawak, and the rest in Peninsular Malaysia where about 83% of the population reside. Since most of the promising sites on the peninsula have already been developed, it is unlikely that hydro potential will play a major role, unless the vast Bakun Valley project, situated in Sarawak, is developed and the power is sent via undersea cables to the peninsula.

3. R E N E W A B L E E N E R G Y ( P H O T O V O L T A I C S ) FOR R U R A L E L E C T R I F I C A T I O N

Rural electrification in Malaysia Rural electrification is rarely a profitable activity, and social and political factors usually provide the overriding motivation in the majority of national contexts [5]. Obstacles to the provision of electricity for rural areas are even greater in Sabah and Sarawak, which are often characterized by a high ratio of rural to urban dwellers, low demand for electricity. This is especially the case for those areas with a high proportion of subsistence farming communities or where rural incomes are low. In spite of this, rural electrification is commonly viewed as a means of extending the benefits deriving from national development to the rural areas of the state. As well as the more apparent social advantages of being able to use electricity for lighting purposes, radios, television sets and later even refrigerators, claims have been made that the provision of an electricity supply can act as a catalyst for further development of small-scale cottage industries. In Malaysia, various Government initiatives are already underway in an attempt to achieve the objective of as near as possible 100% electrification. Primarily for historical and geographical reasons, there exists a disparity between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak in the level of infrastructural development. In line with stated Government policy, and to close the gap in terms of the degree of development, it is reasonable to expect that measures should be adopted to increase the extent of electrification in appropriate regions. Rural electrification is currently regarded as an integral part of the Government's strategy "to improve the socioeconomic conditions of rural areas". Almost as importantly

Table 1. Malaysia : energy supply and demand (1985-1990) 1985 Source/sector

1988 %

ktoe

%

ktoe

%

Average annual growth rate (%) 1985-1990

7,579 2,132 2,581 382 361 1,408 915

49.3 13.9 16.8 2.5 2.3 9.2 6.0

7,579 1,912 2,971 504 327 1,666 1,044

47.5 11.9 18.6 3.2 2.0 10.4 6.5

8,609 2,352 2,971 504 564 1,864 1,142

47.8 13.1 16.5 2.8 3.1 10.4 6.3

2.6 2.0 2.9 5.7 9.3 5.8 4.5

15,359

100.0

16,004

100.0

18,007

100.0

3.2

ktoe

1990

Malaysia : primary supply of eneryy Crude oil Petroleum product Natural gas Hydro power Coal and coke Fuelwood Palm oil mill wastes Total

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Table 2. Remaining recoverable reserves of oil, gas and other resources (status as of 31 December 1988) Oil (billion barrels)

Gas (trillion standard ft 3)

Hydropower (MW)

Coal (million tonnes)

Peninsular Malaysia Sarawak Sabah

1.46 1.01 0.58

26.43 23.62 2.40

4,000 20,000 5,000

22.1 732.3 --

Total

3.05

52.45

29,000

771.4

Source : National Energy Balances, Malaysia 1978-1988.

it is also a means of allowing the rural people to share in benefitting from the fruits of Malaysia's overall economic development. To this end, implementing agencies for the rural electrification scheme (RES) in Sabah have set a target of achieving 90 and 100% electrification in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, respectively, by the year 2000. In Malaysia there are currently two categories of rural electricity supply [6] : public supply, provided by the Sabah Electricity Board in Sabah, SESCO in Sarawak and T N B in Peninsular Malaysia ; and private supply, which can be further subdivided into the following three categories : • government-provided diesel generator sets ; • commercial generators owned and operated by a private business ; • private use diesel or petrol generator sets, purchased by a household or group of households. The three companies implement the Rural Electrification Scheme (RES) with funds from the Ministry of National and Rural Development to supply electricity to rural areas. Rural electrification projects comprise the construction of extensions to existing transmission line systems or, where this is deemed to be uneconomic, new rural power stations may be built to serve the more isolated centres of population.

Small generator sets for individual villages Currently there are four separate funds which m a y be used to finance the provision of generating sets for rural communities : • funds approved at the discretion of Members of Parliament ; • the Generator Fund, allocated by the Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister's Department ; • minor Projects F u n d s at state level ; • the special Development Assistance F u n d approved by the State Development Office. The main alternative to grid extension at present is diesel generators. The provision of adequate supplies of fuel when access m a y be difficult or there are m a n y competing demands for limited fuel supplies and the need of regular maintenance can be expensive and at times difficult. New and renewable energy sources would certainly be preferred if available at acceptable costs and with proven reliability. In some locations, wind generators or microhydro systems m a y be feasible, but in general, solar photovoltaic systems would be preferred if the costs were right, since they involve no mechanical moving parts needing maintenance. Two main approaches m a y be adopted for providing PV

electrical power supplies to rural communities: either the whole village m a y be served by a central source, or each household m a y be equipped with its own self-contained system. Most of the demonstration plants installed to date with multi-lateral or bilateral aid assistance have been of the former type, in the size range 3 ~ 1 0 0 kWp. A distribution system is needed to take the power to each house. The main reasons for preferring household stand-alone systems are as follows : • they can be roof mounted, and thus need not take up valuable land near the village, and avoid problems associated with land acquisition ; • they do not require a distribution system to take the power to each house, an expensive item if the houses are widely separated, and the system needs maintenance ; • with no distribution system, the problems associated with unauthorized connections and theft of electricity are avoided. A typical PV system for a rural household in Malaysia would need to be adequate for lighting and to run a few domestic appliances, such as ceiling fans, a TV, a radio and possibly a refrigerator (Table 3). These loads could all be d.c. but this would be less popular with consumers, who would wish to have the freedom to buy cheaper standard a.c. products from the suppliers. Battery storage for about two to three days supply would be appropriate in most cases, as very high reliability would not be needed. A small, well-ventilated equipment room of about 2 m x 3 m would be needed to house the batteries, charge regulator, inverter and distribution board. The inverter would need to be correctly rated, with built-in overload protection. The whole system would clearly have to be designed for safety, reliability and low maintenance. Ideally, it would be preferable if the system were to be integrated into the building design from the beginning. The roof pitch and orientation could then be optimized and pro-

Table 3. Typical electrical load for a rural household

Load Light (4 × 20 W) Fans (1 × 60 W) Television Radio/cassette Total

Power (W)

Duration (h)

Energy (W h)

80 60 60 10 210

5 8 4 5

400 480 240 50 1170

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438

vision made for the equipment room, and the array itself could form part of the roof. Given continued progress with the development of solar cells and batteries, it should be possible within 5-8 years to bring costs down to around $8 W p ~ with large scale local manufacture of complete systems, with some scope for further reduction thereafter. At the current price, PV systems would begin to be an economic proposition for rural electrification, particularly for remote areas and scattered communities. Separate systems for each household would be simpler to operate and administer than centralized systems serving a whole village. In view of the long lead times needed to plan such developments, it is important that experience is built up now with module assembly using imported cells, with all other components coming from local sources. A cell manufacturing plant m a y be installed later. 4. R E N E W A B L E E N E R G Y F O R P O W E R

GENERATION A m o n g the emerging renewable energy technologies which m a y be appropriate as the electricity generation option for Malaysia, photovoltaic power is, perhaps, the most unique and promising, other than hydro-power. Costs of photovoltaic cells have to be viewed in a different m a n n e r since, as is now widely accepted, photovoltaic cell costs are on a falling cost curve, but not such a large fall in price to balance system costs (batteries, controls, wiring and installation). Thus, the system costs will probably not fall as fast as the module costs. Current module costs are in the r a n g e o f M $ 8 1 0 W p -~. Large scale electric power generation involves several aspects including costs, capacity, reliability, maintenance and of course the environment. The cost for providing electricity itself involves several aspects, including base load or peaking power, transmission costs, and in conventional systems, the fuel cost. As such, most utility companies combine various generation methods to achieve optimum supply and cost effectiveness such as using hydro-power, gas fired turbines, diesel power stations, and so on. In this context, the opportunity to use large scale photovoltaic power of the order of several megawatts located at various demand centres to provide the peaking power (solar energy is at its peak in the afternoon when consumers in urban areas demand more electricity mainly for cooling) m a y soon be realized as the price of solar cells is further reduced and grid connected solar systems do not require storage. Several experiments have been carried out in G e r m a n y (three generation sites, each providing 330 kW), Japan (several sites, each providing 1 MW), and in the U.S. (mainly in California), to test the viability of such a large system. F r o m reports published so far, the prospects of such a large system to participate in power generation are bright.

is disperse but environmentally benign. For this reason it has been described by m a n y as a soft energy. Thus, the general situation is that only small a m o u n t s of energy (kilowatts rather than megawatts) can be derived from the Sun's radiation. Thus, these limitations imply that the applications of solar energy have to be in reasonably small units which serve the needs of families or communities. Exceptions to the above situation could probably arise if storage is not required (such as direct connection to the grid for a PV system) or it is done by nature (such as in biomass), if life would be more decentralized and lifestyles more simple (which is not so easy to achieve with the current development trend in Malaysia). Current trends, which favour centralization and population shifts to the urban areas may well be reversed. With the preceding remarks, it will be worthwhile to consider the appropriate applications suitable for our needs now, and in the near future. As far as the direct applications are concerned, it is quite clear that collection and storage systems have to be fabricated with the exception of systems that can utilize the energy generated immediately. Thus, any direct application has to be necessarily on a small scale. An additional requirement in the Malaysian context is that applications should, as far as possible, need an appropriate or intermediate technology. For example, the generation of electrical power through photovoltaic systems will be best for a small water p u m p i n g system or for supplying the electricity needs of a small isolated community (200 W p - 1 0 0 kWp). The generation of larger quantities through, say, a central receiver concept or a satellite power station does not seem to be the appropriate approach for most countries and most certainly not for Malaysia, except for applications where storage is not needed. One could take examples of other thermal applications as well for discussion. The provision of solar water heating systems can be envisaged for homes or establishments like hotels or hospitals. It would be difficult, however, to think of a centralized water-heating system using solar energy with its collector area and its associated piping even for a community spread over a few square kilometers. As far as large scale power generation is concerned, there is only one possible application, that is, large scale electrical power generation with grid connection as a peaking power generator and to off-set power losses due to transmission (which m a y be caused by increases in resistance of transmission lines because of increases in temperature during the day). For an indirect application, the O T E C (Ocean Thermal Electrical Conversion) concept m a y be worth pursuing in a coordinated fashion in Malaysia. Other indirect applications, such as wind energy, energy plantation for biomass and alchohol production from plants and biogas, are clearly site-specific and care would have to be taken in selecting sites.

6. C O N C L U S I O N S 5. S O M E O B S E R V A T I O N S It will be appropriate to mention in this paper some observations on the nature of renewable energy options and to make some remarks on the applications relevant to Malaysian conditions. The principle characteristics of solar energy are that it is dilute in nature, abundant, variable and free. In contrast to other sources such as fossil fuels or nuclear energy which represent highly concentrated forms of energy, solar energy

Renewable energy technology, especially in terms of scientific and theoretical principles, is well established. Its transformation into technological hardware, which is intensively carried out in several countries, will continue and, when the aspects of environment and cost are taken into consideration, the viability of large scale solar powered systems m a y soon be established. The practical use of solar energy has become a reality and has great potential to be developed to benefit the needs of

Data Bank countries like Malaysia. However, applied R&D, technology assessment, prototype field analysis, assessment of the reliability of products including techno-economic and cost analyses, development of manufacturing technology, entrepreneurship, promotion, and eventual local manufacture will be needed. Greater inter-government cooperation, especially among the developing countries (such as the G15 countries) may be needed to assist each other in using their limited resources of manpower and capital. It is also recommended that the government give sufficient priority to initiate a programme of action in the field of renewable technology. This may require allocation of a programme to an existing appropriate institution and provision of relevant fundings and technical manpower and development of a practical work plan. Finally, the current development plan by the various government agencies, especially the Ministry of Rural Development to provide electricity to the rural communities in Sabah and Sarawak and in several islands in Peninsular Malaysia using photovoltaics should be continued and speeded up. Rural electrification is an important component of national development and the existence of solar tech-

439

nology has made the effort feasible in areas where earlier grid extension systems were not possible. REFERENCES

1. M. A. Ngan, Renewable energy from palm oil industry. Paper presented at EREDC Forum, Langkawi, 26-27 November (1993). 2. H.W. Kong, A review of biomass energy potential. Paper presented at the EREDC Forum, Langkawi, 26-27 November (1993). 3. M. N. Dalimin, Introduction to solar energy and photovoltaics. Presented at the Syrup. Photovoltaics for Rural Electrification, Kota Kinabalu, 3~4 December (1993). 4. Z. Zam, Financing energy services for small scale energy users. World Bank Report (1990). 5. K. V. Ramani, Rural Energy Plannin9 Asian and Pacific Experience. APDC & GTZ (1988). 6. M. N. Dalimin, The solar energy option for Malaysia-some observations. Presented at the Energy Research Engineering Development and Commersialization Forum, Langkawi, 27 28 November (1993).