Govt considering inclusion of wind and thermal as renewable energy sources

thestar: Wednesday March 21, 2012


Govt considering inclusion of wind and thermal as renewable energy sources





PETALING JAYA: The Government is considering including wind and thermal in the country's renewable energy (RE) mix, said Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin.



“Under Seda (Sustainable Energy Development Authority), we had only included solar, biomass, biogas, and hydro (to generate RE).



“So now we are looking into wind as well as thermal,” he said after witnessing the signing of a technology transfer agreement for the maglev turbine system between China-based Shenzhen Timar Scenery Energy Technology Co Ltd and Timar Wind Solar Energy Sdn Bhd.





Clean resources: (from left) Chin, Lee, Shenzhen Timar Scenery Energy chairman Lin Wen Qi and Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry senior secretary (energy sector) Badaruddin Mahyudin at the signing ceremony.

He added that the outlook for wind power was bright and wind power capacity was expected to achieve about 50,000MW this year.



In many parts of the world, Chin said, using wind for power generation was still a more cost effective option compared with solar.



With the commencement of the Renewable Energy Act 2011, feed-in-tariff system, and the setting up of Seda as the central authority for the RE industry, he said Malaysia's RE capacity was projected to reach 2,080MW by 2020, or some 11% of the total peak electricity demand.



Domestic RE generation could also prevent some 42 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 and create at least RM70bil in revenue from RE plants and over 50,000 jobs in the sector.



Meanwhile, Timar Wind Solar Energy chief executive officer Simon Lee said that for this year, the company would invest RM500mil in phase one of its energy production for both the local and South-East Asian markets. Its factory would begin operations this year.



Its factory would begin operations this year.