Malaysia's Tenaga to buy green energy

Leong Shen-Li, The Star 19 Jan 10;

ABU DHABI: Tenaga Nasional could be legally required to buy renewable energy under new laws being drawn up by the Government, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

The Prime Minister said the move would increase the availability of renewable energy in Malaysia by 100-fold from the current 50MW to 2,000MW by 2020.

He said one of the mechanisms the Government was looking into under the new law was “feed-in tariffs.”

Feed-in tariffs makes it compulsory for regional or national utility companies like Tenaga Nasional Bhd to buy renewable electricity such as electricity generated from solar, thermal, wind, wave or tidal power, biomass, hydropower and geothermal power from eligible participants.

“Currently, we are in the process of instituting a renewable energy law and one of the mechanisms we are looking into is feed-in tariffs to promote the usage of this type of energy,” he said in his keynote address at the World Future Energy Summit here yesterday.

Najib said the Government already had the Small Renewable Energy Programme, which provided for a higher purchasing price for electricity generated under this initiative by the grid operator.

“We have more than enough sunlight in Malaysia and increased use of solar power will be promoted aggressively,” he said, referring to the Suria 1000 programme which was launched in 2007.

The Suria 1000 programme allows houses and commercial buildings to become part of the country’s renewable energy initiative by producing energy through solar power.

Najib said a study has been commissioned to restructure and realign the Malaysian electricity sector.

“The findings will help lay the foundation for a more efficient industry through market mechanisms and liberalisation,” he said.

Najib pointed out that he had set up the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry last year to spearhead Malaysia’s transformation into a green nation.

“We will be looking at four main sectors to implement green technologies, namely energy, transport, buildings and water,” he said.

Najib said for transportation, the Government aimed at reducing carbon footprint by enhancing public transport.

He said energy efficient buildings have been promoted for some time and the introduction of the Green Building Index would hopefully see more buildings going green in Malaysia soon.

Besides Najib, the other heads of state or government attending the four-day summit are Greek Presi-dent Karolos Papoulias, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.