By Prof. Ir. Dr. Hj. Wan Ramli Wan Daud

Malaysia, with a population already exceeding 25 million, is a net exporter of oil and gas. However, with demand rising and supply stagnating, unless some new finds crop up, the prediction is that in a matter of years, Malaysia will have to depend on import to drive its economic programme. Some predict this may come as early as 2020 or even earlier. Since 2004, the country’s oil reserve remains at 4.83 billion barrels, while its gas reserve stagnates at 2.46 trillion cubic metres. In addition, Malaysia has a coal reserve of about 1,483 million tonnes and a hydropower reserve of around 27,000 MW. For a while now, Malaysia has taken the decision to explore other energy options to offset future slack in domestic supply of fossils.

In 1999, the country adopted a policy to add renewable energy as a fifth fuel to oil, coal, gas and hydropower. The target set was for renewable to account for 5% and 10% of total energy mix by 2005 and 2010 respectively. In fact, by 2010, the fuel mix for electricity generation is targeted to be 40% gas, 40% coal, 10% hydropower and 10% renewable energy. The policy revision has been driven by a combination of factors, both external and domestic. The leading factor is the expected narrowing and eventually closing of the fossil fuel production-demand gap which may materialise in 15 to 20 years. The expansion in demand is estimated to be about 6.3% year, whereby the transport sector alone consumes more than 40% of the total energy. External factors include the rising crude oil prices which have yet to show any sign of slowing down. And also the pressure to conform to the global call to rein in the greenhouse gas emissions under the internationally agreed climate change protocol.

Solar Energy Roadmap for Malaysia

The country’s Energy Strategic Plan has outlined a number of key objectives. One is for the country to achieve a sustainable energy development through a secure and cost effective supply. Air pollution reduction in transportation and industry is to be achieved by maximising the use of natural gas as fuel. Among the projects to be pursued include the Peninsular Gas Utilization pipeline, with reticulation to industrial areas. City taxis would be encouraged to change to a dual fuel petrol and gas system, whereby gas refueling stations would be expanded. The practice of energy efficiency would be agressively promoted where there will be efficient utilization of clean energy with minimal damage to the environment.

Hydrogen and solar energy have been identified as most viable as a long term renewable alternative to fossil fuel. Other renewables such as biomass will not be sufficiently large to replace fossil. And fuel cell has been singled out as the most promising energy conversion device for hydrogen especially in transportation. The potential capacity of grid connected building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) in Malaysia is estimated to be about 11GWp or 12TWh which equates to about 20% of the national energy demand. A number of R&D projects on solar energy has received funding support in Malaysia. These include photovoltaic-wind hybrid hydrogen production system; photoelectro-chemical cell; photovoltaic-biomass hybrid system; thin film technology and grid connected photovoltaic.

Hydrogen Energy Roadmap for Malaysia

What then is the road ahead for renewables? Malaysia has just developed the roadmap for hydrogen, solar and fuel cell to guide the country’s foray into renewables. The map was developed with inputs from the key stakeholders which included industry, power generators and distributors, fuel producers, government, R&D institutions as well as academia. The bottomline of the roadmap is to expand use of solar, to introduce and utilise hydrogen and to apply fuel cells as one of the more important energy conversion devices in the future. The roadmaps are underscored by five major strategies; cost competitiveness and market enhancement, technology R&D, standards and policy development, awareness and capacity building, and financial incentives and funding.

The solar energy roadmap has set the long term target of achieving an installed capacity of 40MW photovoltaic and 75GW thermal by 2030. This would materialise on the premise that by 2025, the technology cost of solar would be lower than or at least on par with the other energy sources. According to the roadmap, by 2007 the solar thermal market should have already been enhanced to 50%, with the PV market reaching 4.5MW. The roadmap also talked about a medium term target of putting into place 10 solar demonstration projects by 2010.

The hydrogen roadmap aims to make hydrogen an attaractive and competitive energy source by 2030. By then the country’s hydrogen fuel cell development would have been completed. Also completed will be projects on centralised hydrogen facilities, including distribution systems and infrastructure for local network. Going by the roadmap, by now 5 hydrogen production demonstration plants should have already been commissioned. In fact by 2015, the country will have in place an operational renewable hydrogen refueling system, by which time the hydrogen technology will already be enhanced and cost reduced by 30%. Admittedly, these targets set sound far fetched considering the current state of hydrogen technology development.

Fuel Cells Roadmap for Malaysia

The fuel cell roadmap is even more ambitious. It has set a target whereby by 2030, all motor cycles will be powered by fuel cells. In addition, 5% of official government vehicles and 2% of private passenger cars will be driven by fuel cells. By then the distributed fuel cell power generation will have reached 150 MW at least. This should happen after the technology cost for fuel cell is reduced by half in 2025. By 2009, we should have advanced fuel cell component technologies in place, as well as direct methanol microfuel cell. By now there should already be available the necessary standards and policy for fuel cell, with training for industry users also in place.

Though much of the targets set have yet to be achieved, many of the initiatives identified are already in place. In the final analysis, the roadmaps provide an invaluable guide to help Malaysia chart the country’s pursuit of renewables.

Prof. Ir. Dr. Hj. Wan Ramli Wan Daud, BEng (Monash), PhD (Cambridge), FlChemE MIEM ASASI CEng PEng, Founder director, Fuel Cell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. FuelCell Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM, Bangi, Selangor. Tel: 603-89216405 Fax: 603-89216024 E-mail: wramli@vlsi.eng.ukm.my