Malaysia’s promotion of renewable energy goes hand in hand with its NAM responsibility

The changing environmental scenario, specially in recent decades, have threatened the pattern of energy consumption of the world at large, and the need to move to a more sustainable order is what governs the measures and policies of the nations. The Non-Aligned Movement and its Member-States, ever since the foundation, have stayed true to their commitment of ensuring a sustainable world order and have time and again taken significant measures to protect the environment in general and revive renewable energy pattern in particular.

Malaysia, walking on the footsteps of the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement in recent years has augmented its capabilities to enhance its renewable energy sector keeping in mind the necessity of switching to renewable sources witnessing the unpredictability of the non-renewable one. The Non-Aligned Movement has urged its Member-States to take measures to switch to clean energy sources keeping in mind the degrading health of the environment, and Malaysia being aware of its geo-strategic position both in South Asia and the world has been taking effective and confident steps to solidify and solve its clean energy requirements.

Malaysia has written several success stories in the past decades to climb the ladder of attaining targets and setting benchmarks. Under its “National Renewable Energy Policy and Action Plan” active since 2011, Malaysia aimed at achieving 11% goal of energy sources share to be from renewable sources by 2020 which it proudly achieved when it crossed the estimated 11% to reach 22% mark in 2017 itself. The mark of contribution of renewable sources to fulfil Malaysia’s energy demand is to cross the 30% boundary by 2030. To ensure its strict implementation so as to safeguard the efficiency of the renewable energy sector’s purchase, distribution and utility, the Malaysian Parliament passed the Renewable Energy Act 2011 that introduced special tariff under the name “Feed-in Tariff (FiT) System regulated by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority of Malaysia (SEDA).

Despite facing considerable challenges, Malaysia has made sizable progress to achieve its dream of attaining a power-position when renewable energy is taken into account, especially among the ASEAN nations. A BMI Research report under the title, “Asia Renewables RRI: Investment Opportunities” published in February 2017 lists Malaysia among the top three countries for renewal energy investment, thus augmenting the possibility of attracting both foreign and domestic investment in the renewable energy sector. Co-operation and co-ordination have been Malaysia’s mantra to attain renewable energy targets as several governmental, non-governmental organization and private firms have given the country its requisite momentum.

Malaysia is not just an important Member-State of the Non-Aligned Movement but it is also a key player among the ASEAN countries. In lieu with its commitment as part of the ASEAN of attaining the 23% target of the renewables in the primary energy mix by 2025, Malaysia has taken several practical measures and concrete actions be it the rapid enactment of existing projects encompassing the probability of augmenting renewable sources or promoting its use on different platforms and entering into a committed and coordinated regional order for the development of the sources of renewable energy within and beyond its geographical expanse.

Malaysia has embarked on a journey whose end destination is green energy growth so as to ensure widespread use of efficient and renewable energy. For it, the country has focused on increasing share of renewables in energy mix by exploring new renewable energy sources, enhancing capacity of renewable energy personnel and implementing net energy metering. In lieu with its commitment to reduce the country’s dependency on fossil fuels for electricity generation, alternate fuels in terms of renewability has been given priority by the Malaysian government. Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy or SCORE started back in 2008 and stands out as the stark example of the same commitment.

Electricity generation capacity through renewable sources including biomass, biogas, solar PV, and mini hydro are targeted to reach 7.8% of total installed capacity in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah by 2020, or about 2,080 MW6. As Malaysia is one of the largest oil palm producers in the world, the prospect of Biodiesel holds great potential. In addition to it, the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) has targeted to produce 2,500 megawatts (MW) or 10 % of its electricity requirements from Solar Energy by 2020.

Per the Eleventh Plan of the Malaysian Government, new renewable energy sources such as wind, geothermal and ocean energy will be explored and the Government will provide training to 1,740 personnel through the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), creating experts in the field of biomass, biogas, mini hydro and solar PV. Not only this, Malaysia has emerged as an international hub for the manufacture of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, wafers and modules.

Malaysia even targets to implement the EURO 5 emission standards and increase bio-diesel blending requirements of up to 15% in automotive fuel. The steps taken by Malaysia and the steps to be taken by Malaysia all in unison has been moving in the direction to make the energy sector a sustainable, renewable, and environmentally friendly zone and reduce the nation’s dependency on non-renewable sources, thus keeping the mantel of NAM’s principles high.