Driving national renewable energy agenda with solar roadshow
18 Sep 2020
The Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPIA) has launched MPIA Solar Roadshow 2020-2021 to heed the call for higher adoption of renewable energy.
It serves as a one-stop platform to provide information on policy, programme, tax incentive, financing, insurance coverage, risk and return of investment, solar leasing and power purchase agreement (PPA) on rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system investment.
Featuring speakers from Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda), Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida), Energy Commission (ST) and representatives from the solar PV industry supply chain, the roadshow is taking place in seven locations nationwide until April 2021, with energy consumers — especially those in the commercial and industrial sectors — as the target audience.
“The Malaysian government has set the target of achieving 20% power generation capacity for renewable energy by 2025, ” said MPIA president Chin Soo Mau.
“While it is an ambitious goal, it is the right direction and in line with the global trend of carbon footprint reduction.
“In Denmark, half of its power generation comes from renewable energy. This is since 2019.
“Meanwhile, Germany has targeted 65% of its electricity to come from renewable energy by 2030.
“Closer to us, South Korea has aimed for 30% to 35% of its power generation to come from renewable energy by 2040.”
Chin said MPIA had come in to fill the gap in meeting Malaysia’s national target on renewable energy.
“This roadshow is designed in a way that the audience will get direct and accurate information.
“We have lined up speakers from the authorities as well as the industry.”
He said according to government data, there were more than four million buildings in the country which could potentially be installed with solar PV system to harvest free and renewable energy from the sun.
However, it is estimated that only less than 12,000 buildings have been installed with solar PV systems for electricity consumption.That figure is not even 1% of the total number of buildings.
MPIA pointed out that in Australia, a country with smaller population than Malaysia, there were more than two million buildings with solar PV systems.
“In fact, the deployment of solar PV systems by companies on their commercial or industrial buildings is not only a response to climate change, but also to improve cash flow because of energy bill savings.
“And it adds a lot of brand value to the corporate image in terms of going green.
“This is how some multinational companies leverage the ‘green label’ to create better awareness or even a price premium for their products and services, ” said Chin.
“We hope that a roadshow like this will contribute to better awareness about solar energy and greater interest in using solar PV system to generate electricity, especially when prices of solar PV systems are now far more affordable than a decade ago as a result of new technology and economies of scale.”
The solar roadshow has received overwhelming support from numerous quarters, with Seda, Mida, ST, Invest Selangor, InvestPerak and the Asian Photovoltaic Industry Association being the supporting organisations.
CIMB Bank and UOB Bank are among the sponsors of the event. Other sponsors include global solar inverter manufacturers Huawei Technologies and Sungrow, global solar panel manufacturers Longi Solar and Canadian Solar, as well as Anora Agency — the insurance agency responsible for developing Malaysia’s first solar PV system insurance in collaboration with Seda and MPIA.
Due to standard operating procedures amid the Covid-19 pandemic, only 100 participants are allowed to join the conference at the solar roadshow.
Nevertheless, there are six other locations where the public are still able to participate in the event, with the immediate next location being Ipoh, Perak on Oct 6.
Interested participants may check for more details and register for free online at https://mpia.org.my/events/
Source: The Star
