Kudat most ideal to become renewable energy centre: Max

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah's northern district, Kudat, is currently being geared up to become the State's renewable energy (RE) centre, said Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili.Ongkili said the district, located some 190 kilometres from here, has the highest irradiance alongside Kedah and the constantly sunny days there were ideal for solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation.

He said to-date, some 58 megawatts of solar PV plants had been approved (for construction in Kudat) by the ministry and the Sustainable Energy Development Authority.

"Of the figure, 50 megawatts are being jointly developed jointly by Tadau Energy Sdn Bhd and Edra Global Energy Bhd, with the remaining eight megawatts reserved for the Feed-in-Tariff Scheme," he said.

Ongkili said this in a statement after visiting the solar PV plants in Indarason and Bak-Bak Beach, here.

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He said of the 50-megawatt solar PV plant, two megawatts would be channelled to the local Kudat Grid while the bulk of 48 megawatts would be injected into to the 132 kilovolt transmission line to be distributed across Sabah.

"About 50 megawatts are entirely funded by the private sector, and will create job opportunities for locals in terms of technical and management (positions)," he said.

Ongkili said the Federal Government would also look into harnessing wind energy in both Kudat and Kota Marudu, where studies by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and power agencies from China and Thailand had determined that up to 300 megawatts of wind energy could be generated.

The Federal Government also planned to exploit wind energy as part of the effort to reduce diesel subsidy for diesel-fired generation by Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, he said.

"Currently, between RM450 million and RM600 million are spent annually by the federal treasury for diesel subsidy, which is both wasteful and inefficient.

"The federal Cabinet is considering reducing that amount by half in the next three years by replacing diesel generation with RE sources.

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"At the same time, Malaysia will also be lowering its carbon footprint, in keeping with its commitment to the Paris Agreement to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions," said Ongkili.

He said there were also plans to set up a research centre for RE in Kudat for both wind and solar PV, which would see the collaborations between local universities and Asean energy institutes.

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