PUSH TO USE RENEWAL ENERGY IN BID TO MITIGATE IMPACT OF ENERGY CRISIS

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 14 (Bernama) -- The government will resort to the use of renewal energy as one of the strategies to mitigate impact of the energy crisis and solar photovoltaic (PV) has been identified as one of them.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister, Shaziman Abu Mansor, said the ministry would consider a feed-in tariff mechanism as part of the drive to promote the widespread use of renewable energy, especially solar energy in thecountry.

"The feed-in tariff will provide opportunity for owners to install solar PV and generate clean electricity which the home and building owners can sell the solar electricity to the power utility at a much higher price than the retail tariff rate," he told reporters after officiating at the National SolarPhotovoltaic Conference here Thursday.

Shaziman said the unit price of the grid-connected solar PV system has been reduced from RM31 per watt in December 2005 to RM26 currently, with the lowest price of RM22 recorded for the new Suruhanjaya Tenaga office inPutrajaya.

He said the government needed to consider a cost-effective mechanism which would facilitate the growth of solar PV market in Malaysia and to bringdown its prices.

Shaziman, however, did not elaborate on the effective mechanism that wouldbe implemented.