POTENTIAL USE OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Abstract

Energy is important in all aspects of development to
support population growth, urbanization,
industrialization as well as tourism industry. Energy
consumption is also increasing and several alternative
green energy sources are seriously taken into
consideration to fulfill Malaysia’s energy demand. The
Malaysian government has looked into the renewable
energy (RE) sources such as solar energy to be one of
the alternatives to face problems related with the
increase in energy demand. However, the heavily
subsidized non renewable sources in the country have
made the RE sources as an uneconomical option. The
aim of this paper is to briefly review the incentives and
the RE Act adopted by the Malaysian government to
ensure long term reliability and security of energy
supply. The feed-in-tariff system, solar radiation
intensity in Peninsular Malaysia and the role of
renewable energy sources in the Five-Fuel
Diversification Strategy energy mix are also
highlighted in this paper.