TAWAU: The first solar farm for the district producing one megawatt of power supply and able to cater for about 500 households was commissioned yesterday at the SMR Aquaculture Sdn Bhd in Apas Balung.
Its spokesperson John Nip said his interest in solar generation was not new as he has been studying solar technology for about three years.
“Just happens in Sabah it was delayed in participation in this feed-in tariff. Sabah, unlike in peninsular does not have all the infrastructures in place so Sabah basically has to start from zero.
I have to put up my own transmission line here, an additional 11 kilometers then we have to apply feed-in tariff to SEDA (Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia) and this seems to be very limited with the quota and luckily this year 2014 our minister of energy is
supportive enough to get about 7 megawatt for Sabah out of 15 megawatt for the country,” he said yesterday.
John said his company was in time to complete the project in a short period of time which is about four months.
“Actually solar is not so difficult as the technology is there already, basically it is the integration of the systems, you get the right solar panel, the right inverter, you get the system integrated and you are producing energy,” he said.
He said initially the power generated from the solar farm will be sold to SESB (Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd) which is an incentive under the feed-in tariff and he encourages private entrepreneurs to come and participate.
“We are thankful to Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus Ongkili, Minister of Energy, Water and Green Technology to be able to pull this 7 megawatt to Sabah, all the while Sabah has been underestimated but today we prove that Sabah is able to set up a solar farm,” he said.
The setting up cost for the first solar generation in the district is RM10 million and comes with a 25-year warranty, performance guaranteed and 40 years lifespan and John is aiming to turn his place into a green technology park if he gets enough quota.