Ewon (third left) powering up a solar equipment for the symbolic launch of the Energy for Off-Grid Villages workshop in Unimas yesterday. Also seen are (from left) Talib, Ahmad Tajuddin, Heap and Kadim.
KOTA SAMARAHAN: The vast application of technology and advocating of government policies have made the country one of the leading role models in renewable energy.
This achievement has caught the attention of Smart Villages, a UK based body striving to raise awareness and influence policy makers in the global community to make renewable energy their main agenda.
Currently around 1.2 billion of the world population are still without access to electricity, which mooted the Smart Villages initiative – a collaborative effort of the Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development Trust (CMEDT), Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre (MCSC) and European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) in 2014.
A series of workshops is also being organised by Smart Villages in six regions throughout the world to gather input from stakeholders involved in rural electrification projects.
A workshop on ‘Energy for Off-Grid Villages’ is being hosted by Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) from Jan 27 to 29 for Southeast Asian countries.
“This workshop is where all leading scientists, thinkers and doers from across the region gather to provide new insights to policy makers and funding bodies at national, regional and global levels on rural energy access for development,” said Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin when launching the workshop at DeTar Putra, Unimas yesterday.
According to him, the workshop will enable researchers from participating countries to ascertain the types of technologies that can be suited to their country’s needs such as micro hydropower systems, solar photovoltaic, wind turbines, wind-solar hybrid systems and ‘Village Industrial Power’ using biomass from crop waste to produce thermal energy.
The workshop, he added, will also be able to benefit the five per cent of the East Malaysian population still without access to electricity compared to 0.5 per cent in the peninsula.
On another note, he said the Smart Villages concept in Malaysia is distinctive with its own socio cultural needs and context.
“Today, the Malaysian smart village has expanded its concept to that of smarter management of the ecosystem. This approach involves large-scale processes in an integrated and multi-disciplinary manner combining the management of natural resources with environmental livelihood considerations,” he added.
Among the off-grid villages in Malaysia was Kampung Sri Stamang 2 in Sri Aman, which used solar generated power complemented by biomass energy and mini-hydroelectricity.
Other notable projects is the eBario Innovation Village to incubate innovative grassroots applications of ICT and
renewable sources of energy.
Also present at the launch were Assistant Minister of Tourism Datuk Talib Zulpilip, Ministry of Rural Development permanent secretary Datu Chaiti Bolhassan, Academy of Sciences Malaysia president Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin, Unimas vice-chancellor Professor Dato Dr Kadim Suaidi and the Malaysia Smart Village workshop organising chairman Tan Sri Datuk Ir Ahmad Zaidee Laidin.