KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (Sime Darby Plantation), Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and Mitsui & Co Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate a study of the potential of biogas power generation in Sime Darby Plantation’s estates.
The MoU required Sime Darby to provide suitable sites for the feasibility study involving its palm oil mills which produce Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME), a substance that generated biogas in the form of methane.
Mitsui & Co Ltd would provide the design and technical expertise in trapping the biogas, while TNB shared the Operations and Maintenance expertise and would assist in connecting the electricity generated to the national grid in the future.
“We are the clear leader in the production of sustainable palm oil, with more than a third of our production now certified by the Roundtable On Sustainable Palm Oil.
“This project further asserts our commitment to extending our sustainable effort beyond the production process,” remarked Sime Darby Plantation president and Group chief executive Dato’ Mohd Bakke Salleh.
Statistics showed that Malaysia’s Renewable Energy (RE) industry was still in its infancy, contributing less than one per cent of the country’s energy mix.
Officially, Malaysia plans to produce 985 megawatts (MW) or 5.5 per cent of the renewable energy to the energy mix by 2015 and eventually double that to 2,080MW or 11 per cent of the overall electricity generation.