From water to fire
THEY descended upon Kuching and for two solid days congregated in air-conditioned rooms to speak about the water, the sun, the wind, and the biomass.
I’m referring to the 160-strong participants of the conference dubbed ‘Clean Energy Collaboration’ on March 15-16. Organised by NGOs such as Save Rivers, Joas (Indigenous Peoples Network), and Pakos Trust of Sabah, it was well attended by other like-minded civil society organisations in the country and supported by local and international energy experts.
The exercise was to push the agenda of renewable energy which is affordable, safe, and sustainable for the home and for the factory.
Any plan for an energy project involving land and rivers where people live must get their free, prior, and informed consent; their norms and mores must be respected. They must also benefit from it – a ‘social engineering’ – said YB Adrian Lasimbang.
The clean energy needs of a country can be met without it having to destroy its forests to make way for the construction of big dams, without having to uproot people from one place to another and, in the process, without dispossessing them of their lands.
Federal Minister of Works, YB Baru Bian, in his keynote address, said to the effect that a clean energy project that ‘destroys forests is not clean’.
There are alternatives to mega dams that meet the same purpose and needs for power. Look at the sun, at the small rivers, at the catchments/watersheds; feel the wind, and see how the waste from palm oil production being discarded by certain oil palm mills in Sarawak without realising its potential as a source of electricity for the mills themselves.
The many fast-flowing rivers and water catchments in Sarawak and Sabah are the vital components of a hydro-power plant, big and small; the other essential parts are the money and the political will.
The sun is up there for the asking. Tap the power of the rays down on to the panels on the roof and you will have lights in the house. Expertise or technology is not a problem anymore. Synergise all these components and you will produce electricity. And fire! By the way, a number of longhouses have been burnt down partly because of poor electrical installation and exuberant do-ityourself extensions. Check this with the Bomba.
Above was my take of what the panel speakers and floor speakers were saying, some beating about the bush or up and down the river. I attended most of the group discussions, which I found most educational. I have attended several international conferences on various topics. This collaborative effort made by the local NGOs on energy was commendable, organisation wise. They should do this again, perhaps, with much more active participation by speakers from the floor.
And more input from the public sector in Sarawak.
Panel speakers drawn from academia, individual researchers, and private energy suppliers exchanging views and sharing experiences with experts from USA, UK, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia turned the conference into an educational platform worth the while and the expense in attending it.
While the Sarawak Rural Electrification Scheme (Sares) was ably represented by its officials, I must have missed seeing any high level energy policymaker from Sarawak at the conference. Federal politicians present played their role well as expected.
All speakers were confident that clean energy is the future for Malaysia. In this respect, the local organisers were doing their bit in terms of helping achieve the 17 UN Millennium Goals, specifically No. 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy. I did not see the usual ‘suspects’ from the CSO SDG Alliance either from KL or from the local outfit at the meeting. They did not know what they were missing: meeting the environmentalists from Myanmar, Thailand, West Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines and listening to the presentations by experts in clean energy.
Can we do without more mega dams?
I was hoping to hear speakers advocating mega dams but there were none. All said we had enough of mega dams now that the one in Baleh is being constructed. However, I gathered from answers to my questions that the power from mini hydro plant or solar panels or the biomass or the wind is limited indeed. Voltage is low, enough for a home kitchen, but not energetic enough for, say, an aluminium smelting plant. Sooner or later there will have to be a marriage between the river, the sun, and the lake in a synergised grid.
The 17-year-old mini hydropower project at Long Luwen is a case in point; the settlers who opted out of the Bakun settlements would need power from Bakun Dam as well. Another case is the Long Lamai Project – enough power for the Internet but not enough for the whole village until recently.
In other words, power from mega dams and small dams will have to be harnessed together for Sarawak. Ask the engineers how this can be done. Biomass, wind To my questions with respect to the usefulness of the two, I was told to forget about biomass – there is simply no money in it for the next 30 years; the wind in Sarawak is not strong enough. Did you know that?
In other words, we have to marry the big dams with the small and, together, with the sun: three-in-one synergy. Forget about the moon; it is only good for pulling the tides.
Power from water or from the sun is relatively cheap to produce compared to power from coal or fossil or petroleum. However, by the rule of thumb, I was told by engineers, hydropower dam like the Batang Ai can be economically productive for 50 years only before sedimentation makes them uneconomical to maintain. In theory, in 100 years from today, all our dams would be useless, abandoned; what will be their substitutes?
The planners will be able to answer that question. My layman’s answer: build solar panels on the lakes at Bakun, Murum, Batang Ai and Balleh, and wind farms over shallow water or marsh land.
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