Ingenieur Vol. 75 ingenieur July 2018-FA | Page 15

(RE) generation can be located in urban centres
or near to built-up areas, and connected to the
distribution network, either indirectly through the
consumer’s switchboard, or directly to the utility
distribution line.
Solar Photovoltaics
Solar Photovoltaics (PV) is by far the most
easily available technology in terms of ease of
installation, operation and maintenance. The
average cost of installation has gone down from
RM15,000/kW in 2012 to less than RM4000/
kW today. PV systems can be easily installed
on available rooftops of warehouses, factories,
houses and others. There are literally millions
of square meters of roof space available for
installation of PV systems. As they are installed at
the load centre, transmission losses are reduced
and the strain on transmission lines is also
reduced.
BIOGAS SYSTEMS
There are various biogas systems, depending on
the source of the biogas, as listed below.
Agriculture Waste Biogas Systems
In Malaysia, these are mostly located at oil palm
mills, utilizing the palm oil mill effluent (POME)
generated during the production of oil palm. The
power produced can be exported to the utility
through existing mechanisms or consumed by
the mill if it is not possible to connect to the Grid.
Recently, there have been attempts to produce
biogas using animal waste, especially pig waste.
These initiatives are limited to 1 MW or less
since the pig farms are rather small in terms of
pig population. Chicken waste is in high demand
as a fertilizer so there is hardly any opportunity of
producing biogas from this source.
Figure 2: PV system installed on rooftop of local university
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