Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Environment Protection Association (Sepa) President, Wong Tack, Tuesday supported the Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s (MPOB) call to the Government to take the oil palm industry on board the energy sector to help mitigate the perennial power shortage in Sabah.
He said the call from Kuala Lumpur-based MPOB Chairman Datuk Sabri Ahmad was a surprise to him but nevertheless confirmed what Sepa had been urging the authorities all along to look seriously into renewable energy options for answers to the decades-old power shortage in the State.
In his statement published in the Daily Express on Tuesday, Sabri noted that the waste sludge in the retention ponds of no less than 117 oil mills across Sabah emit the potent biogas methane.
He said estate owners can trap the methane from this mill sludge to fuel steam turbines and generate electricity which is a renewable source of energy.
“This is one of the cleaner alternatives for Sabah, instead of installing a coal-fired power plant,” Sabri was quoted as saying and stressed that biomass and biogas technology “is available now.”
However, what the oil mills need is “financial assistance”, specifically each mill would need RM6 million to install methane gas trapping and steam turbine generators, Sabri said.
“It is very clear now that our call to use local fuels which is plenty can turn environmental pollutants into friends of the environment,” said Wong.
“The MPOB’s opinion definitely reinforced the point that we have been making since Day One and we hope the authority will take these growing voices seriously,” he said.
“Generation of renewable energy is subsidised in many countries and allowed to sell power to the grid at higher prices to help them gain a foothold in the energy sector,” Wong pointed out.
“I hope the TNB and the Government will do the same. If not the Government should step in as a matter of policy because an initiative like this has to be supported and encouraged and we are sure the oil mills are willing to come in,” Wong said.
“What we have seen is a unwillingness to explore the alternative energy options like biomass, biogas, hydro, wind and solar technology probably because certain quarters want to dominate and monopolise the power business,” he asserted.
“But given a fresh political will and proper incentives, green technology should really move into full gear,” Wong reckoned.
“I think the MPOC chairman knew the renewable energy potentials of the oil palm industry very well, by coming out with such a forthright statement which not only opens another avenue for Sabah to move in the right direction but will also help to raise the green image of the entire oil palm industry,” Wong said.
Meanwhile, Sepa Sandakan Chairman, Charles Chow, said he was “very happy” that MPOC Chairman Datuk Sabri Ahmad came out to speak to the moment of history.
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