The Ecobuild Exhibition at Earls Court, London (2nd to 6th March), which I visited, was quite extensive and wide-coverage in various sectors concerning the built environment.
Going through the exhibits dealing with the latest technology on solar pv and thermal heating, insulation, rain water harvesting, etc,I on the spot invited quite a few exhibitors to participate in our own IGEM 2010 (see this same site at http://www.igem.com.my for details).
Malaysia needs to move ahead and invests in energy and water efficient technologies, two important necessities which will become even more important going towards 2020.
For those who are interested you can find lots of examples of products in the Internet at http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/.
Perhaps you can share your views with me.
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Great to find your web blog Peter.
Hope that some of the London exhibitors you spoke with will be in Malaysia next October.
Malaysia is getting hotter so it has become even more important to build to conserve cooling energy and preserve comfort.
Keep up the grand job you are doing,
Harry.
Dear YB,
Harry’s comment is relevant, & knowing him I would have expected him to mention insulation for air conditioned pre4mises as he has used for his energy efficient house. Insulation is one of the most (if not the most) cost-effective measures to reduce energy use in such hot weather condiions. The recent press statements about a “power surge” of about 400 MW caused by more extensive A/C use is rather worrying as most new users of A/C woulod probably have installed the cheater, & less efficient A/Cs.
Pity the poor who cannot afford A/C to cool their houses. However, they could also benefit from insulation for their houses as it would reduce the temperature in their houses to make them more comfortable even without A/C cooling.
Perhaps YB can accelerate KeTTHA’s efforts to promote insualtion of houses, offices & industries that need A/C by making them mandatory under the nation’s Building Codes, as developers consider insulation as an unnecessary additional cost in trying to make their construction projects more profitable.
Such an initiative will not only reduce energy use for cooling, but would also reduce fossil fuel use for power generation & result in reduced GHG (CO2) emissions.
Dear Lalchand,
You are correct that we need to talk more as well as do more on the matter of insulation of our houses to keep the oppressing heat out. I will be working out a programme with my officers for presentation to the Green Technology Council in its next meeting. We will see what can be done. In the meantime, I will welcome any suggestions that you or anyone can forward to me.
Dear Harry,
Great to meet up with you. Hope you are fine. Welcome any other comments from you on matters pertaining to my ministry. Your point on conserving the cooling energy is indeed going to be a challenge and you can be sure I will look into this matter personally. Cheers!
Dear YB,
Thank you for your very positive comments. I’m sure all professionals involved & interested in sustainable development welcome your comments & look forward KeTTHA’s actions.
Best wishes & Cheers.
Dear YB,
Finally the phase Energy Efficient and Water Efficient is used together. We have been rasing this for many years. WECAM has developed http://www.switch.org.my to tackle energy efficiency issues and we are under going our research for water efficiency.
As for green technology, WECAM would like to raised the red flags to caution all. There are ‘Green Technology’ salesmen whom are good in marketing their ‘Green Washing Technology’. I have raised in many meeting on this. Once a cheat enters our market, people will loose confidence. We need to be cautiuos in every step we do.
For example, the current water crises will be used by ‘Groundwater Mega Project” lobbyist to push it through, while our report shows many other sustainable solution.
Our recent market reseach on electrical products proves that ‘claims’ on products being energy efficient are not so energy efficient as advertised. This ‘misleading’ is bad for the GREEN move KeTHHA is plotting. We will produce more reports to highlight educate the consumers on their choices. In fact the first one will be out in matter of time.
We have also submitted a full overview report to KeTTHA (then KTAK) on our water conservation awareness in schools and public consultation. I hope the KeTHHA officers can highlight the documents for YB’s reference on people’s perception. In addition to that, our national water consumption pattern survey report is near completion. This will a good tool for KeTHHA to refer to in policy planning for water efficiency.
Dear Piara,
WECAM ought to be congratulated for its efforts in water conservation awareness. It is even more topical nowadays when quite a few areas within Semenanjung, Labuan and Sarawak are experiencing hot and dry spells. Thank you for highlighting to KeTTHA officers WECAM’s report on the status of awareness and I have asked for a copy to be made available to me.
Dear YB
I am writing to request in advance some consideration by the revelant authorities (Kettha/PTM) who are formulating the feed-in-tariffs (FIT) for RE power generation to include concentrated solar power (CSP) in the proposal. I am to understand that at the moment the proposed FIT does not include CSP, but only for PV.
We are trying to develop the solar thermal market in Malaysia using a newly developed micro-sized parabolic trough collector which is ideal for solar cooling, desalination, process heating and power generation. Unlike PV, the technology is relatively simple, easy to manufacture, and is ideal for Malaysia where there is ample manufacturing capacity. We believe it is most important that CSP be included in the FIT in order to develop the solar thermal industry in Malaysia.
We have found that power generation via CSP in Sabah (specifically in the vicinity of Beaufort) is economically viable and gives better returns than PV.
I hope you will give our request some consideration.
Many thanks
Ben
Dear Ben,
The whole process of drafting the various components of the FiT is still yet to be finalized and submitted to the Attorney General’s office. I will direct my officers to look at your suggestion.
Dear YB,
As an idea a government incentive to promote housing/commercial insulation would be great. Australia practices such a policy and is a good way to interest consumers on the idea of insulation (many are still not aware of such a procedure).
Insulation is a great way to conserve energy especially in our tropical scorching weather. Our dependency on air conditioning will then be reduced, resulting in lesser electricity use and also lower greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere.
The general short-sightedness of the common people prevents people from realising the long term benefits of many energy efficient solutions.
Hope that we can continue to move towards the right direction.
Cheers!