KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has great potential to multiply the 90,000 existing jobs in the renewable energy sector, helping the country address its economic woes and unemployment caused by Covid-19, said an industry expert.
NanoMalaysia Bhd CEO Rezal Khairi Ahmad said employment opportunities can increase fivefold if an even more sizeable investment is made in the sector, especially by energy-related government-linked companies, such as Petronas and Tenaga Nasional Bhd.
He said current workers comprise solar panel distributors, and systems and battery suppliers.
“Investment creates a whole gamut, a catalogue of technologies that translate into the number of workers currently in the sector, and other potential employees and operators,” he told The Vibes in an interview yesterday.
He pointed to the US$1 billion (RM4.08 billion) in infrastructure investment by China to kick-start its hydrogen economy, as well as Australia, which has poured billions into creating its own version of the sector.
“The investments have to be in the billions, which will reap the benefits not only in the future tariffs or ROI (return on investment), but you also use those billions to create spin-off small and medium enterprises.”
On consolidating a supply chain, he said a positive market sentiment can be created, serving as an eye-opener for universities, innovators and SMEs to identify new markets for renewable energy.
“They can say, ‘I’m going to create something new, some IPs (intellectual properties) just to be part of it’, because while doing so, they will create a lot of technological gaps.
“When efficiency is low, they can increase it. If battery storage is low, they can innovate new versions and new systems. If there are a lot of power losses, new systems can be created to address power losses and so on.
“I’m excited. But we need to invest beyond a certain threshold. Once we reach a certain threshold with at least a certain billion US dollars, then it creates this multiplier effect.”
He cautioned against sub-investment, which he believes is unsustainable as countries cannot afford not to hit the economy of scale needed.
Nano light energy panels
Recently, NanoMalaysia teamed up with Nanopac (M) Sdn Bhd in a joint venture to develop and commercialise solar power panels called nano light energy panels (NLEPs).
Unlike standard solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, NLEPs are suitable for diffused sunlight in local climates and can be installed as windows, generating up to 100W of electricity an hour.
This means that they can harvest solar energy efficiently even on cloudy or rainy days, and during long periods of overcast skies in the monsoon season, said Rezal.
Moreover, NLEPs have a bigger solar-harvesting window, from 8am to 6pm, compared to standard PV panels.
“Most of the PVs out there only work under direct sunlight. Clouds defuse and scatter the sunlight, and the efficiency drops dramatically, generating one or two hours of electricity a day,” said Rezal.
“That’s where innovation comes into play, where the ones we recently announced to the public can generate electricity based on light that has been scattered. It’s tailor-made for that.”
With the use of nanotechnology, he said, glass-based panels are made for such conditions, and can create opportunities for local innovation to surpass traditional solar technologies.
He said Malaysia has the chance to sell the new technology to its regional neighbours, such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam, which receive rainfall throughout the year.
The country has control over the IP rights, he said, allowing its economic activities to proliferate, and this is where NanoMalaysia and Nanopac plan to push the product further within the region.
While the technology behind NLEPs has been around for some five years, said Rezal, now is the time to create more projects to showcase how they outperform traditional solar panels.
For example, if the NLEPs are retrofitted at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, they can generate some 5MW of electricity. Regular buildings can save up to 40% on their electricity bill if the system is installed on the premises.
However, Rezal conceded it will be costly to retrofit NLEPs in existing buildings owing to hidden costs, including the removal of glass windows.
But for proposed buildings, he said, architects will “have a field day” designing the structures, as NLEPs come in a variety of colours.
“They can design buildings around it (NLEPs) and make colourful facades that double up as electricity generators,” he said, adding that the panels are environmentally friendly to be manufactured and disposed of.
Regional uptake
On the uptake of NLEPs, and solar and other renewables, Rezal said Thailand has bought a small batch of his panels as the kingdom looks to generate 6GW of clean energy by 2036.
He said Vietnam is looking to reach 5GW in five years, while Malaysia recently launched a large-scale solar programme to achieve 1GW in the near term to reignite the economy.
“This is creative disruption, and we should not focus on just Malaysia. If we look at Indonesian President Joko Widodo, he is trying to woo Tesla to set up a factory there, and we can pivot it (the plan) laterally to present this as a regional solution.
“Imagine a gigafactory in Indonesia powered by our (Malaysian) solar panels that can work for longer hours.
“These are opportunities that require a lot of hard work. Nevertheless, they provide an escape and recovery from this Covid-19 slowdown.” – The Vibes, December 1, 2020
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