‘A place in the sun’

You have not seen these panels common in Sarawak, have you? — Bernama photo

IN their search for clean and cheap energy to power the machines in their factories, to run the generators for their hospitals, the computers in the government and company offices, and to light up private homes, several countries have turned to the rivers.

They construct dams over fast-flowing rivers and harness electricity from the water.

China built the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River; Egypt dammed the Nile at Aswan; and Ethiopia is doing the same thing further upstream.

For similar reason, in Malaysia, Sarawak started building a dam over the Batang Ai, then two dams over Bakun and Murum, respectively.

There are plans to build more hydroelectricity projects in Sarawak, though some people say we have more than enough of electricity for our own use for the next decade.

These hydropower projects are expensive to build and to maintain, and I am told that a dam built in a tropical country would not, by rule of thumb, be economically viable as a producer of electricity after 50 years because of thick siltation in the dam lake.

After 50 years, it may be useful for some other purposes.

All this while, we have been relying on the coal, fossil fuel, diesel and recently water, and in some countries, the wind and nuclear fuel.

Malaysia has been basking in the sun all this time, often complaining about the heat. Yet, we have not seriously thought about using the sun for anything besides drying clothes, rubber sheets, cocoa beans, pepper beans, fish, and for attracting foreign tourists to our beaches.

There are huge amounts of power in the sun. Tap it!

The sun is always there, ready to be tapped for clean energy to power homes and factories, etc.

The trouble with us was that all the time, we were thinking about the huge dams, dams and dams. And the forests to clear and the timber to sell!

Dams don’t directly benefit the people living in the nearby areas. The power from it goes to the national grid. From Batang Ai, the current goes to Kuching and from Kuching, it goes back to Lubok Antu if required.

So I was told by an engineer well-versed in power transmission.

You cannot just tap the current straight to your house, even though that house is by the lake.

You have to wait for the power authority to connect your house to the source of the current.

That takes time — and money.

In Sarawak, there exists SARES, standing for the Sarawak Alternative Rural Electrification Scheme. You wait for its officials to reach you, or you to reach them. While SARES has been doing a good job, the need for power by the rural people is ever mounting and SARES may not be able to reach these remote villages and longhouses fast enough.

Other suppliers of electricity besides SARES are, therefore, needed if the rural people are to enjoy the use of modern gadgets that require the use of power. We need an alternative source of energy, and if possible, cheaper than the present available sources.

The climate is changing – that is a fact. The world, the United Nations, many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been searching for possible alternative sources of energy.

By design or coincidence, in March 2019, a conference was organised by three Malaysia-based NGOs – Save Rivers, PACOS, and Network of Indigenous Peoples of Malaysia (JOAS).

The main object of that meeting was to discuss collaboration between government-related power suppliers and the privately-funded outfits, with the emphasis on meeting the energy needs of the rural people.

Locked down in rooms where the air was conditioned by water power from the Batang Ai sam, representatives from the government departments and agencies, institutions of higher learning, NGOs and business interests, discussed what kind of policies that would be needed to allow for renewable and decentralised energy systems and delivery models in the remote areas of the country.

Good ideas were floated and discussed; some fell on dry soil and hard stone, but most participants agreed that it was time to think of the sun and mini-hydro projects as viable alternative sources of energy for the rural people.

It would be wise of any government to invest in these projects. That way, the needs of the rural population and the district offices, hospitals, clinics and schools may be met sooner rather than later, while waiting for SARES to reach the remote areas of the state. The state’s authority, Sesco or Sarawak Energy and its agencies need to build pylons and drag cables across the terrains and over the rivers and the streams before they can reach remote longhouses and villages. This takes money, and it takes time.

We cannot wait that long.

What about the schools in Sarawak, which were hoping to get power supply from hybrid sources, but have not received that electricity supply, badly needed by the students and teachers?

Just because the law had caught up with the would-be suppliers, does this mean that the schools would not be given priority in terms of alternative electricity supply – this time, via the solar panels?

* Comments can reach the writer via columnists@theborneopost.com.

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