What should the government do without the coal-fired power plant?

Sabah Government should take up the opportunity to pursue on the course of greening the state with the cleaner and sustainable energy sources available readily from local.

The most obvious energy source is the solar energy where we could use solar panel to collect the enormous sun heat to heat a boiler, or convert directly from solar to electricity.

The solar energy is absolutely free of charge!

A collective effort by the government is needed in making this a reality. The government may introduce a policy or law to encourage consumer to generate electricity from the sun and sell the excess energy to Service Provider, Sabah Electricity Sdn. Bhd. (SESB) thereby not only reduce the demand of consumers from SESB but also contribute to the power generation aspect of the SESB.

The rooftop of each household in Sabah or Malaysia is just nice for this type of technology and in fact is a god-gift that has never been unwrapped. A solor -electricity farm make up by the community is the idea that already been in practice in Germany for years, and countries in the tropic should take up the fruits of the German experience and exploit it to our advantages. Bearing in mind that we can harvest the sun energy longer in a day than those temperate countries like Germany.

Especially for Sabah which has a large tract of land for farming, other forms of alternative and sustainable energy sources like the oil palm wastes should be explored together with the mini hydro power from our streams and rivers. In the later case, the river water is free of course.

Cutting or Saving energy demand is another better way to reduce the carbon footprint and energy supply pressure, that the government should embark on the introduction of energy-saving houses or buildings by methods such as proper insulation of the roof and wall for example. More research on this aspect can be done by the research institutions such as UMS locally. More research should be focused on how to save energy consumption on those imported energy sources like diesel and gas.

The coal-fired power plant as a means to generate electricity supply for Sabah should be shelved forever as we embark on the latest way of acquiring of electricity via the right sources like solar, hydro, biomass, wind, sea waves, earth thermal, and any form of sustainable methods.

The gas-power power plant should be used as a transitional alternative before solar, hydro, or any other sustainable energy sources kick in.

With our PM Najib committing in the international conference on Global Climate Change，it's high time that the whole nation, especially Sabah, must act now and move forward without hesitation.

Sabah has to embrace the green technology because of our committment in the eco-tourism and eco-farming activities where good environment is critically important to its eternal success.

The green energy sources are the only way to save the earth and ourselves from self-destroying the environment out of our naivety.

The government must set up a special committee or body now to oversee the changes without delay.

Sabah Must Tell TNB What Sabah Really Wanted

I read with doubts on the sincerity of Leo Moggie on the coal-fired power plant issue which had been plaguing Sabah over the last 2 years.

To build or not to build (a coal-fired power plant), that’s the question.

TNB should have had a master plan for Sabah’s electricity needs, for now and the foreseeable future. But, I simply doubt it. Even if the plan ever existed, I wonder if this master plan had ever been a result of consultation with the local Malaysian in Sabah in the first place. Judging from the rare protests on the issue, from east to west coast, it shows that Malaysian in Sabah had ‘never’ been properly consulted on the issue of electricity needs nor the real situations discussed.

TNB is simply ‘arrogant’ in its handling of the issue by repeatedly ‘threatening’ Malaysian in Sabah that if coal-fired power plant is not built now, crisis will be escalated to the point of more hardships for Malaysian in Sabah. The arrogance could be tolerated if they have been doing their part well. The frequent power cut throughout the state, especially in the east coast, is a norm of the day.

Malaysian in Sabah is no doubt can not afford to wait too long for the greener electricity to be delivered, however, it shouldn’t be difficult for TNB to decide on using gas or hydro as the main source for the power generation.

However, TNB may have other difficulties which may be confidential to be openly discussed.

Malaysian in Sabah wants the electricity badly while maintaining the environment ‘untouched’. We want green and sustainable energy sources. Environment is our top priority. Conserving the environment is important and critical to our survival.

TNB should listen to the local people for the way they want for their electricity supply, and not spending time to argue and quarrel with the consumers on how they generate the energy using coal. The local people have the right to determine how their electricity comes from.

Malaysian in Sabah should have the final say in what type of energy and the subsequent environment they should be getting; situation is like those insisting on genuinely ‘Organic’ label in the organic food arena where the end product must meet certain stringent rules of the organic food industries.

TNB should consider returning SESB back to the state government if they can not comply with the people wishes – that is adopting green energy sources.

It’s also high time that the state government review its relationship with the federal government on the energy issue by perhaps setting up a committee overseeing the entire needs of energy sources in the state so as to avoid similar dilemma ever happened again.

Isn’t it having a special committee monitoring the performance of our federal counterparts as part of the implementation of KPI (Key Performance Index)?