Saturday, August 31, 2013

Annual solar radiations in different cities in Malaysia

Two places where you'd get the best solar radiation in Malaysia are Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) and Bayan Lepas (Penang), with the former as the best spot.

It's a shame we do not have the SEDA Feed-in Tariff (FiT) in place in Sabah and Sarawak.

Table 1: Annual solar radiation in different cities/town in Malaysia
* Source - Sustainable Energy and Environment Forum

Annual average value per square metre of solar cell.

Table 1 above shows that every square metre of solar panel produces 1,900 kW of energy per hour in Kota Kinabalu, compared to only 1,571 kW per hour in Kuala Lumpur; assuming 100% solar cell efficiency.

This means that for a solar panel with efficiency of 15%, you get:

285 Watt per hour in Kota Kinabalu
235 Watt per hour in Kuala Lumpur

With 5 hours of good sun per day, and with an installation of 10 m2 of solar PV, you produce energy in the region of:

14.25 kWh in Kota Kinabalu, daily
11.75 kWh in Kuala Lumpur, daily

Income generated at both locations

Take the above installation size, and take the current FiT for solar PV of RM1.37/kWh, you generate and sell electricity to TNB from the roof of your home or car garage at:

K.Kinabalu     : RM586 per month or RM7,125 annually
K.Lumpur       : RM482 per month or RM5,875 annually

As you can see, location makes a lot of difference. Folks in Sabah and Penang are primely located, which makes you wonder why the Sabah state government is not willing to contribute to the Renewable Energy Fund to get the people enjoy the same benefit as of those in West Malaysia.

The levy is just 1% of the the monthly electricity bills and it affects only the bigger energy users, i.e, those paying more than RM77 per month.

Alternatively, the state government can set aside an annual budget and pay to the fund holders at SEDA Malaysia for the first, say, 3 years. Thereafter, let the consumers pay the 1% levy just like those in peninsula.

Best spots to generate renewable energy through solar - the northern states. Image credit: SEE Forum

TheGreenMechanics: Again, it's a shame Renewable Energy FiT is not applicable in Sabah.

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!


kyo_9 said...

thanks for the valuable information..
maybe I should start to invest in PV installation since current electricity bill really made it a necessity~

de engineur said...

that'd be wise!
plus, you could generate revenue from the installation. May not be that much, but good enough to offset the monthly electricity & telephone bills.

Nur Iskandar Nasri said...

its a shame because sarawak want to implement their own SCORE programme, way back during SREP programme early 2001..

de engineur said...

@Nur Iskandar Nasri -- That could be the reason why SREP only achieve about 61MW capacity between 2001 and 2010. But then again, RE in the Sarawak's SCORE are mostly big hydroelectric plants, which might not have qualified for SREP.

Chin Kok Leong said...

i would like to ask something for calculating the efficiency part.
the annual average value in kota kinabalu is 1900kWh/m^2. Assume the efficiency of 15%. 1900kwh/m^2 * 15/100 = 285 Watt per hour, the problem is the unit is kwh/m^2
It should get back 285kW instead of 285 Watt?

de engineur said...

@Chin Kok Leong - You are right, the unit should be kWh per sq metre. Looking back, there's also flaw in the interpretation of solar irradiance data. Should be kWh per sq metre per year instead of "per hour".
I'll come back to edit the article. Thanks for highlighting.