Energy policy shifts towards sustainable energy future for Malaysia

As a developing country, Malaysia’s prosperity and welfare depends heavily on having access to reliable and secure supplies of energy. As a result, the country’s future energy requirements have become a policy priority in recent years. Energy is essential for human life, and a secure and accessible supply of energy becomes important for the modern societies. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas are currently the world’s primary energy sources and continue to provide energy source to the world. These energy sources have depleted in reserves in recent years and they can also cause irreparably damage to the environment such as global warming and climate change. These environmental concerns can be addressed, to some extent, through more sustainable solutions such as the use of renewable energy resources. In Malaysia, the economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuels use have become hard to ignore. The government has introduced and implemented policy measures to address concerns surrounding the use of fossil fuels and to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy use. In this paper, we review the historical evolution of Malaysian energy policies and initiatives designed to secure diverse energy sources and avoid over-reliance on fossil fuels. In recent years, Malaysia has been catching up with global call to shift to renewable energy use and is now putting a focus on renewable energy in its future energy mix. The paper also discusses challenges and concerns over the future of sustainable energy of the country.     

Sustainable energy and environmental impact: role of renewables as clean and secure source of energy for the 21st century in Jordan

In this article, present and future energy consumption, electricity demand, potential of renewable energy sources and national energy policy in Jordan are presented. The related environmental impacts are discussed from the sustainable development point of view, including the future role of renewable energy sources. Jordan is a net energy importing country, with almost 96% of its annual needs relying on imported crude oil and refined products from neighboring Arab countries. Due to increasing fossil fuel combustion to meet growing national energy demand, especially electricity generation, air pollution is becoming an important issue in urban areas. Profound cuts in current emission rates, including carbon dioxide, are possible at a bearable cost, and that the government must now invest in low carbon options because of the long lead in time of some technologies. A great deal more could be done to improve energy efficiency, and new and renewable energy schemes should be advocated on different levels. To achieve this, all obstacles including institutional barriers to investment in renewable technologies and national energy plan need to be addressed urgently. Thus, the government is invited to create a Sustainable Energy Unit, which will coordinate government cross-departmental thinking and provide adequate information to the public and to private investors.     

浅谈我国能源现状和水电资源利用的飞速发展

面对化石能源逐渐枯竭的现状,积极开发和使用新能源和可再生能源,实施可持续发展的能源政策已成为我国今后能源开发战略的基本选择。本文分析了我国能源面临的形势和挑战;介绍了我国可再生能源的利用状况及发展规划;详细阐述了我国水电能资源的发展情况。我国是一个水能资源丰富的国家,近几十年来,我国的水电事业取得了举世瞩目的成就,极大地推动了我国的经济发展和社会进步。     

Wind energy

From its rebirth in the early 1980s, the rate of development of wind energy has been dramatic. Today, other than hydropower, it is the most important of the renewable sources of power. The UK Government and the EU Commission have adopted targets for renewable energy generation of 10 and 12% of consumption, respectively. Much of this, by necessity, must be met by wind energy. The US Department of Energy has set a goal of 6% of electricity supply from wind energy by 2020. For this potential to be fully realized, several aspects, related to public acceptance, and technical issues, related to the expected increase in penetration on the electricity network and the current drive towards larger wind turbines, need to be resolved. Nevertheless, these challenges will be met and wind energy will, very likely, become increasingly important over the next two decades. An overview of the technology is presented.     

Energy transition toward carbon-neutrality in China: Pathways,implications and uncertainties

Achieving carbon neutrality in China before 2060 requires a radical energy transition. To identify the possible transition pathways of China’s energy system, this study presents a scenario-based assessment using the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) model. China could peak the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions before 2030 with current policies, while carbon neutrality entails a reduction of 7.8 Gt CO₂ in emissions in 2060 and requires an energy system overhaul. The assessment of the relationship between the energy transition and energy return on investment (EROI) reveals that energy transition may decrease the EROI, which would trigger increased energy investment, energy demand, and emissions. Uncertainty analysis further shows that the slow renewable energy integration policies and carbon capture and storage (CCS) penetration pace could hinder the emission mitigation, and the possible fossil fuel shortage calls for a much rapid proliferation of wind and solar power. Results suggest a continuation of the current preferential policies for renewables and further research and development on deployment of CCS. The results also indicate the need for backup capacities to enhance the energy security during the transition.     

A non-autonomous optimal control model of renewable energy production under the aspect of fluctuating supply and learning by doing

Given the constantly raising world-wide energy demand and the accompanying increase in greenhouse gas emissions that pushes the progression of climate change, the possibly most important task in future is to find a carbon-low energy supply that finds the right balance between sustainability and energy security. For renewable energy generation, however, especially the second aspect turns out to be difficult as the supply of renewable sources underlies strong volatility. Further on, investment costs for new technologies are so high that competitiveness with conventional energy forms is hard to achieve. To address this issue, we analyze in this paper a non-autonomous optimal control model considering the optimal composition of a portfolio that consists of fossil and renewable energy and which is used to cover the energy demand of a small country. While fossil energy is assumed to be constantly available, the supply of the renewable resource fluctuates seasonally. We further on include learning effects for the renewable energy technology, which will underline the importance of considering the whole life span of such a technology for long-term energy planning decisions.     

Exploring the determinants of renewable energy innovation considering the institutional factors: A negative binomial analysis

Replacing traditional energy sources with renewable energy sources is an effective way to achieve emission reduction targets. Focusing on OECD countries from 1990 to 2018, this study examines the determinants of renewable energy innovation by applying a negative binomial model. There are four main findings: (1) Renewable energy patents show an inverted U-shaped curve, peaking in 2010; solar energy accounts for the largest share of patents; and the US is the largest renewable energy innovator, followed by South Korea and Germany. (2) Renewable electricity installed capacity, share of expenditure on research and development (R&D) of GDP, and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol are all found to promote innovation; by comparison, the proportion of renewable energy power generation of the total electricity generating capacity shows a negative effect. The price of crude oil shows no significant effect due to the offset effect between the European and non-European country groups. (3) Share of R&D expenditure of GDP is confirmed to be the force driving technological progress in the solar, geothermal, and marine sectors, and it plays a more important role in Japan than in the US or Europe. Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol has no significant effect on innovation in European countries. (4) Three institutional factors—namely, the legal system and property rights; regulations; and freedom to trade internationally—are confirmed to be the driving forces, whereas this is not the case for the growth and free circulation of money. Policy implications for the optimization of the renewable energy sector's structure, the enhancement of renewable energy capacity, and the improvement of R&D investment and the institutional environment are proposed. Future research should shed light on a broader sample, using micro-level and socio-technical analysis.     

South Africa's electrical energy economy: environmental impacts,future developments and constraints

South Africa alone produces move than half of the electricity generated in the entire African continent. In spite of this about, half of South Africans are without electricity in their homes. South Africa's energy production and distribution patterns bear a striking resemblance to its overall economy-a heterogeneous intermingling of First and Third World characteristics. South Africa as a whole is responsible for about 2% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions although it has only 1% of the world's population. The normalisation and democratisation of the country will require enormous efforts to provide electricity, running water and education for the majority of the South Africans previously disadvantaged in the apartheid era. South Africa is trying to comply with the global demand for sustainable development by improving the technologies of its power plants, implementing renewable energy sources, improving efficiency of utilisation of electricity in industry and homes, adopting more efficient standards for electrical appliances, changing of the way of life etc. Although there are some constraints, the country is capable of overcoming these in the years ahead given the political will and proper international assistance     

Energy services for an electricity industry based on renewableenergy

This article investigates the potential for an entirely new structure for the electricity industry. This aims to provide energy services, such as light and heat, in the most economical way, by combining on-site generation with comprehensive energy efficiency measures. As well as leading to improved energy efficiency, it is shown how such an approach is more compatible with renewable sources of energy. It is also argued that such a structure would open up many profitable new investment opportunities to the electricity industry. The article explains why the traditional model for electricity systems fails to deliver both energy efficiency and renewable energy, and examines the effects that an energy services approach might have on the electricity industry if adopted on a wide scale. Factors that may cause the transition are also discussed. The article concludes that such a radically new approach may be the best way to deliver the large reductions in emissions required to mitigate climate change     

Impact of renewable energy on rural electrification in Malaysia: a review

Malaysia is rich in renewable energy (RE) resources. Hybrid systems of these resources can contribute strongly to the electrification and sustainable development of rural areas that do not have access to electricity grids. The integration of the generation of hybrid renewable power in remote and rural areas supplies the required power demand and mitigates emissions. Thus, this study reviews the latest literature (theses, journals articles, and conference proceedings) on the need for electricity in remote rural communities, on hybrid RE systems, on environmental impact, and on economic regulation in Malaysia. Power in this country is mainly generated by fossil fuels that emit high concentrations of greenhouse gases. Thus, RE is a potential alternative for to electrify rural areas, to meet current and future energy demands, and to mitigate emissions. Moreover, Malaysia has pledged to reduce its carbon-emission intensity by a maximum of 40 % (2005 level) by the year 2020. Therefore, the implementation of RE technologies in this country is significantly aided by RE projects, research and development activities, technologies, energy policies, and future direction. This review concludes that solar, wind, hydro, and biomass energy, as well as a hybrid of these, can effectively electrify rural areas.     

Strategic analysis of China’s geothermal energy industry

China is an early user of geothermal energy, and its direct use ranks first in the world. Recent national strategies and policies have enabled China’s geothermal energy industry to enter a new era with important development opportunities. This paper investigates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to China’s geothermal energy industry from political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) perspectives. SWOT–PEST analysis indicates that the resources, market, and technological foundation exist for the large-scale development of China’s geothermal energy industry. However, it experiences constraints, such as unclear resource distributions, incomplete development of government regulations, incomplete implementation of national policies, unclear authority between governmental administrative systems, and lack of uniform technical standards and codes. Therefore, future development strategies have been proposed to provide technical support and policy tools for geothermal energy development. The recommendations to ensure its healthy and sustainable development include improving resource exploration, rationalizing administration systems, enhancing policy guidance and financial support, and cultivating geothermal talent.     

Optimal subsidy in promoting distributed renewable energy generation based on policy benefit

Distributed renewable energy generation via micro-grid plays a strategic role in defining energy policy for mitigating the pressure of global climate changes and energy reservation. As the initial installation of the renewable generation equipment is costly, it is necessary that the government provides incentive schemes to private investors aiming at mobilizing private capital to support distributed renewable energy generation. This paper brings forward optimal subsidy to stimulate private investment and focuses more on the government’s expected policy benefit. We formulate principal–agent model in which the private investor’s preference toward renewable generation is described as asymmetric information. We analyze the optimal subsidy with the purpose of maximizing the expected policy benefit; besides, this paper reveals benefit conflicts between the policymakers and the private investors, and examines the parameters’ effect on the government’s purpose under the condition of asymmetric information. Finally, a numerical example is presented to test the effectiveness of the model. The results shed new light on the role of investor’s preference in determining the share of renewable energy generation; moreover, it has important implication for policymakers: the results suggest that radically innovative systems will get down the cost curve and may display higher long-term potentials, but in the short run, the government should eliminate asymmetric information as far as possible and improve the investors’ environment-friendly awareness.     

Recent trends in policies, socioeconomy and future directions of the biodiesel industry

The growing uncertainty of available petroleum reserves and the associated environmental impacts from the usage of fossil fuels has led to a worldwide search for renewable energy sources. Biodiesel is currently placed at the forefront as the most viable alternative fuel for compression ignition engines as it can be produced from renewable sources through simple cost-effective transesterification, while being compatible with existing infrastructures. Despite these, biodiesel is still not economically feasible for large-scale adoption at present day, mainly due to the high cost of conventional feedstocks. Governmental policies, fiscal incentives and emissions laws have all shown to encourage the uptake of biodiesel in the early stages of market development. The rapid growth enjoyed by the biodiesel industry thereafter has raised concerns of various ethical issues, which must be addressed if the industry is to maintain its positive growth. The strategies required for a stable and sustained biodiesel industry will predominantly be based on the principles of a free market with minimal artificial interventions from policy makers, and the appropriate technological advances in production techniques and feedstocks options to stay competitive economically. This paper reviews the recent trends in global policies and legislative measures governing the economy of the biodiesel industry, and how these will impact the future outlook of the industry as a whole. Historical backgrounds and pertinent issues on socioeconomical and ethical aspects of the industry are also addressed here.     

Transforming the energy sector: the evolution of technological systems in renewable energy technology

This paper analyses the development and diffusion of technologiesthat utilize renewable energy sources in Germany, Sweden andthe Netherlands. The analysis enlarges the life cycle modelof industry evolution to one where the focus is on the formationand evolution of new technological systems. Particular focusis on explaining success and failures in shifting from a formativephase into one characterized by positive feedbacks. A set ofchallenges is identified for policy makers attempting to influencethe process of transforming the energy sector.     

Evaluation of China's new energy vehicle policy texts with quantitative and qualitative analysis

As one of the strategic emerging industries, the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry receives strong support from the Chinese government. The Chinese government has formulated a large number of policies to promote the development of NEV industry. Evaluating and analyzing the NEV policies are of great significance for improving policy formulation. In this study, we comprehensively analyze 253 NEV policy texts by employing quantitative and qualitative methods. We present the policy instrument types and semantic structure characteristics of policy texts based on the content analysis. The advantages and disadvantages of policy texts are identified by using a quantitative evaluation model. Our results show that the most frequently used policy instrument is regulatory, and the main policy objective is the demand-pull. The policies with higher scores are more comprehensive. Three suggestions are put forward to improve NEV policies.     

Is your valley as green as it should be? Incorporating economic development into environmental performance indicators

Sustainability rankings are receiving increasing attention by the academic and the policymaking communities because of their potential to influence environmental legislation and reshape competitive landscapes. Unfortunately, most of the indicators used to produce these rankings do not take into account economic development and tend to be biased in favor of richer countries. To circumvent this limitation, we develop a novel, rigorous and simple metric that ranks countries by their potential environmental performance relative to their wealth; in other words, by the degree of sustainability that a country should achieve, given its level of affluence. We apply our approach to measure the sustainability level of 15 developed economies with respect to the share of renewable energy sources in their electricity-generating portfolios. The resulting ranking produces changes in the perceived greenness of certain countries. If adopted, it would allow these countries to increase their bargaining power in international negotiations. It would also alter the pressure faced by their governments to implement or discontinue environmental policies such as feed-in tariffs. Although we applied it at the country level and in the context of renewable energy, the method has far-reaching implications and it can also be used to compare corporate sustainability levels.     

Centring radiological protection on today's global challenges in energy, climate change, environment and health--with nuclear energy playing a key role

The climate change issue includes meeting the growing demand for electricity while reducing the impacts from energy sources. Applying carbon capture and storage technology to fossil fuel energy and increasing renewable energy pose greater challenges than increasing nuclear energy. International Energy Agency's (IEA) electricity demand of 30 000 TWh by 2030 can be met with 10 000 TWh each from renewable, nuclear and fossil fuel energy. However, the ill-imposed very strict control of tiny public exposure to ionising radiation from nuclear energy continues to pose a serious hindrance. Effort needs to be re-balanced to produce an even-handed control of public exposure with emphasis on the most significant sources (i.e. natural background radiation and medical use) and vice versa. The on-going revision of the International Atomic Energy Agency Basic Safety Standards (BSS) provides an opportunity to achieve this internationally so that national regulations can be subsequently remediated. There can be no urgency in a BSS revision that fails to encompass such perspective.     

Bottlenecks and Countermeasures of High-Penetration Renewable Energy Development in China

China has become the world’s largest producer and consumer of energy, and ranks first in its wind and solar power installation capacity. However, serious wind and solar curtailment in China has significantly hindered the development and utilization of renewable energy. To address problems in the consumption of renewable energy, this paper analyzes four key factors affecting the capacity of power generated from renewable energy sources: power balance, power regulation performance, transmission capacity, and load level. Focusing on these bottlenecks, we propose seven solutions: centralized and distributed development of renewable energy, improving the peak-load regulation flexibility of thermal power, increasing the proportion of gas turbines and pumped-hydropower storage, construction of transmission channels and a flexible smart grid developing demand response and virtual power plants, adopting new energy active support and energy storage, and establishing appropriate policies and market mechanisms. The Chinese Government and energy authorities have issued a series of policies and measures, and in the past three years, China has had remarkable achievements in the adoption of renewable energy. The rate of idle wind capacity decreased from 17% in 2016 to 7% in 2018, and that of solar decreased from 10% in 2016 to 3% in 2018.     

Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making for Solar Power Plant Location Selection

Vietnam is one of Southeast Asian countries with a rapid GDP growth rate, ranging from 6.5% to 7% annually, leading to an average increase in energy demand of 11% per year. This demand creates many new opportunities in the energy industry, especially renewable energy, to ensure sustainable development in the future for the country with applications of solar energy growing at the present, and other opportunities to expand in the future. In Vietnam, thanks to favorable weather, climate, terrain characteristics and many preferential support policies, there are many great opportunities in the field of solar energy exploitation and application. Location selection is an important problem in all renewable energy projects. Therefore, the author proposed a fuzzy Multi-criteria Decision-Making Model (MCDM) model for solar power plant location selection in this study, and as a result, location 5 is the optimal solution. The contribution of this study is to propose a MCDM for solar power plant location selection in Vietnam under fuzzy environmental conditions.     

我国可再生能源中长期（2030、2050）发展战略目标与途径

基于我国调整能源结构的战略方针和以煤为主要一次能源的国情,根据可再生能源在技术、产业等方面的发展形势,从可持续发展的战略高度和大能源体系的视野,分析了2030年、2050年我国可再生能源发展的战略目标、技术路线、发展重点和保障政策,指出通过重点发展可再生能源发电、大力发展可再生能源热利用和燃气技术、积极努力发展生物质交通燃料技术,使可再生能源从目前的补充能源,逐步提升到2020年的替代能源、2030年的主流能源和2050年的主导能源的战略地位。