Can Malaysia clean up its act using green hydrogen to meet its ambitious climate goals?
- Proponents say green hydrogen is the best option for Malaysia to generate clean energy at scale and will get cheaper with economies of scale
- Others argue such an unproven, uneconomical energy source only serves as a ‘dangerous distraction’ – but everyone agrees that solar is ‘a no-brainer’
It is efficient, plentiful and might just be the quickest route to cleaning up Malaysia’s gas-and-coal heavy energy mix, but experts warn the march of green hydrogen is hindered by the spectacular costs of set-up in a country already lagging behind on its climate goals.
This week, the Asian Development Bank added fresh urgency to Asia’s quest to avoid climate calamity, in a report warning that the region needs to virtually double the cash it spends on renewables and slash subsidies to its dirty energy producers.
In Malaysia, renewable energy accounts for 25 per cent of the country’s total installed capacity, according to government data, and a new programme is under development to expand solar installations onto the rooftops of public buildings, hospitals, schools and universities.
But there are fears the pace of change is too slow to meet soaring demand in growing cities.
“Solar power is a no-brainer, but you need land to set up plants [to scale up power generation],” Shamsul Bahar Mohd Nor, the group chief executive of the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation (MGTC), told This Week in Asia.
“We also need to consider the amount of direct sunlight available. In Sabah and Sarawak you can expect an average of 4.7 hours a day, but in the south of the peninsula we’re looking at three hours.”
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