Ingenieur Vol. 75 ingenieur July 2018-FA | Page 13

and blockchain. Within the energy sector, the
new digital technologies that will accelerate the
energy transition are blockchain technology and
the IoT. There are many possible applications in RE
such as energy trading among prosumers, energy
trading on the wholesale market, carbon trading,
establishing a demand response market, creating
a platform for a transactive grid to operate in an
energy balancing market, grid balancing between
the transmission system operators (TSOs) and
distribution system operators (DSOs), micro-grid
management (remote electricity) and others.
End Remarks
Climate change is a wake-up call for mankind to be
better custodians of planet earth. For an ordinary
citizen, he/she should learn to preserve precious
resources (e.g. water, food, energy). There are
pragmatic measures that can be taken at home
to conserve the use of such scarce resources. The
Government is responsible to educate the public
about climate change and its impact. Once the
public is aware of its consequences, there will
be sufficient vox pop to sustain a culture that will
promote the greater deployment of renewable
energy instead of coal and gas.
If we want future generations to survive,
we have to act now. The window for climate
turnaround is projected to be no more than 15
years. Today, our total carbon emissions per year
is estimated to be 40,000 billion tonnes globally.
By 2050, we need to reduce that to not more than
600 billion tonnes in order for global average
temperature increase to be capped at no more
than 2°C. In fact, some scientists have concluded
that our earth needs to achieve carbon neutrality
by 2050. Time is clearly not on our side.
Besides unsustainable deforestation and land
use, fossil fuel burning activities are the primary
cause of global warming. Especially within the
energy sector, we must be mindful to learn our
lessons that the future of energy must no longer
put human lives at risk. The future of energy is in
sustainable energy, comprising of both renewable
energy and energy demand management. For
Malaysia, the future is here.
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