Ingenieur Vol. 75 ingenieur July 2018-FA | Page 15

(RE) generation can be located in urban centres or near to built-up areas, and connected to the distribution network, either indirectly through the consumer’s switchboard, or directly to the utility distribution line. Solar Photovoltaics Solar Photovoltaics (PV) is by far the most easily available technology in terms of ease of installation, operation and maintenance. The average cost of installation has gone down from RM15,000/kW in 2012 to less than RM4000/ kW today. PV systems can be easily installed on available rooftops of warehouses, factories, houses and others. There are literally millions of square meters of roof space available for installation of PV systems. As they are installed at the load centre, transmission losses are reduced and the strain on transmission lines is also reduced. BIOGAS SYSTEMS There are various biogas systems, depending on the source of the biogas, as listed below. Agriculture Waste Biogas Systems In Malaysia, these are mostly located at oil palm mills, utilizing the palm oil mill effluent (POME) generated during the production of oil palm. The power produced can be exported to the utility through existing mechanisms or consumed by the mill if it is not possible to connect to the Grid. Recently, there have been attempts to produce biogas using animal waste, especially pig waste. These initiatives are limited to 1 MW or less since the pig farms are rather small in terms of pig population. Chicken waste is in high demand as a fertilizer so there is hardly any opportunity of producing biogas from this source. Figure 2: PV system installed on rooftop of local university 13