ABSTRACT Fuel prices in the world today are no longer stable and their price keeps on changing every

time due to political issues, war issues and so on. Furthermore, the prices and availability are mainly depends on the top oil producing country such as countries from the Middle East. Although Malaysia is one of the countries that produce these natural resources, they have no complete control over their own oil prices; they have to keep up with the oil prices from all over the world. It is also well known that these natural resources will not last forever and they will someday diminish. Thus, there are many steps taken by the Malaysia energy to keep their oil reserves at least for a few more decades. Most importantly, they have taken the initiative to do research on the suitable alternative energy for Malaysia. Among the type of energy that is being considered is solar, biomass, wind, hydro, and nuclear. This paper will discuss on the suitability on the wind and hydro energy as the alternative energy in Malaysia. The alternative energy discussion is discussed in several perspectives, which are demand, government role, technology, resources availability and barrier. INTRODUCTION Energy is one of the most important components for every country. They are required in developing a country, and sustaining life. Energy can be found in various forms. They can be in the form of heat energy, electrical, light, mechanical, chemical, and nuclear energy. They also come from variety of sources of energy. Basically, these types of sources are divided into two categories which are renewable energy and non-renewable energy. Wind and Hydro energy are two of the energy that comes from renewable sources of energy. In Malaysia, as of 2010, the main energy source of energy comes from natural gas, and coal [1]. With natural gas compromise of 56.2%, coal 38.6%, and others as shown in the Figure below: Table 1: Peninsular Malaysia Generation Fuel Mix, 2000-2010 Year 200 2001 2002 2003 0 Gas 81.8 77.8 75.8 74.9 Coal 6.7 11.9 14.5 16.2 Hydro 7.9 6.9 6.4 6.0 Oil 3.6 3.4 3.3 2.8 Total(%) 100 100 100 100 Source: Energy scenario in Malaysia 2004 70.9 23.2 5.4 0.6 100 2005 65.6 28.9 5.0 0.5 100 2006 58.1 36.1 5.5 0.4 100 2007 59.0 34.9 5.8 0.3 100 2008 58.8 35.3 5.5 0.4 100 2009 59.1 35.0 5.0 0.9 100 2010 56.2 38.6 4.5 0.7 100

From the table 1, hydro energy is one of the energy that is currently utilized in Malaysia. It consist of only 4.5% of the energy mix in Malaysia, somehow the utilization of hydro energy does not increase throughout the 10 years. As for wind energy, as the table suggest, this type of energy is not being utilized enough. Malaysia current main of energy sources which is natural gas and coal will not last forever. They will someday deplete and thus it is important to find alternative source of energy to replace natural gas and coal as the main source of energy. It is also preferably to replace it with renewable energy rather than non-renewable energy for long term solution. Wind and hydro energy are just two of the type of energy which is renewable apart from solar, biomass, and geothermal energy. Both wind and hydro energy have potential in being a good alternative source of energy in Malaysia. Since natural gas and coal will not last forever, Malaysian government seeks to find alternative energy solution and this is done through various energy policies that involves not only the government, but also energy supply and service companies, research and development institutions, consumers as well as government-linked company such as Petronas and Tenaga Nasional Berhad(TNB). The energy policy also aims to reduce the dependency of energy on limited energy sources such as natural gas and oil and to preserve the natural gas and oil source. Besides that, these policies also encourage the development of renewable energy technology. Incentives such as investment tax allowances are being given to developers that use renewable energy technology. There is also the Small Renewable Energy Programme (SREP), which encourages the connection of small renewable power generation plants to the national grid [2]. Additional connection of power generation plants other than the main power plants to national grid might disturb the quality of power in the current grid. However, the implementation of Smart Grid could easily tackle the problem. Apart from the energy policy, Malaysia also includes a few targets involving renewable energy in their Malaysian plan. In current plan, which is the 10th Malaysian plan, a target has been set to achieve a renewable energy target of 985 MW by 2015. This amount of energy will contribute about 5.5% to Malaysias total electricity generation mix [3].

Figure 1: Planned increase in renewable energy capacity Source: Tenth Malaysian Plan 2011-2015 Thus, Malaysian government has taken a serious consideration in searching an alternative source of energy to reduce the dependency on natural gas and oil. Based on the energy policy and Malaysian plan, it looks like alternative renewable energy such as wind energy might have chance to be implemented in Malaysia and developed more. However, this is not the case, the popularity of other renewable energy such solar energy might limit the development of wind energy technology. Most people in Malaysia might think that solar energy are more suitable alternative energy to replace natural gas and oil as the main source of energy due to the position of Malaysia in the globe where Malaysia are position at the center between the north and south pole. In this position, Malaysia receive a lot of sunlight compared to other country which are located somewhere other part of the world other than the center of between south and north pole. Other than that, according to a research done by Christopher Teh in 2010, he suggest that wind energy can only be done on limited areas. He also suggest that most of the place, the wind speed did not meet the minimum amount that is commercial viable [4]. In another research, the annual offshore wind speed recorded is around 1.2 to 4.1m/s for Malaysian waters [12]. From the information from Strategic Energy Technologies Information System (SETIS), the average minimum wind speeds for generating electricity is 6 m/s [13]. Thus, the wind speed of 4.1 m/s for Malaysian waters does not meet the standard wind speed power generation.

Unlike wind energy, hydro energy receives more support from the country. However, the support that it gets is not as much as solar energy and biomass energy. Even with little support, hydro energy certainly has much more potential than wind energy especially in the rural areas of Sarawak [5]. The government realizes this potential and has already implemented and utilized hydro energy in certain places such as the Bakun hydroelectric power plant in Sarawak. Generally hydro energy uses the flow of water to generate energy and thus, it requires a big water reservoir or dam to generate a higher amount of energy. This means a submersion of extensive areas that destroy the biologically rich ecosystem and animal shelter. Thus, it does have negative impact on the environment. One of the actions taken by the government to reduce this negative impact on the environment is by introducing small scale hydro project [1].

DEMAND Like any other developing country, Malaysia is also keep on developing each year and this development require a massive and constant amount of energy. The analysis that was made by the International Energy suggests that Malaysia energy demand increase rapidly from 1971 to 2008 [14]. There is an increase in demand on natural gas and oil resources throughout the analysis. It is well known that natural gas and oil will not be able to accommodate Malaysia country in the long term. Thus, the government shifts their focus to other alternative energy sources. Based on the current renewable technology, hydro, solar and biomass are three of most popular alternative energy being implemented in Malaysia.

Figure 2: Four-fuel mix: sources of electricity in Malaysia (1971-2008) (International Energy Agency. 2010. Energy balances in non-OECD countries. 2010 edition. IEA, Paris) Hydro technology is not new; it has already being implemented in almost all over the world. It is also the most commercially viable renewable energy technology in Malaysia. Apart from generating electricity, the dam on the hydro power station can also be used for other useful purposes such as irrigation, flood control and water supply. This could benefits the people living nearby the hydro power station. Malaysia has a potential hydropower of about 29,000 MW, but only 2,091MW is being utilized [6]. This is largely due to the fact that hydropower projects require a high amount of capital investment and it also involves social issues as well as political issues. In the long term, the price of hydro energy would be cheaper than current natural gas and oil price. Thus, as the technology on hydro power develops more, there is certainly an increase in demand on such clean and renewable energy. An alternative to this large hydro projects would be smaller hydro projects such as micro hydropower. It has been identified that a total of 109 sites having micro hydro potential of 20.4 MW in Peninsula Malaysia. However, the demand for these micro hydropower is not significant in Peninsular Malaysia because the area in most of the regions in Peninsular Malaysia is well electrified [15].

Wind energy too has potential to be implemented in Malaysia. It is also a renewable energy and has minimal impact on the environment. Like Hydro energy, it produces little greenhouse gases or no pollutants at all. It is a clean and a suitable alternative source of energy. However, the demand for wind energy is not as much as other renewable energy. This is because there is a lack of knowledge on the implementation of wind energy in Malaysia. Furthermore, according to a research done by Solar Energy Research Group from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), the highest wind power potential in Malaysia are located at only two places which are at Mersing and Kuala Terrenganu [7-8]. While the highest wind speed recorded in east peninsular Malaysia are only about 4.1 m/s [9]. At such wind speed, Malaysia can be classified
under Class 1 Wind area which has either low wind speed or none at all [11] . There is also a 150 kW

wind turbine built in the Terumbu Layang Layang at 2005. However, the project produces little
success [10]. This also mean that only low wind speed wind turbine that produce up to 30kW of electricity can work productively. Technology from different country with different wind class area is not going to work effectively here in Malaysia due to the difference in the requirements of their wind turbine. The solution is that researcher in Malaysia should make their own research based on the wind speed in Malaysia and produce a product that is cost effective in generating electricity through wind energy.

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