HISTORY TAKES SHAPE AT IBC’s SOLAR LONGHOUSE

KUALA LUMPUR ( March 11, 2010): The first solar hybrid system in the country which is taking shape in a remote longhouse in the interiors of Sarawak’s Betong Division is on the threshold of making history as it gears for completion in a month’s time.
It was hardly eight months ago when peninsular-based IBC Solar Teknik Sdn Bhd announced that it would be donating a one-million euros (RM4.5million) solar hybrid system (SHS) to practically light up the 43-door Kerapa Spak longhouse.

IBC Solar’s chief executive officer Ahmad Nazri Ibrahim in a statement released here today said the project had made tremendous progress and was scheduled for completion and commissioning in about a month.

The project, he said , was about 60 per cent complete and that everything was in place for work to proceed as scheduled in realising a mission which would have a large impact on the prospects of a solar hybrid system complementing the existing grid system in the state.

The SHS, he said, worked hand in hand with the on-grid system to provide electricity to the population nestled in the interiors of Sarawak and that it had a long term cost advantage whilst being easier to maintain.

“These systems are usually installed in remote areas with no road access and the communities there need to take care of the systems and carry out the necessary routine inspections and our SHS had met the requirements enabling such communities to use the SHS with ease.

The SHS which boasts low maintenance and an easy operating system seems to be the perfect answer especially to the needs of the longhouses in the interiors of Sarawak.

The Kerapa Spak longhouse has a population of 250-odd folk whose main livelihood comes from smallholdings growing pepper, rubber and hill padi.

Nazri said that IBS’s move was in line with the stand taken by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who had announced a RM3.4 billion allocation to improve Sarawak’s rural infrastructure with a target to cover 95 per cent of populated Sarawak with electricity supply and to also supply treated water to 90 per cent of the population by the year 2012.

The SHS features water supply system offering filtered drinking water from available natural water sources as well as a telecommunications linkage with internet access no longer being a impossibility.

The federal government has also, as part of its National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) set its eyes to focus on speeding up infrastructure development projects in rural Sabah and Sarawak, said Nazri.

More than RM1.6 billion from that allocation would be for water supply projects including water treatment plants. These are to be implemented by the year 2012 while the remaining more than RM1.7 billion will be for rural electricity supply projects. This includes grid and non-grid (systems)

IBC Solar is in a technical collaboration with Sarawak-based Carbon Capital Corporation (CCC) Sdn Bhd had signed up with the State Government for the design and building of the first SAH in Sarawak in June last year.

The company is backed by superior German technology – the initiators of the solar technology and who are currently spearheading the industry at a global level offering advanced technology and products.

Nazri added that Malaysia was the first country to promote and use first world Green technology (greentech) and IBC Solar’s SHS is evidence of such a move in the right direction.

The use of greentech for electricity generation, said Nazri is gaining recognition both locally and especially internationally. The government, he added, had also formulated strategies to promote it in all sectors in order to conserve the natural environment and resources through the application of environment-friendly technology, especially in electricity generation.