KOTA KINABALU, Nov 18 (Bernama) — The Sabah Energy Council (MTS) has given the nod to three local companies to conduct feasibility study as a proactive measure to involve local industry players in the development of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology in Sabah.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said these companies have been given a year to finalise their studies, and the findings will be green-lighted for the Sabah government’s consideration and approval.
Following MTS’s approval, Hajiji said, the Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS) will then issue conditional letters of award to the companies for the sustainable energy development.
“ECoS has also received expressions of interest from companies from Australia and the United Kingdom to develop OTEC in Sabah. The commission is studying their proposals,” he said at the Sabah state legislative assembly sitting today.
He was responding to a question from Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee (nominated assemblyman) who wanted to know the progress or development in the area of OTEC since the assembly passed the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Enactment 2024 in April and whether OTEC investors are ready to develop the technology in Sabah.
Hajiji said a preliminary feasibility study is also being conducted by the UTM Ocean Thermal Energy Centre (UTM-OTEC) through a collaboration between Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) for the development of a potential OTEC plant project in Sabah.
The study, carried out with financing from Shell’s Marine Renewable Programme, is expected to be completed by the end of this year, he said.
OTEC is a renewable energy source that generates electricity from the thermal gradient between deep and surface seawater.
Based on research findings, he said Sabah has the potential of generating up to 20,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, comprising 15,000 MW in the west coast area and 5,000 MW in the east coast area.
Hajiji said the Sabah International Blue Economy Conference 2024 launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Oct 19 was an important platform to introduce and promote OTEC to the various local and foreign industry players.
The Chief Minister also announced that the Sabah Maju Jaya secretariat has outlined four main components in the blue economy exploration — harvesting living marine resources, extracting non-living resources, generating new resources, and trade and business on or related to the ocean.
He said from these components, there are at least 14 potential industries to be developed and explored in Sabah.
“The state government is confident that the exploration of the blue economy will be a game changer that can propel Sabah towards being a key leader in sea and river-based blue economy in Malaysia,” he added.
