Green Technology: Changing Malaysia’s energy landscape

Source : NST 10 October 2012| last updated at 02:24PM

Cypark Resources Berhad is an integrated environmental engineering and technology provider, but it started out in the landscape and infrastructure business.

Landscape here does not have the traditional meaning most people think about – planting trees and designing gardens. Daud Ahmad, Group Chief Executive Officer of Cypark Resources Berhad (Cypark) explains it like this: the built environment is made up of structures (buildings), infrastructure (roads and transport systems) and open spaces (parks, unused land, underground services).

What Cypark does is engineering of external works – it devises the blueprints for the land, remediates and designs it. A good example is the work it has done in Cyberjaya. It was given the challenge of converting disused, abandoned and environmentally degraded land into a usable area.

This in itself is an environmental undertaking, involving treatment of soil that has no nutrients. These open spaces are usually low-value land, the high-value land having competing interests in the form of buildings or infrastructure. By remediating the land, Cypark converts it into high value usable space.

Transition

While the company is still in this business, it has evolved to focus on a more niche business – environmental engineering and technology, and renewable energy.

“This has always been part of our master plan,” says Daud. “But we had to wait for the right moment, for the economic, social and political environment of Malaysia to be just right, and for the mindset and the legal framework to be there.”

The increased environmental awareness of Malaysians has created a new landscape, paving the way for more opportunities in the industry for businesses to thrive, he continues. People always talk about the environment and solutions, but there must be someone to actually deal with the problems.

This is where CRB comes in – providing engineering remediation to environmental problems and developing new environmentally-friendly engineering technologies to replace old and outdate ones.

Green power

Cypark’s vision is to become a major player in the development and generation of green energy in Asia, with the ultimate aim of becoming  a green utility company.

Generating energy from fossil fuels is no longer sustainable, and the sustainable solutions that Cypark can provide will solve this problem. The company develops its own technology to produce sustainable green energy and supplies it to the grid to power houses within the area of its renewable energy parks.

The company defines itself under the Renewable Energy Act 2011. One of the sources of renewable energy defined under the Act is waste biomass, which is what Cypark is concentrating on.

Cypark subscribes to the concept of a waste hierarchy: the first thing to do is reuse, and then only recycle. If it cannot be recycled, it should be converted into energy. The last resort is to put it into a landfill.

Society is driven by economy and not ethics, says Daud. Human nature is such that if there is no law guiding how people buy and dispose, they will always opt for the lowest cost. If they do not have to pay, they will demand the highest quality.

This is why landfills have become the norm; they are the cheapest option of the whole waste hierarchy. But human nature will change if economic value takes into consideration the cost to the environment.

“People have been talking about the environment for decades, but it has always been from an ethical point of view. In today’s world, people have come to understand that environmental degradation has a direct economic impact on them, that it affects their lives,” says Daud.

Really good business

The global renewable energy industry is worth about a trillion ringgit. “It is an exciting industry to be in,” says Daud. “The growth is tremendous and there are so many opportunities for businesses. It is an industry you can be proud to be a part of, and your children can be proud of you for it.”

Cypark carries out business that does not harm the environment, but rather enhances it. And along the way, the shareholders enjoy returns on the investment.

Modern communication technology means that every country knows what the other is doing, and so benchmarking becomes common. Society has knowledge of the various ways things are being done, and so expectations and demands become high. This demand is what drives the industry and businesses; without it, it would just be about selling concepts.

Cypark’s projects, such as its environmental remediation project in Pajam, Negri Sembilan and several contaminated land and groundwater projects across the country, are commissioned by the government. This is no surprise, as the company is thoroughly equipped with the technology and the technical know-how.

But Cypark goes a step further and invests capital into converting some of this remediated land into sites for producing renewable energy. The remediated landfill in Pajam, for example, is now an 8-megawatt (MW) solar farm that produces enough energy to sell to the national grid and power 10,000 basic homes in the area.

Cypark has replicated the success of the Pajam solar project in other closed landfill sites through the country and by year end, another three similar projects, generating 13 MW of renewable energy, will be operational.

“There is a business risk, but we can manage this risk because we are the ones that develop the technology and remediate the landfills, so it becomes a manageable risk,” says Daud.

“Risk is related to competence,” he continues. “Having the competence, financial capability and a good track record means that we can continue to change the landscape of this industry and Malaysia’s environment.

Remediated and renewed

As an integrated environmental engineering and technology provider, one of Cypark Resources Berhad’s (Cypark) biggest projects to date was in Pajam, Negri Sembilan, where the company closed a landfill and remediated the land.

The 26-hectare Pajam landfill had received waste from a more urban area. The people living in the housing developments immediately surrounding the landfill were negatively affected by the pollution it caused.

Besides being an eyesore, and causing the obvious odiferous air pollution, ground seepage from landfills can cause water pollution. All this could lead to serious health problems to the surrounding population.

Cypark closed the landfill, putting a stop to its negative environmental impact, and it added another factor – it is using the landfill to generate electricity.

After the landfill was closed and the land remediated, solar panels were installed to generate solar energy. The electricity it generates is fed into the national grid, and is consumed by the residents of Pajam.

“In terms of energy use, the people in Pajam are one step above most of the country,” says Daud Ahmad, Cypark’s Group Chief Executive Officer. “All the power they use in their houses comes from renewable resources and emits no carbon.”

The Cypark Solar Centre of Excellence now generates about 8 megawatts of energy per hour. Within the next six months, it will add another 5 megawatts of solar energy and 2 megawatts of energy generated through biogas from the landfill.

With the landfill now remediated, the land value, which was previously degraded, has now risen by about 100 per cent. Several new developments have sprung up within the last two years.

Cypark’s waste management project has managed to vanquish most of Pajam’s social, health and economic demons in one gloriously fell swoop.

As a technical and technological enabler, Cypark is willing to provide capital investment into projects such as this in order to change the environment, says Daud. It is then able to sell the energy it generates to the grid. This is what providing totally integrated solutions is about.

It is certainly a big investment, but with its proven technology, Cypark will continue to make a difference in society.

Read more: Green Technology: Changing Malaysia’s energy landscape - Extras - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/nation/extras/green-technology-changing-malaysia-s-energy-landscape-1.155078?cache=ynzfkhhlsup%3Fpage%3D0#ixzz2tZBNqDf3