Rompin, Malaysia: For generations, residents of the tropical jungles of the eastern coastal area have tried to make their homes as cool as possible by shunning the scorching sun.

Now, they have shifted their efforts towards harnessing a tiny fraction of the abundant solar energy to light up their rooms and kids' schools. Those efforts are aided by the country's electricity research fund.

A new world awaits: Village head Abio plays a video for his children, who are on a school holiday. With the completion of the country's first centralized solar power station just a year ago, the Malaysian village is now connected with outside world via television and the Internet.  [China Daily]

A big smile on the face of 62-year-old Abio, leader of the Kampung Denai Village, says plenty about the benefits of the country's first centralized solar power station.

"It's great. We can watch TV and DVD now after our rooms have been connected by the electricity cables with the solar energy station," said Abio.

The village is inside a forest paradise, about 40-minutes away from the town of Rompin in the state of Pahang.

Together with more than 100 villagers, Abio's family lived inside the forest in Pahang state, an immense stretch of rainforest older than those of the Congo or the Amazon.

The remote location of some villages makes it difficult to access the electric grid and, through it, the conveniences of modern life.

Abio, a father of 10, said his family used candles at night. Unfortunately, they only lasted about three hours and, by 10:30 pm, the family was in the dark.

"Now, kids can read longer because the solar energy power station can provide an around-the-clock supply," said Abio, who lives about 1 kilometre away from the station.

The station, which is linked by a bumpy village road to the outside world, consists of solar photovoltaic cell, batteries, a generator, an inverter and other equipment.

Also inside the walled 200-square-metre station, are the attractive photovoltaic panels.

These panels are primarily made out of silicon, phosphorus and boron. When they are struck by the sun's rays, the combination of these materials produces electricity.

This electricity is sent to a battery where it is stored for future use. The stored energy can operate computers, lights, televisions, heaters, air conditioners, cars and even video games.

Including Abio's family, 27 households in the village have benefited from Malaysia's first centralized solar power station built by the Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malaysia's premier electricity utility.

The research and development oriented organization is committed to enhancing power quality in the region.

The project head, Hamdan Hassan, said their responsibility will go beyond that, although global warming and environment protection may still be a novel concept for Abio and his villagers.

"The incentives to exploit solar energy are at least two-fold," said the Hassan.

First, we cannot depend on non-renewable fuels forever.

"The supply is bound to finish, if not during our lifetime, perhaps in the next or two generations."

Second, despite the many preventive and corrective measures undertaken by those involved in the production of energy from fossil fuels, environmental degradation due to the emission of pollutants still persists.

He said the country has designed a step by step approach to light up 15 villages with centralized solar power stations.

"Now, the village is lit up without any charge. We will make them learn to make money and make the project pay off," said Hamdan.

The villagers used to earn their living by fishing in the river inside the jungle. But their basic living necessities have changed due to a growing population.

The local government allowed every family 6-8 acres of land to plant oil palm, a major cash crop and export of Malaysia.

"They can get a harvest in two or three years and then we can be paid off," said Hamdan, adding that the equipment for the solar stations was imported from Australia-based Advanced Energy System.

Since Malaysia does not experience seasonal climate, the electricity generated by the sun remains relatively constant throughout the year. Electricity production can start at 9 am, peak at noon and stop at around 6:30 pm.

As to the station in the village, the solar energy stored in the batteries lasts for at least five days.

"So far, we have not experienced blackouts here because the sun is always in the sky during the day time," said Hamdan.

Malaysia's effort to promote sustainable ways of energy production goes beyond the pilot project. As the third largest per capita greenhouse gas emitter among the 10 ASEAN nations, Malaysia is committed to using sustainable energy - including solar power - and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors.

Installations of decentralized solar PV cells are done mainly in rural areas, where setting up electric cables is difficult.

The country has planned to produce 5 per cent of its total energy needs with renewable sources by 2005. With gas, coal and oil being lion's share of the world's energy sources, sustainable alternatives including hydro, solar, wind and biomass power currently produce 14 per cent the world's total energy use.

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