Power from the people: the empowerment of distributed generation of solar electricity for ruralcommunities in Malaysia

This paper describes the decreasing energy security in Malaysia and the likely impact on maintaining power supplies to low income groups. The most vulnerable group is the low-income people in the rural areas, who have limited access to generate their own power supplies. The paper reviews the potential of distributed generation (DG) using photovoltaics as a means of mitigating this problem. Examples from other countries are reviewed and alternative methods of funding PV installations are discussed. Strategies such as community-based approach and innovative financing scheme will be introduced and discussed. The main objective is to utilize solar energy as the main energy resources for generating electricity and places rural people as the main stakeholder to deploy the strategic model. This model is also ideal to be integrated with the distributed generation (DG) system as one of the key components in developing a suitable energy policy that can helps to sustain the energy development of rural community in the future. The paper concludes that distributed generation (DG) is feasible and that innovative funding schemes are required based on local knowledge.