Majunaka to supply TNB with paddy husk-produced energy

By BERNAMA

Farmer displays his paddy crop at wholesale grain market at BavlaMajunaka Eco Energy Sdn Bhd, an eco-energy generating firm, will build the country’s first renewable energy power station using padi husks and wood chips costing RM106 million in Naka, Padang Terap.

Upon completion next year, the power station will sell 7 megawatt (MW) of its generating capacity of 9.95 MW to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and utilising the remaining capacity, its chairperson Syed Sobri Syed Hashim said.

He said the company has received the approval of the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry (KeTTHA), Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) and the Energy Commission of Malaysia to go ahead with the project.

The groundbreaking ceremony of the first project of its kind in the country will be held on Jan 24, he told Bernama in an interview here recently.

Syed Sobri said the power station is expected to use about 300 tonnes of paddy husks and wood chips a day or about 9,000 tonnes a month to generate electricity.

“We have a contract with Padiberas Nasional Berhad (Bernas) to take away paddy husks from its complex in Kedah, thus alleviating the problem faced by rice millers in disposing of paddy husks,” he said.

He said the power station will be built with the aid of a RM50 million loan under the Green Technology Financing Scheme approved by KeTTHA, apart from a commercial financing facility and an internal funding.

Majunaka Eco Energy is given the concession to supply electricity to TNB at a competitive rate until 2032, he said, adding that it would start selling power from Jan 1, 2016.

Syed Sobri said the whole design of the station and its system was done by a team of 15 local Bumiputera engineers while the turbines would use Japanese technology.

Renewable energy power stations using padi husks have been built in Thailand since 1995, he added.