KUCHING, Sept 2 — The state government will table an energy Bill in the November sitting of the Sarawak legislative assembly to protect the state’s interests in the new economy, Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg said today.
He said the Bill will also seek ways for the state to develop green energy.
The premier said the state’s wealth must be protected by way of introducing such a law.
“Nowadays (outside) people want to use Sarawak as a reference point in the use of the green economy because we are quite advanced in it,” he said at the one-day special convention of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) held in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of Sarawak independence.
He said the state government also wants to make use of wastes to generate energy through the process of biomass.
“This is what we call a circular economy by using waste to generate energy,” he added.
Abang Johari said he had just come back from a visit to Sweden which supplies power to Europe through undersea cables.
“It has 45,000 MW installed power capacity generated from rivers through the construction of cascading dams that does not submerging land mass,” he said, adding that Sarawak has plenty of rivers that can be used to construct the cascading dams.
He said the cascading dams are also used in Tasmania, Australia, to generate electricity.
“So we want to learn from others on the use of rivers to build cascading dams, but without jeopardising the settlement of the local communities,” the premier said, adding that the state can export the additional electricity to its neighbours.
“This will be an additional income for us,” he said.
