630 World Renew~le Ener~ Netwo~

DR M N DALIMIN

UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAANMALAYSIA

Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Kampus Sabah, Beg Berkunci No 62, 88996 Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

History of Institute

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, or The National University Malaysia, was officially established in 1971. Its main campus is situated about 30 km south of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. It has eighteen faculties, centres and institutes, covering most of the fields in sciences, medicine, engineering and arts.

The Faculty of Science and Natural Resources was formed in 1979, and located in the state of Sabah, about 1200 miles away from the main campus. The faculty has four departments in the fields of science which are directed towards the development and expansion of knowledge pertinent to natural resources. The faculty places great emphasis on research in these areas and the state of Sabah has plenty to offer.

Sabah, 'The land below the wind' - is a lush green state, with long meandering rivers and lofty mountain ranges, set on the northern tip of Borneo, has an area of 73,600 sq km and a population of less than 2 million. Less than 50% of the houses in the state are electrified, with most areas being remote and difficult to reach. These provide a great opportunity for renewable energy research and development especially in the fields of biomass and photovoltaics.

Our group is involved in the evaluation and popularisation of solar energy application technology especially photovoltaics system for rural electrification, both stand alone and central systems. One of our on-going research projects is the study of ground albedo effect on the heating of PV modules, and the most effective cooling technique needed to retain its efficiency, which is being jointly carried out with the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunication and Post, and Sabah Electricity Board.

In thermal solar energy, our group is involved in an ASEAN Project, which is funded by CIDA, to evaluate the performance of solar dryer in the drying of cocoa beans. Performance evaluation will be carried out for two years, before commercialisation can be made.

Evaluation and analyais of solar radiation and wind data is carried out to produce a data base for the state.

The faculty welcome joint collaboration on research and post graduate training in renewable energy.