Solar photovoltaics for vernacular housing in rural malaysia: towards energy security and equitability of low income groups

Since the 1970s, Malaysia’s economic expansion has been powered by cheap oil and gas making it dependent on and addicted to using large amounts of fossil fuels. As a country that is primarily reliant on fossil fuels for generating power supply, Malaysia needs to take account of long-term energy security due to fossil fuel depletion and peak oil which could threaten the development of the country. The ‘South China Sea Conflict’, concerning territorial rights to the oil and gas fields of the South China Sea, could impact further on the country’s energy security and reserves of both oil and gas. Loss of this resource could result in reduced power generation potential with the risk of interrupted power supplies and an inequitable distribution to the population. This paper will review energy security in Malaysia, in particular electricity supply and its implications towards low-income groups in Malaysia. The paper will put forward an analysis for incorporating solar photovoltaics on roofs of vernacular housing in rural parts of Malaysia. A model is developed in order to represent the main features of a typical generic roof and its implication for efficiently collecting solar energy