Is Brunei a good candidate to venture into solar energy?

WHILE most Bruneians would think that being near the equator, the Sultanate should be the perfect country to harness the power of the sun, but information provided by Mitsubishi Corporation in Brunei appears to contradict that perspective.

Speaking to The Brunei Times during a scheduled visit to the Tenaga Suria Brunei (TSB) solar energy plant in Seria, which was attended by Energy Division at the Prime Minister's Office (EDPMO) and the Centre For Strategic and Policy Studies (CSPS), Takayuki Kono, Deputy General Manager of Mitsubishi Corporation in Brunei, said that the searing heat might well work against Brunei.

"Being near the equator is better generally," said Kono. "But when the temperature is too high, it'll also affect the efficiency of the solar panels when converting energy."

"When the solar panels are heated, they have a reduced efficiency level when it comes to converting light to energy," he said.

Citing Japan as an example, he said solar plants there were able to generate the most solar energy in winter rather than summer.

"In Japan, the best timing to harness solar energy is during winter, where the temperature is low, and the solar panels can operate at near optimal level," said Kono.

"More importantly, we get more sunny days during winter in Japan compared to summer, and thus winter is more favourable for us in that sense."

"And another thing about the weather of Brunei is that we also get many cloudy and rainy days, which will badly affect our power output as well," he added.

Asked if the weather constraints will then make the Sultanate a bad choice for producing solar energy, Kono rejected that notion.

"Brunei is still a good country for solar energy, and that is the reason why we are testing six different solar panels, so that we can evaluate which panel is the best choice for Brunei," Kono explained.

The TSB plant is currently testing six different types of solar panels, namely Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cell, Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cell, Microcrystalline-Si Tandem-type Solar Cell, Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell, Copper-indium-selenium (CIS) Solar Cell, and Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer (HIT) Solar Cell.

According to EDPMO, most of the solar power generation projects in the world are in the US and Europe, and TSB is a pioneer in that it is the first of its kind in the world to start operations in tropical climate close to the equator.

Dr Diana Cheong, Senior Researcher from CSPS, believed that the usage of most energy sources usually boils down to the opportunity and ability to successfully develop appropriate technologies to harness identified energy sources, and solar energy is a good example, utilising Brunei's geographical advantage.

TSB will be accumulating output data from these panels for a period of three years to evaluate which type of solar panel is most suitable for Brunei's weather conditions.

In the middle of the three-year period, the angle of the panels will be changed to test the change in irradiation from this change in angle.

The data collection for each angle is done over 18 months so as to capture data for the different weather conditions throughout the year.

At the end of the three years, a full analysis will be completed to identify the best panel and angle suitable for Brunei and areas close to the equator. The Brunei Times