Competition is good but cooperation is better

By Charles F. Moreira

While competition is good for industries and the economy, cooperation is better, Park Jung Sung, economic counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Korea told the Green Technology Forum and Partnering Meeting between Malaysia and South Korea at the Istana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 10 December.

The one-day event was jointly organised by Green Tech Malaysia, the Malaysia-Korea Technology Centre (MyKor) and the Malaysia Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MiGHT) and sponsored by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA), Korea Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and the Korea Institute of Advancement of Technology (KIAT).

Green growth strategy
“Korea’s industrial development was very much based on light industry, such as basket making since the end of World War II till  the first oil crisis in 1973 when it made a quantum leap to investments in heavy industry (i.e. steel making, ship building, etc.),” said Park.

Park Jung Sung

The next quantum leap to investments in semiconductor and automotive industries was prompted by the second oil crisis of 1979, along with the opening up of its economy and stabilisation of consumer prices. The foreign exchange crisis of 1998 prompted the next leap in investments in IT ventures, research & development and corporate restructuring.

The leap to investments in green growth as South Korea’s new growth engine and a shift to a low-carbon economy was prompted by the global economic crisis of 2008.

“The green growth strategy employs technology to enable continued economic growth and standards of living while reducing its environmental impact and this is especially important in heavy industry, chemical and automotive industries,” said Park.

Also, South Korea imports 96% of its energy requirements or 28.6% of its total imports in 2010, which made it the most heavily dependent upon energy imports in percentage terms compared to Japan, Spain, Italy and France.

That year, its energy imports were worth US$121.7 billion, while total imports were worth US$445.28 billion.

However, in TOE (tonnes oil equivalent) terms, South Korea’s energy consumption was among the lowest among major energy consuming countries in 2009. That year it consumed 237.5 million TOE, slightly more than Brazil’s 226 TOE, while the United States consumed the most at 2,182 million TOE, followed by China at 2,177 million TOE.

Still, South Korea needs to reduce its dependence of energy imports, fossil fuels and cut its generation of green house gases, and its approach includes a combination of strict regulation of industries through policies such as cap & trade, coupled with advice, incentives and assistance to help industries make the transition to green growth strategies.

South Korea also aims to cut its use of fossil fuels from 83% in 2008 to 62% in 2030 and use of renewable energy from 2% to 11% over that same period. Also to reduce its reliance on oil from 43.4% in 2008 to 33.03% in 2030, on coal from 25.3% to 15.7% and on liquefied natural gas from 13.8% to 12.0% over that period.

However, while it would horrify many environmentalists, South Korea has won the agreement of its environmentalists to let it increase its reliance on nuclear energy from 14.9% in 2008 to 27.8% in 2030.

Despite the dangers of nuclear fuels as can be seen from the ongoing saga of Fukushima in neighbouring Japan, South Korea regards nuclear as a relatively clean energy in terms of gaseous emissions, but being a small, hilly country, it perhaps has few options.

On the other hand, while it was not mentioned, there also could be a military dimension here, given the ongoing antagonism between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

Meanwhile, South Korea’s total TOE consumption over that period would rise from 241 million to 300 million.

Smart grid
Another green initiative, which combines IT with green technology is smart grid – i.e. an electricity grid which intelligently adjusts the amount of power generated to meet demand in real time.

With current “dumb” grids, all the generators are kept running even when demand is low but a smart grid would turn on and off some generators or switch electricity supply from power stations according to demand.

On the demand side, a smart grid would employ IT to exchange information, such as real-time pricing data where there’s higher pricing during peak and lower pricing during off-peak periods and this can achieve 6% energy savings and 4.6% lower green house gas emissions on the consumer side.

“With Malaysia’s initiative to develop an electric car, demand for electricity will be high in the evening after people get home and recharge their car’s batteries, so a smart grid is needed to adapt power generation to the increased load,” said Park.

Green tech to offer
Meanwhile, the forum provided opportunities for 18 Korean green technology companies to meet the Malaysian counterparts to partner in the adoption, development, commercialisation and implementation of their technologies, most of them in areas of environmentally friendly recycling, electricity saving, sewage treatment, water purification, welding, metal working, optics, battery and battery management, odour elimination, air conditioning, electrical circuit earthing, tube fittings and biofuel.

While information technology, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and intelligent control systems play a part in some of these solutions, they are enablers rather than the main technology.

The Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) plus seven companies made presentations that morning, while partnering meetings were held throughout the afternoon.

KEITI conducts research and development programmes in environmental technologies and their commercialisation and also is involved in various environment-related international cooperation programmes with 66 countries across six continents.

Among the seven companies, DongSung Encore offers a technique to chemically decompose waste tyres back into their original component materials – i.e. oil, carbon, steel and non-condensable gas at high temperature in the absence of oxygen and these can be reused for other purposes and to make other things.

About 1.6 billion waste tyres are generated annually worldwide and they are currently used as a fuel in cement kilns and dry incinerators, are used as landfill or to make rubber flooring and artificial grass but these create secondary pollution of land, water and air.

Distech offers a technology of waste energy conversion from de watered sewage sludge by thermal hydrolysis to produce a bio-solid fuel and biogas.

Econity offers a hollow fibre membrane for a water and waste water treatment system, while G & G Technology offers packer grouting techniques to produce clear and clean ground water.

4Ens offers a technology which can save up to 30% electricity consumption by automatically dimming lights or even turn them off in public areas such as train stations, petrol stations or public washrooms when there are no people present.

SP Hi-Tech offers water and sewage treatment systems, while Korea Engineering Consortium provides zero waste on palm oil mill effluent treatment systems, biomass renewable energy systems and bio gas systems.

The greening of Malaysia
Malaysia too recognised the importance for a more environmentally-friendly growth strategy together with its economic value to the gross domestic product.

Malaysia defines green technology as:-

Green technology refers to products, equipment and systems which minimise the degradation of the environment; has zero or low green house gas emission; is safe for use and promotes a healthy and improved environment for all forms of life; conserves energy use and natural resources; and promotes the use of renewable resources.

Its green technology roadmap aims to raise green awareness between 2010 and 2015, create a green infrastructure between 2015 and 2025, during which time to also promote a green culture from 2020 to 2025 and to achieve a green economy from 2025 and beyond.

The Malaysia Energy Centre was established in May 1998 as a think tank to the government and in April 2010 it was renamed Green Tech Malaysia, the technical arm and focal point of green technology development in Malaysia.

In the meantime, the National Policy on Environment was published in 2002, both the National Policy on Climate Change and the National Green Technology Policy in 2009.

Malaysia seeks to chart its own course in green technology and the National Green Technology policy sees green technology as a driver to accelerate the national economy and promote sustainable development.

Malaysia aims to reduce its national carbon footprint by up to 40% in 2020 compared to 2005, with the assistance of technology transfer and adequate financing from the developed nations.

Malaysia’s clean development mechanism covers projects in sectors of Empty Fruit Bunch, Energy Efficiency, Municipal Waste of Energy, Mini Hydro, Oil & Gas, Wood Waste, Fuel Switch, Animal Waste, Biodiesel in transportation, Manufacturing Industries, Palm Oil Mill Effluent, Landfill, Hydro, Chemical Industry and others such as Rice Husks and Palm Kernel.

Other initiatives and projects include the Green Jobs Portal listing jobs that help enterprises and economic sectors reduce their environmental impact.

An initiative by KeTTHA and Green Tech Malaysia to develop an electric vehicle. The project kicked off in March 2011 and pilot trials were conducted by Proton and its target is for 10% of all vehicles sold, or around 100,000 cars to be electric vehicles by the year 2020.

Other initiatives are green townships in Putrajaya and Cyberjaya, the International Greentech & ECO Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM), Malaysia GreenTech Awards, establishment of a Green Competency Development Centre, a Green technology Financing Scheme,  loans of up to RM200,000 at subsidies interest rates of 2% for innovative Malaysian small to medium enterprises, rebate programmes for green products.