average of 53 million tonnes of residues each year . However,
a recent study indicates a significant increase of oil palm solid
wastes with 80 million tonnes of dry biomass in 2010, which is
projected to rise to 100 million dry tonnes by the year 2020. The
abundant availability of oil palm biomass residues makes them
potentially a major contributor to the overall capacity target in the
FiT (Feed-in Tariff) policy system.
The main challenges to the oil palm biomass renewable energy
industry now are to ensure sustainability of downstream components
towards grid-connected generation including resource supply,
conversion technology and the networking system. This was
emphasised by Lior who pointed out that the sustainability aspects
of the industry will always be questioned, even though renewable
sources, including biomass technologies, are becoming important
as substitutes for conventional fuels [3]. On the other hand, Lund
suggested that a coherent energy system can be created by
improving the efficiency of its energy production mechanism [4]. In
this context, strong policy support is needed to enable the industry
to grow in a sustainable manner.
Stakeholders’ views and constructive inputs are fundamental in
formulating an effective policy framework. This can be done by
conducting a survey that covers a wide spectrum of respondents.
Deriving fromthis understanding, this industry surveywas designed
to understand the market behaviour of the oil palm biomass
renewable energy business in Malaysia. Stakeholders’ opinionswere
the main concern in this study, as their comments provide useful
market insights and valuable guidance for policymakers to improve
and enforce their policy framework [5]. This paper, therefore aims to
present results of the survey and compare the outcomes with
existing literature and experiences from other countries.
This paper is organised in 5 sections. Section 1 provides a brief
introduction on the background and aim of the paper, while an
overview of the renewable energy policy systems in Malaysia is
presented in Section 2. Section 3 outlines the survey methodology.
Extensive discussion on the final results of the survey is presented
in Section 4, followed by the conclusions and key findings from this
study in Section 5.