Researching social acceptability of renewable-energy technology in Malaysia

Nowadays, many countries are working toward increasing the adoption of renewable energy (RE), even though fiscal support incentives to reduce the capital cost of RE. Solar photovoltaic applications in Malaysia are not popular despite the government having declared the feed-in-tariff (FIT) as one type of support. Hence, there is a need to investigate the social acceptance of people in Malaysia to improve regulatory and policy initiatives designed to promote implementation solar renewable energy. The methodology used is a survey questionnaire comprising 14 questions and internally includes questions at three levels. Our survey confirms that the level of interest in solar PV is good, but a considerable number of people are still not aware of the fiscal advantage when deciding to install a grid-connected solar photovoltaic system (PV) under the current support program. However, around 36% are potentially ready to begin the PV project but require a loan to reduce the starting capital cost of the PV project, even if the loan stipulates sharing the benefits of the FIT in advance. From our perspective and according to the survey results, some suggestions are highlighted that could be highly beneficial to reforming the current policy or reinforcing any future policies.