Lighting up Borneo, one village at a time

Long Pasia's ‘floating hydro’, the first of its kind in Malaysia

FEATURE It gets pitch-dark minutes after dusk in Long Pasia, a two-bus ride to Sipitang and four-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

In the village of 80 houses, only the handful used for tourist homestays have a couple of light bulbs. Diesel generators generate power, their loud whirring cutting into the dead quiet of the night.

As most in Malaysia settle down to dinner or to watch prime time news at 8pm daily, villagers in Long Pasia and others in the many villages dotting the interior of Sabah and Sarawak have nothing to do but retire to bed.

But since earlier this year, six households in Long Pasia have enjoyed free electricity around the clock, thanks to the adjacent Sungai Pasia and a group called ‘Light Up Borneo’ which brought technology to the village.

Long Pasia's ‘floating hydro’, the first of its kind in Malaysia, adapts the mini-hydroelectricity model to produce up to 3KW of electricity - enough to power up lights, a television and a fridge throughout the day in six houses.

And unlike diesel generators, it cannot be heard despite being located about 50 metres from the host home.

Unlike the mini-hydro model which requires the building of a dam or piping of water from a higher positions like a hill, a floating hydro lives up to its name and simply floats on a river.

This technology can be expanded to the many remote villages on the banks of rivers in Sabah and Sarawak.

In the floating hydro, water is directed through a funnel, increasing the speed of the current, which then moves a turbine and generates electricity.

The structure - essentially a water wheel and a transformer on a 20-foot a raft and balanced with timbers shaped into a six-foot tall ‘swan’ - is anchored to the river bank with the same type of suspension wire used to build the Penang bridge so it does not get swept away during storms.

The transformer is protected by a metal cage to stop debris - which could include large logs - from damaging it. The total cost: RM10,000.

NONEIn comparison, Light Up Borneo - whose spokesperson requested anonymity - said the government had paid RM3 million for solar panels to generate power at Long Pasia's school hostel.

However, these panels will not last forever. Those donated by a foreign NGO in 2002 are no longer operational and repair costs are very high.

Getting the diesel to operate generators is not as easy as driving to the neighbourhood petrol station. The nearest town to Long Pasia is four hours away on a good 4-wheel drive vehicle and the diesel cost is double the pump price.

Goodwill and gotong-royong

So how did the group manage to keep down the cost of the floating hydro?

Most of the engineering work was done on a volunteer basis. Light Up Borneo recruited friends and family to design and fabricate the swan, while the construction was done entirely by the villagers in gotong-royong spirit.

Advances in wind turbine technology allowed volunteer engineers to adopt this to generate higher voltage from slower currents of water.

All monetary costs were borne by donors, mainly from Peninsular Malaysia, who continue to generously contribute to a project that has brought tangible benefits to the people.

Since 2010, Light Up Borneo has helped sponsor and build mini-hydroelectric projects in 13 villages in Sarawak, lighting up the lives of hundreds of people.

The cost of each mini-hydro has varied from RM30,000 to RM40,000, depending on the length of the PVC pipes required to channel water from the hills.

But Light Up Borneo believes it has not spent even a RM1 million ringgit to date on the project. With maintenance being undertaken by the villagers themselves, it can provide free renewable energy for generations.

While the team is still trying to tinker with the pilot project to see if costs can be brought down even further, it estimates that lighting up all 80 homes in Long Pasia would cost about RM150,000.

Long Pasia is among the larger villages in the interior of Sabah. Others have only a fraction the number of residents.

In contrast, the state government of Sabah and Sarawak were allocated RM2.4 million to expand electricity coverage, beyond roughly 70 percent today.

In 2010, Sabah power provider Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (which is mostly owned by Tenaga Nasional Bhd) had said that it could light up the whole state by 2012.

But a satellite picture of Malaysia at night from space shows Peninsular Malaysia brightly lit up and much of Borneo engulfed in darkness.

Light Up Borneo is optimistic. As its tagline reads: 'Where there is darkness, we will shine a light!'