Thursday, June 7, 2012

INSTITUTES AWARENESS ON GREEN TECHNOLOGY



KUALA LUMPUR: Higher education institutes can offer mandatory courses to instill greater awareness on green technology in Malaysians, says a Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) professor who specialises in the field.

Prof Dr Karl Wagner said creating awareness was the biggest problem and that the government and institutions of higher learning could collaborate with the media to provide a good platform for green technology.

“Students are the masterminds of the country’s future. They will and should have a chance to understand what is going on,” he told Bernama.

He said the Malaysian government could also issue something like the green journals once a month, which could act as a marketplace for exchange of ideas.

UniKL could play a role in helping to promote awareness as the university had a joint Masters programme with German universities which offered various Masters-level programmes in green-efficient buildings.

The German embassy in Malaysia has also been very supportive in this regard, he said, pointing out that UniKL had been working with the embassy, especially with the ambassador, Dr Guenter Gruber.

“The German embassy is very close to this aspect. This is our link to the government, we can say. He himself (the ambassador) is a green person. So, whenever we meet, we ask ourselves to do more such activities,” Wagner said.

Wagner said  Malaysia has linked up with the German embassy here and other institutions, such as the Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce Industry (MGCC), concerning green technology.

He said Malaysia has also been quick to accept the need to promote green technology. Since 2009, there have been numerous initiatives as well as rules and regulations regarding green technology.

“There is one regulation that is probably still missing – the regulation on energy efficiency – which I have heard is going to be implemented from 2014 onwards,” he noted.

Energy efficiency refers to the measurement of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases that are spread into the atmosphere (CO2 emission). Carbon dioxide is a colourless, odourless gas that a person breathes out or is produced when substances containing carbon are burnt.

Green technology comprises two aspects: energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE). Energy efficiency is applicable to existing buildings and deals with, for example, how to re-engineer fans or air conditioning systems to make them green in terms of CO2 emission.

Renewable energy, meanwhile, refers to solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy and heat arising from industrial productions.

“This heat is turned into energy, because all of these items are warm, and warm items always have a source of heat and a source of renewable energy,” he said.

UniKL is also building green mock-up houses in Bangi, Selangor, made of different building materials, so that the students can try them out and decide which they prefer the most in terms of building material, comfort and cost. (Bernama)

 Source: http://sabahkinimirror.blogspot.com/2012/06/institutes-awareness-on-green.html

2 comments:

Dylan said...

The green technology will become a focus in the near future. The Sabah government have taken the initiatives to introduce green technology in terms of power generation in the state.

Dylan said...

Having green technology as a mandatory course in University is a good way to create awareness and increase student's knowledge on this subject.

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