Overcoming barriers through policy advocacy & investment promotion:the case of ocean thermal energy-driven development in Malaysia

Abstract

There are numerous barriers to anything new, the like of ocean thermal energy-driven development, even though it has been revealed over 1414 years ago, discovered in the early 19th century, demonstrated early in the last century, and revived in the Seventies, and is fast becoming an emerging technology in the 21st century. These barriers can be organized in four dimensions: legal-policy framework, institutional arrangement, finance, and technology. To overcome such barriers in Malaysia, UTM Ocean Thermal Energy Center (UTM OTEC) is established since 3 January 2013; it undertakes, not like other R&D institutions, the reverse approach: commercialization, first, to be followed by further development with the existing intellectual properties and research results, and more research to discover the required new advancement in knowledge and innovation. In order to commercialize the best commercially available technology, it conducts a number of activities, including a series of presentations to various stakeholders, including 69 government agencies, government linked companies, universities and research institutions, professional and scientific bodies, potential investors, locally and abroad, and others, through such processes so-ca result, the establishment of the UTM OTEC has facilitated an easy access to various stakeholders by the order of 245%, that is, 49 post-2013 compared to only 20 over the period 2007-2012; the first Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), for ocean thermal energy conversion to electricity or hydrogen (OTEC-H2), established since 18 November 2014, and been included in the 11th Malaysia Plan 2016-2020, for the first time ever, since the introduction of the first Five-Year Malaysia Plan back in 1965.