Sunday, June 29, 2008

Damn the dams


Bakun Dam - RM16 billion and rising: Sime Darby declines stake

Sime Darby has wisely decided to pull out of holding a stake in the Bakun Dam via Sarawak Hidro. Neither is it interested in holding a stake in the laying of cables under the South China Sea from Sarawak to the peninsula, which would make it the longest undersea cables in the world. The whole project stinks right from day one. They are building this huge dam in Sarawak, and they realise they don’t need the electricity. So they want to transmit it to the peninsula. But wait a minute, the peninsula already has a 40 per cent reserve capacity and TNB is even paying the IPPs for electricity it doesn’t need.

So what to do? They get polluting aluminium smelters to suck up the electricity from Bakun.

But Sime Darby obviously realises that the project is unviable and unprofitable - and would rather stick to the construction work. Has this anything to do with the extensive logging in the Bakun catchment areas that has threatened the viability of the project? (See “New doubts over Bakun Dam“) Or the serious doubts over the feasibility of the undersea cables and the likely risks and loss of power?

And now there are suggestions that TNB might take up a stake - and pass on the burden to the Malaysian public?

And that’s not all, they are building even more dams in Sarawak like there is no tomorrow. Make hay while the sun shines.

Let’s see, you have currently:

Batang Ai Dam 108MW
In the pipeline:

Bakun Dam 2,400MW
Limbang Dam 160MW (completion 2012)
Murum Dam 900MW (2013)
Under study:

Baram Dam 1,000MW
Balleh Dam 900MW
Smaller dams in Miri and Limbang division.
Coal power plants proposed:

Mukah (Phase 1) 270MW
Mukah (Phase 2) 300MW
Belingian 600MW
Merit-Pila 1,200MW
But wait a minute, Sarawak only needs 750MW right now - and it already has a capacity of 900MW. What the…!

Read more here

So...this is Malaysia !!!

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