On July 16, 2024, The Electrical and Electronics Association of Malaysia (TEEAM) organised and ran the second instalment of their industry-centric Series of Technical Talks for 2024. The venue at which the event was held was at the TEEAM Seminar Hall located at No. 5-B, Jalan Gelugor, Off Jalan Kenanga, Kuala Lumpur. The total time duration of the ‘TEEAM Series of Technical Talks 02/2024’ programme was officially listed as 9:00 am to 1:00 pm although the participants were required to come in half an hour earlier to register for the talk.

The Technical Talk started with Welcome Remarks and was followed by the commencement of the first talk of the morning titled ‘Fire Prevention for Solar Energy Systems’. Ms. Tan Ai Peng presented the topic as the Speaker and highlighted how crucial it was to implement fire prevention measures in solar energy systems. This urgent concern is justified by recent and increasing occurrences of solar PV fires by way of rooftop fire incidents.

She explained in detail how there was the need for better fire prevention mechanisms to be in place in solar PV systems as paramount since energy supply systems play an important role in our lives. Even though energy is critical to the sustainable development of our society, the unfortunate reality is that we are facing a scarcity of abundant and affordable energy. This shortage is further exacerbated by an ever-increasing world population which results in an even greater energy demand.

Although we derive the bulk of our energy from fossil fuel sources at the moment, we need to consider the longevity of such traditional energy resources in light of their sustainability. There is a very real possibility of these energy sources depleting in the future as supply decreases and demand increases. An immediate transition to renewable energy resource systems is therefore the answer.

Ms. Tan pointed out that the most practical renewable energy resource in Malaysia is solar energy. This is because Malaysia is blessed with an abundance of sunlight. Hence it is of vital necessity to protect our solar energy systems from frequent solar PV fires.

TEEAM’s Series of Technical Talks concluded with a Q&A session at 12:30 pm.  Half an hour later, 1:00 pm marked the end of the informative event and its entire programme.