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• Sunbelt countries can develop reliable solar-dominant grids in the absence of wind. • Policymakers should be highly sceptical of low solar technical potential estimates. • Zero energy emissions Malaysia requires about 0.7 TW solar, 2 TWh pumped hydro. • Sarawak-Peninsular Malaysia interconnection reduces storage needs, but not costs. • Inclusion of about 0.4% hydrogen or synthetic methane reduces storage needs and cost. Three-quarters of the global population lives in the sunbelt region (±35o latitude) with excellent access to solar resources. Wind resources at the equator are very limited, while supply chain and permitting delays are slowing wind deployment at a global scale. This paper investigates the potential for solar photovoltaic-dominant 100% renewable grids to be developed in sunbelt countries through a case study of Malaysia. It was expected that the technical potential for solar photovoltaics and off-river pumped hydro would be far in excess of what is required to decarbonise Malaysia's electricity grids. A Geographic Information System analysis determined that Malaysia has the potential to deploy approximately 8.5 Terawatts of terrestrial photovoltaics and 25 Terawatts of marine floating solar on calm oceans. There are roughly 450 Terawatt-hours of energy storage available in the form of off-river (closed-loop) pumped hydro energy storage. A least-cost, 16-year hourly energy balance model was used to determine that an affluent, fully electrified, highly interconnected Malaysia could greatly reduce emissions through the deployment of 660 Gigawatts of photovoltaics and 2200 Gigawatt-hours of pumped hydro, supported by small amounts of hydrogen-based gas peaking. All-in costs for such a fully decarbonised energy system were modelled to be in the range of 95–103 USD per Megawatt-hour. A Sarawak-Peninsular Malaysia interconnected grid could produce a similar electricity cost to two separate grids while reducing the long-term energy storage needs by approximately 33%. Inclusion of about 3 Terawatt-hours (0.1% of average annual generation at 20 Megawatt-hours/capita/year demand) of hydrogen, synthetic methane, or legacy fossil fuels could further reduce long-term energy storage needs by about 30% by helping to ride through occasional prolonged cloudy periods. Policymakers in sunbelt countries should be highly sceptical of technical potential estimates that suggest limited area for solar photovoltaics. Sunbelt countries can comfortably proceed with the development of cheap, reliable solar-dominant grids primarily supported by pumped hydro energy storage and inter-regional transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the foundation of the Peninsular Malaysia's electricity market reform and development towards successful of Incentive Based Regulation (IBR) implementation, when revising also the Special Industry Tariff (SIT), Time of Use (TOU) and Enhanced Time of Use (ETOU) tariff. The Malaysian characteristics of Price Based Program (PBP) pointed out are compared with other countries across several continents. Since PBP benefits the energy providers in order to enhance power system efficiency, the effectiveness of consumer side strategies to gain benefit from PBP should be given attention too. In this study, investigation has been focused on one of the PBP which is ETOU tariff; with regard to the impact of this new tariff in communicating to selected real data energy profile for all commercial and industrial tariff types through congruent analysis. Without any effort towards load management as well as Demand Side Management (DSM) strategies implementation, the dedicative consumers' electricity bill has increased significantly to approximately 0.5%–12% during ETOU tariff shifting. In order to overcome this issue, a novel formulation by using simultaneous demand side management strategies such as valley filling, load clipping and load shifting for the ETOU tariff optimization is proposed. Meanwhile, the momentous simulation analysis results has demonstrated that major commercial and industrial consumers should find out for about 20%–50% of load management; by selecting PBP activities before they can switch to new tariff program. • This paper highlight the important issue regarding to the new reform of electricity market in Malaysia which related to the demand side and demand response program. The Malaysian characteristics of Price Based Program (PBP) was pointed out since PBP benefits the energy providers and consumers in Peninsular Malaysia. • This paper has highlighted some of the case study investigation that has been focused to one of the PBP which is ETOU tariff; with regard to the impact of this new tariff in communicating to selected real data energy profile for all commercial and industrial tariff types through congruent analysis and finding. • It is hope that this paper will benefit huge groups of person that related to energy and economic especially among engineers, researchers, and consumers around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle–Late Triassic volcanism and contemporary granitoids in East Malaya provide significant insights into the magmatic evolution and geodynamic processes of the Paleotethyan Ocean in SE Asia. This paper presents new zircon ages and whole-rock geochemical data including Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotopic analyses for newly identified felsic volcanic rocks and granites in SE Peninsular Malaysia. Zircon geochronological data constrain their formation time at 238–235 Ma. All samples have relatively high SiO 2 contents with enrichment in light rare earth elements but have negative anomalies at Nb, Ta, Ti, and Eu on spidergrams. Calculated zircon saturation temperatures are between 840 °C and 957 °C. Samples have (87Sr/86Sr) i ratios between 0.70501 and 0.71014 and ε Nd (t) values ranging from −6.6 to −5.9, with (206Pb/204Pb) i = 18.45–18.77, (207Pb/204Pb) i = 15.68–15.71, and (208Pb/204Pb) i = 38.88–38.97. The zircon in-situ ε Hf (t) values and T DM2 ages range from −5.6 to +4.5 and 1.62 Ga to 0.98 Ga, respectively. The primary melting source which produced these felsic volcanic rocks and granites was Proterozoic crustal rocks with a juvenile middle-lower crustal component. Triassic volcanism in SE Peninsular Malaysia northerly correlates with synchronous volcanic rocks in the Lancangjiang and Chiang Khong-Lampang-Tak volcanic zones. Our data, along with regional observations, indicate that these volcanic rocks and granites formed in a localized extensional setting in response to the Paleotethyan slab breakoff. While the initial collision of Sibumasu with East Malaya may have occurred at ∼237 Ma. [Display omitted] • Felsic volcanic rocks and granites in SE Peninsular Malaysia formed at 238–235 Ma. • Triassic felsic magmatism formed in response to the Paleotethyan slab breakoff. • The initial collision between Sibumasu and East Malaya might occur at ∼237 Ma. • Felsic volcanic rocks in East Malaya can correlate with the LCJ and CLT zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to determine the suitable places for a radioactive waste repository in Peninsular Malaysia to implement a permanent disposal facility for disposal sealed radioactive sources (DSRS). The sole Malaysia interim waste storage that stores a large proportion of DSRS was expected to be occupied by 2025 fully. Currently, the nation's licensing board promoted the borehole disposal facility to resolve the full capacity dilemma. The potential sites were determined by the geographical information system (GIS) based Weight Linear Combination (WLC) analysis, integrating the improved Analysis Hierarchical Process (improved AHP) and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) approaches. The sensitivity analysis was applied to identify the main contributing factors for corresponding Peninsular Malaysia selection. Ten parametric criteria and three exclusion criteria are applied to assess the potential areas and screen out the unfavorable regions, respectively. Results indicated the final composite map presents 435 areas of very high suitability class with 17.5% coverage from the total suitability class. The top 5 largest candidates with high potentiality are Jerantut & Ulu Lepar, Bandar Tun Razak, Pertang & Simpang, Pertang, Tanjung Ipoh, and Labis, where come from three provinces: Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. By TOPSIS model, the ranks for these five candidates are Jerantut & Ulu Lepar, Bandar Tun Razak, Tanjung Ipoh, Labis and Simpang Pertang. The model revealed that the suitability ranks is proportional to its area sizes in the approximate values of criteria. The three main contributing factors in Peninsular Malaysia are hydrogeology, seismicity and lithology, which are strongly recommended to involve in other corresponding site selection project. • Top five candidates for radioactive waste disposal site in Malaysia are Jerantut & Ulu Lepar, Bandar Tun Razak, Tanjung Ipoh, Labis and Simpang Pertang. • Three main contributing factors for site selection in Malaysia are hydrogeology, seismicity and lithology. • The suitability index rank is proportional to the area sizes in the consideration of area factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has become a useful tool for learning and teaching due to its functions for knowledge sharing, such as documents exchange, virtual communication, and knowledge formation. Higher education institutions (HEIs) that recognise the value of social media and the importance of individual motivation have sought to encourage its use to bolster learning performance. Using social cognitive theory and connectivism theory, we developed a model that theorises the influence of social media and individual motivation (reputation and altruism) on knowledge sharing and learning performance among students in higher education. To test the model, we employed covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB SEM) on survey data that was collected using questionnaires from 407 students enrolled in the top 10 private universities in West Malaysia. Congruently, we established the utility of the Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) ratio (which was traditionally confined to variance-based or partial least squares SEM) as a discriminant validity measure for CB SEM. As a result, our study empirically evidences that social media functions (documents exchange, virtual communication, and knowledge formation) and individual motivation (reputation) are core factors that HEIs can leverage to encourage knowledge sharing and improve learning performance among tertiary students. The paper concludes with a discussion of its implications, limitations, and future research directions. • Social media positively enhances students' knowledge sharing. • Social media positively influences students' learning performance. • Reputation positively influences knowledge sharing behaviour. • Document exchange is a key driver of students' learning performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]