SINGAPORE, Oct 27 — The government is pumping in S$49 million (RM149.8) to develop low-carbon energy technologies and Singapore’s first floating energy storage system, as part of a series of initiatives to develop a greener and more sustainable power system.
Announcing this yester, the first day of the Singapore International Energy Week, an annual energy conference, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said that the country is looking at how it consumes and manages its energy.
Besides adopting a more sustainable lifestyle, Singapore will also have to “power green” by “relooking the way we produce energy, the way we store energy and the way we have our energy mix”, he added.
What are the new initiatives?
1. S$49 million funding for low-carbon energy technology
The government’s Low-Carbon Energy Research Funding Initiative will support the research, development and demonstration projects in low-carbon energy technologies over the next five years.
Such technologies include hydrogen as well as carbon capture, utilisation and storage solutions, Chan said during the conference held in the Sands Expo and Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands.
He noted that while 95 per cent of Singapore’s energy production comes from the burning of liquefied natural gas, which is considered one of the cleanest ways to produce energy from fossil fuels, the country can do better.
For instance, it can combine hydrogen with existing liquefied natural gas mix for a cleaner energy mix.
The funding initiative involves the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, the Economic Development Board, the Energy Market Authority (EMA), the National Climate Change Secretariat and the National Research Foundation.
In a joint media release yesterday, the agencies said that the funds are to accelerate the technical and economic viability of emerging technologies to reduce Singapore’s carbon emissions, especially in emission-intensive areas such as the power and industrial sectors.
2. Singapore’s first floating energy storage system
Chan also announced that Singapore will pilot a floating energy storage system to address energy storage issues that may crop up as a result of the country’s growing reliance on renewable energy sources such as solar energy.
The energy storage system will be funded by a research grant that was jointly awarded by EMA and Keppel Offshore & Marine (O&M) to a consortium led by tech firm Envision Digital.
“This will see the deployment of Singapore’s first stacked energy storage on Keppel’s floating living lab. If this is successful, it can potentially save 40 per cent of the land (taken by) a typical energy storage solution,” Chan said.
The floating living lab is an offshore test-bed which tests and commercialises promising power and technology solutions for the marine sector.
Providing more details on the pilot in a media release yesterday, EMA and Keppel O&M said that the latter will work with the consortium to deploy a 7.5 megawatt / 7.5 MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system.
The battery will have sufficient capacity to power more than 600 four-room Housing and Development Board flats a day and is Singapore’s largest energy storage system deployment to date.
Findings from the project will be applied to energy storage systems located on mainland Singapore to support power grid stability and resilience. The findings will also facilitate the adoption of more renewable energy, the media release stated.
3. Trial to import electricity from Malaysia
Chan said at the conference that there will be a two-year trial to import 100 MW of electricity from Malaysia in a bid to encourage more players to adopt energy-efficient solutions.
EMA said that it plans to issue a Request for Proposal by March next year, and electricity imports could begin as early as the end of next year. — TODAY
