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SINGAPORE: The Singapore government has set aside S $ 49 million to fund low-carbon energy research and benchmark testing efforts in the utilization and storage of hydrogen and carbon capture.
In his keynote address at Singapore International Energy Week on Monday (October 26), Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said: “Hydrogen has enormous potential as another clean form of energy, if no, a cleaner form of energy.
“We will look to see how we can combine the use of hydrogen with our existing LNG (liquefied natural gas) mix to have an even cleaner energy mix for Singapore.”
Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia on Monday to see how they can “push forward low-carbon solutions,” including hydrogen, the use of carbon capture and storage solutions and renewable energy trading, Chan said.
The Science, Technology and Research Agency (A * STAR), the Economic Development Board (EDB), the Energy Market Authority (EMA), the National Secretariat for Climate Change (NCCS) and the National Research Foundation (NRF ) are involved in the Low Carbon Energy Research Funding Initiative, the agencies said in a separate press release.
The initiative will be “co-driven” by EDB and EMA to ensure that the projects are relevant to the industrial and energy sectors, with A * STAR as the implementing agency on behalf of the government, according to the statement.
“Research projects could include technologies that enable the effective capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from low-concentration emission sources in the industrial and energy sectors, and convert CO2 into useful products such as construction materials, reclamation sand and synthetic fuels “. the agencies added.
“Benchmarks for emerging technologies, such as blending low-carbon hydrogen with natural gas in combined-cycle gas turbines, will reduce carbon emissions from power generation.
“These testbeds could provide insights into the application of low-carbon technologies in the Singapore context and facilitate future deployment.”
LIVE GREEN
Chan said Singapore hopes its green initiatives and energy management system can be “an inspiration to urban societies around the world.”
“We will have to review the way we consume, we produce things for ourselves. And very importantly, we have to look at how we provide transportation solutions for the next stage of our growth, “said the minister.
“Big changes start with small steps. To achieve that high-quality lifestyle we aspire to, let’s start with consumption.”
Singapore’s urban design must incorporate the latest science, technology and design methods to reduce resource use, he added.
“And what is very important, in a tropical climate like Singapore, reduce the need for refrigeration by taking advantage of the natural ventilation that accompanies our climate.”
When choosing products, consumers “also have a role to play,” Chan said.
“We can all choose products that are made with less waste, materials that are recycled or sourced sustainably. In fact, this is a growing market for a more environmentally conscious Asian population, “he added.
In production, digitization increases the efficiency of what Singapore can achieve, with the same amount of resources used previously, the minister said.
“The other is the advent of additive manufacturing, or what we call 3D printing. But it goes beyond 3D printing. Additive manufacturing, combined with data and digitization, has the potential to revolutionize the way things are produced and the amount of resources required to do so, “he added.
Regarding transport, the Government will review three aspects next year, mainly “how we move people, how we move logistics and how we electrify our transport fleet,” said Mr. Chan.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new opportunities for people to collaborate, he said.
“Together with the data that we have now, for Singapore, as a tiny little island, we can review the entire urban design of Singapore, where we can minimize the need for people to move from one place to another, whether for work or for fun, and at the same time increase the quality of interactions. “
Reiterating that Singapore intends to phase out internal combustion engines by 2040, Chan said that for each combustion engine that is phased out and converted to an electric vehicle, emissions can potentially be reduced by 50 percent.
“That is a huge boost to our efforts to provide a cleaner, higher quality environment for our people,” said Mr. Chan.
“But beyond the electrification of our transport fleet, today we are already in consultation with partners to see the next stage of electrification for aviation and the maritime fleet,” he added.
“These are certainly still nascent ideas, but they also have the potential to revolutionize the way we transport people and goods around the world, within a city, with much higher efficiency and much lower emissions.”
GREEN POWER
Singapore has “one of the cleanest ways” to produce energy from fossil fuels, Chan said. About 95 percent of Singapore’s energy production comes from the burning of liquefied natural gas.
“This is a high (benchmark), but I think we can do better,” he added.
Solar power is “probably the most plausible way” for Singapore to have a larger share of its energy mix from renewable sources, he added.
“And that is why, from last year’s goal, we are going to advance, we are going to advance our solar energy production. We aspire for the utilities sector to assume this leadership, ”said the minister, adding that the government“ will try to achieve ”1.5 gigawatt peak (GWp) of solar deployment by 2025.
Singapore’s current goal for solar power, announced in 2019, is to produce enough power by 2030 to meet the annual needs of some 350,000 households, or at least 2 GWp of energy.
“This year, we want to advance it, despite COVID-19, by advancing the deployment of solar energy, and we will catalyze it through public sector initiatives,” Chan said.
“With increased dependence on renewable energy sources, other challenges will arise. We have to solve the problem of intermittence and storage will be a key problem that we have to solve. ”
Singapore recently implemented its first utility-scale energy storage system at a substation in Woodlands, with a capacity equivalent to powering more than 200 four-room HDB homes in one day, EMA said in October.
READ: Singapore deploys energy storage systems to help maintain a reliable source of solar energy supply
To help address the intermittent nature of solar energy, EMA and Keppel Offshore and Marine have jointly awarded a research grant to a consortium led by Envision Digital on energy storage systems, Chan announced.
This will see the deployment of Singapore’s first stacked energy storage system. If successful, it can potentially “save 40 percent of occupied land for a typical energy storage solution,” he added.
With more solar power, Singapore will also have a more decentralized power grid, the minister said.
“It will be quite different from the old and existing network, where we have producers pumping electrons to users. Instead, in the next generation, we can see and imagine a situation where consumers can also, at certain times, be producers of energy that returns electrons to the decentralized grid, ”said Mr. Chan.
“To run this decentralized network and balance it in real time, we will need new technologies.
“The good news is that today we have technologies of this type in digital and if we can take advantage of this, work closely with our research community, we can have a new network architecture for Singapore in the next 50 years away. from the centralized network to a decentralized network with dynamic load balancing throughout the day, during the weeks. ”
GREEN MARKET STRUCTURES
Singapore will need to make sure it has the “right market structures, the right incentives to drive the right behavior in a long-term sustainable way,” Chan said.
To give power producers “greater certainty”, EMA will introduce an advanced capacity market, the minister said, with more details to be announced soon.
Singapore will also explore how it can strengthen the architecture of the regional power grid, he added.
“We will start with the import of 100 megawatts of electricity over a two-year trial period, to see how the market works, to see how technical challenges can be overcome,” said Mr. Chan.
“This will allow the region to share clean energy sources that different countries may have, and we will start this with Malaysia. Once the concept takes off, we can extend this to other regional players. ”
READ: Singapore to import electricity from Malaysia in two-year trial
Singapore will be part of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Energy Integration Project, said the minister, describing it as a “pioneer” for a broader ASEAN power grid system.
Concluding his speech, Chan said, “We fully intend to green our consumption by living green, to green our production by ensuring our network is more efficient, and we want to work with like-minded partners to capitalize on the global market. for more sustainable solutions “.
He said Singapore is not going to “wait for the COVID-19 (pandemic) to pass and get back to good times.”
“Instead of waiting, we are going to start today. Learning to live in a COVID world, investing in the long term for both a COVID world and a post-COVID world, the plans we have announced today will not be realized in the next one, two years, “he added.
“The plans that we have presented today will not only be for the next two years either. Instead, we have a long-term vision.”
Singapore is determined to “overcome our energy challenge”.
“And gradually, we will incorporate all the necessary components to ensure that Singapore is a bright green spark, where our solutions, our ideas and our collaborations can be an inspiration for the world to make this simple vision a reality.” Mr Chan added.
