Speaker 1: It's a Singapore today top story with Lance and Daniel.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Senior Minister Teo Chee-yin saying Singapore is
Speaker 2: on track to achieving its solar power deployment target of
Speaker 2: about 2 gigawatt peaks by 2030. Now, that's equivalent to
Speaker 2: powering about 350,000 households a year, and it could meet
Speaker 2: around 3% of projected power demand right here in Singapore.
Speaker 2: Gonna have to get used to some new terminology and
Speaker 2: normal kilowatt hour for solar. It's gigawatt peak. Interesting.
Speaker 2: Uh, so, OK, so that's a lot of power. Actually,
Speaker 2: when you think about it, this update is actually a
Speaker 2: very important one. Solar energy is being identified as one
Speaker 2: of Singapore's four key switches to achieve its net zero
Speaker 2: target by 2015, 250, OK. We're not going all in
Speaker 2: on solar, so it's not going to be the main
Speaker 2: thing that it's one of four, diversify, diversify, diversify, right?
Speaker 2: That's the key to success. Professor Lee Po Seng is
Speaker 2: on the show, executive director, Energy Studies Institute, NUS. Professor Lee, hello.
Speaker 2: Hi, thanks for having me. Where are we in terms of,
Speaker 2: I mean, 2050 is not that far away when you
Speaker 2: think about it. Are we ready for solar power to
Speaker 2: to make this line in the sand today to draw
Speaker 2: it like Minister Teo has done and say that we're
Speaker 2: on track to get there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Singapore has actually made good progress in
Speaker 2: solar deployment. So as you pointed out earlier, by the
Speaker 2: end of 2024, the nation had deployed 1.5 gigawatt peak
Speaker 2: of solar energy, surpassing.
Speaker 2: The initial 2025 target ahead of schedule. So this milestones
Speaker 2: reflects the effectiveness of strategic planning, government incentives, and public-private
Speaker 2: collaboration in advancing renewable energy adoptions.
Speaker 2: So the country is on track to meet its 2030
Speaker 2: target of at least 2 gigawatt peak, which is projected
Speaker 2: to supply around 3% of electricity demand and power approximately
Speaker 2: 350,000 households annually. So while this is an important
Speaker 2: A step towards sustainability, it underscores the reality that solar
Speaker 2: alone cannot be the dominant energy source due to land
Speaker 2: constraints and intermittency. So the next phase of Singapore energy
Speaker 2: transition will focus on reintegration, energy storage, and clean electricity imports. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's so important that we diversify like what Daniel was
Speaker 2: saying and
Speaker 2: It's important that we look at nuclear energy, we look
Speaker 2: at hydroenergy that's, that's coming from uh overseas, from uh
Speaker 2: other Southeast Asian countries as well. But isn't it good
Speaker 2: that we're finding more geothermal energy spots here in Singapore?
Speaker 2: You would have heard the news that they found another
Speaker 2: geothermal energy source in Yishun.
Speaker 2: So maybe if we use that, I'm not sure how
Speaker 2: much of power that could generate, but it's a good
Speaker 2: thing as well because then we could be looking at cleaner,
Speaker 2: greener energy right here in Singapore and maybe we can
Speaker 2: finally change the image of Yishun.
Speaker 2: What do you think? Probably I think certainly the nothing
Speaker 2: is actually off the table, right, but Singapore is actually
Speaker 2: a very new renewable energy challenge city states. So we
Speaker 2: will need to constantly look for new sources of energy,
Speaker 2: including the death of Joe Turner, and if you refer
Speaker 2: to the recent budget announcement, there's also going to be
Speaker 2: a more
Speaker 2: Comprehensive studies on the feasibilities of nuclear power, right? So
Speaker 2: I think it will be an ongoing exercise to actually
Speaker 2: evaluate different solutions as the technology matures. So I'm actually
Speaker 2: very hopeful that in time to come, we will be
Speaker 2: able to embrace newer forms of energy, right, to complement
Speaker 2: our energy mix.
Speaker 2: What are we talking about in terms of what will
Speaker 2: practically benefit the most from solar power? Are they gonna,
Speaker 2: are we gonna channel it to certain sectors, certain areas
Speaker 2: of Singaporean life that will really benefit because I think
Speaker 2: the first touch.
Speaker 2: For a lot of Singaporeans with this rollout of solar power,
Speaker 2: when all those panels appear on top of the HDB blocks, right?
Speaker 2: We've got all that land surface area on top of
Speaker 2: the HDB blocks, very well used. We also have a
Speaker 2: lot of cloud cover in Singapore, unfortunately, um, so you know,
Speaker 2: how's it going to benefit Singapore life? Mm. So solar
Speaker 2: energy is being integrated into multiple sectors. I think just
Speaker 2: now you already point out right for as part of
Speaker 2: public infrastructure, right, especially the solar Nova program.
Speaker 2: Uh, has rolled out solar panels across HDB estates, schools
Speaker 2: and government buildings, and we are also seeing floating solar farms, right?
Speaker 2: So Singapore has deployed large scale firm.
Speaker 2: Solar farms, such as the 60 megawatt peak installation at
Speaker 2: the Tengga Reservoir. Then there's also the commercial and industrial, right?
Speaker 2: For example, companies like Capo, Sancorp, and Sunset have adopted
Speaker 2: rooftop solar for energy cost savings. Then there's also the
Speaker 2: aspect on smart grids and EV charging, right? Solar energy
Speaker 2: is now being integrated into the microgrid systems and the
Speaker 2: EV charging networks.
Speaker 2: So that a variety of applications that can take advantage
Speaker 2: of the green electrons coming from solar power. Can big
Speaker 2: industries also harness solar energy or are we focusing more
Speaker 2: on these households, the Singapore households?
Speaker 2: I think it just spans across both the the bigger
Speaker 2: energy guzzler, right, for example, the commercial, the buildings, the
Speaker 2: industrial building, as well as the residential, but I think
Speaker 2: what we should be mindful is actually if you look
Speaker 2: at some of the the commercial or industrial applications, right,
Speaker 2: because of the higher energy intensity, just relying
Speaker 2: On solar alone won't be able to satisfy the entire
Speaker 2: energy demand, right, just to use example, right? So if
Speaker 2: you are thinking of having on-site solar power to supply
Speaker 2: to data centers, right, that would be not sufficient, right,
Speaker 2: because we are now talking about, for example, racks going
Speaker 2: up to 140 kilowatt.
Speaker 2: In time to come 500 kilowatt or even 1 megawatt.
Speaker 2: So the energy intensity or the energy demand is actually
Speaker 2: very intense. So just solar alone won't be able to
Speaker 2: set such energy intensive application, but if it's actually more residential,
Speaker 2: then yes, especially for, for example, the the landed properties,
Speaker 2: I think solar will then be able to satisfy at
Speaker 2: least to a large degree the demand.
Speaker 2: What are the costs of rolling this out on a
Speaker 2: larger scale, like I said,
Speaker 2: We do have the cloud cover to contend with. We
Speaker 2: have the rainy seasons to contend with and solar panels,
Speaker 2: I mean, they're getting cheaper though, right? The solar panels
Speaker 2: from China are getting cheaper though la.
Speaker 2: Yes, certainly. So the cost actually comes from a number
Speaker 2: of aspects. First, as you point out, installation costs, right,
Speaker 2: especially in our very dense urban environment, right, due to
Speaker 2: the limited space, as well as the engine constraints. So
Speaker 2: the cost of installation will be actually higher. The second
Speaker 2: is actually the grid connection and the infrastructure, right, so
Speaker 2: it actually requires like transformers, smart inverters.
Speaker 2: An energy management system for stability. So again, this will
Speaker 2: be another cost element. Then there's operations and maintenance, right,
Speaker 2: because of our humid climate that accelerates the panel, the degradation,
Speaker 2: necessitating frequent cleaning and maintenance. So there's also an operation
Speaker 2: and maintaining cost. Then to address the intermittency, right, there
Speaker 2: may be a need to also integrate energy storage system.
Speaker 2: So all this actually adds
Speaker 2: To the total cost of deploying solar in our urban context. Right.
Speaker 2: So when you look at maybe a housing estate and
Speaker 2: it wants to deploy a lot of these uh photovoltaicic
Speaker 2: type solar panels, that means we've got to have storage facilities,
Speaker 2: we need to have transformer, uh, facilities, units all within
Speaker 2: that area so that it can quickly harness the energy,
Speaker 2: save the energy, and then distribute the energy.
Speaker 2: For the context of high-rise residential estates, right, because most
Speaker 2: of these solar installation will be on the rooftop. So,
Speaker 2: as you can imagine, right, so the footprint is actually limited.
Speaker 2: In fact, I think the most, if not all of
Speaker 2: the solar energy that is generated will
Speaker 2: We actually used to supply the common areas, for example,
Speaker 2: the lighting, potentially the leaves, right. So I think that
Speaker 2: pretty much actually consumes the most of the on-site generation
Speaker 2: of solar power. So the needs for, for example, on-site,
Speaker 2: the energy storage system in this particular use case is
Speaker 2: actually the, the lesser, right? But if you are actually
Speaker 2: looking at other application whereby the on-site demand or consumption.
Speaker 2: of solar energy is actually not as high, then suddenly
Speaker 2: you need to look at either feeding the solar energy
Speaker 2: into the grid, right, or you have to then to
Speaker 2: cater for the energy storage system to actually store the
Speaker 2: excess energy that is generated and actually use it, for example,
Speaker 2: at night. Right, right. Are we also looking at still
Speaker 2: getting a lot of solar power coming from Australia because
Speaker 2: there was talk that we could be putting these underwater caves.