On 16 Feb 2024, DPM and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong delivered the Budget 2024 Statement in Parliament, shedding light onto Singapore’s energy future as well as upcoming sustainability incentives, primarily targeted for small-medium businesses.
This article will help you understand all of the above, and also how solar for your home or your business can potentially fit into the equation.
Table of Contents
How Does The Future Of Energy Supply In Singapore Look Like?
Majority of Singapore’s energy supply is currently fueled by natural gas, which constitutes about 95% of our total energy supply. However, with growing energy demands, expiring natural gas contracts from overseas neighbours which may compromise energy security, as well as goals to advance Green Plan 2030, Singapore is currently working on building a 2nd LNG terminal, actively planning towards hydrogen as a renewable energy source through the National Hydrogen Strategy, as well as potentially exploring geothermal & nuclear sources, which are unconfirmed & still require further assessment.
Why Is Singapore Considering Hydrogen As An Energy Source?
Hydrogen, while acknowledged to be “nascent, costly and risky”, is Singapore’s next venture into low-carbon alternatives. While occasionally criticized for its heavy carbon emissions during its transport process, Singapore has been taking prudent steps to ensure hydrogen is produced both cleanly & efficiently in Singapore.
For example, according to Leong Jia Yong, a Senior Analyst in the Hydrogen & Sustainable Energies Office of Energy Market Authority, Singapore plans to uses ammonia as a hydrogen carrier. This is because the fundamental issue of transporting hydrogen is that it takes up much space, which incurs much cost and energy to compress and transport. Liquefying it through converting hydrogen to ammonia effectively helps to reduce such complications, making hydrogen production efficient.
In terms of next steps, there will be testing and deployment of ammonia for power generation and bunkering on Jurong Island, as well as a $5b Future Energy Fund to set up the critical infrastructure for low carbon alternatives.
Where Is Solar In Singapore’s Energy Roadmap?
Solar, in fact, has and always been a top priority when it comes to renewables, and achieving a clean & energy efficient future. In fact, solar is second in line out of Singapore’s 4 Switches when it comes to Singapore’s Energy Story, outranking regional power grids & low-carbon alternatives, working towards “achieving a new solar target of at least 2 gigawatt-peak (GWp) by 2030, and an energy storage deployment target of 200 MW beyond 2025.”.
However, the primary issue with solar being the sole provider of renewable energy in Singapore still lies with a common limitation we’ve struggled with through the ages – a lack of land space, and the fact that we need many, many panels.
How Much Solar Is Needed To Power The Entirety Of Singapore’s Energy Supply?
For context, the average system size for a terrace house is about 20 panels, which provides about 50% of monthly electricity consumption, taking into account solar sellback schemes in Singapore.
In this case of a terrace house, it will be about 700kWh of total monthly electricity consumption. Since only 50% of electricity, on average, is powered by solar, we can safely say that just 350kWh of electricity is powered a 20 panel solar system.
The annual electrical consumption of the nation was 54.9 TWh in 2022, which averages to about 4.5 TWh, or a whopping 4,500,000,000 kWh per month.
Doing the math, that will be approximately 257,142,857 panels required, and given that each panel is 2 meters tall by 1 meters wide, that will be a total of 514.3km^2 of space needed, which is 5/7 the size of Singapore.
Possible? Maybe, if we remove every single building on Singapore and occupy our seas to make way for solar panels.
Practical? Most probably not.
This is why solar is often complimentary to renewable energy efforts in Singapore, due to its cheap costs & synergy with Singapore’s sunny weather, but land space limitations make it such that solar cannot entirely replace our nation’s energy supply.
Should I Still Consider Installing Solar In Singapore?
Although solar cannot entirely replace our nation’s supply, solar still remains an extremely affordable option for electricity, if you’re a landed homeowner in Singapore or a business owner. By swapping to solar, you will be able to enjoy both instant & long-term savings.
Below is an example of an electricity bill by a solar testimonial, Julius, who, since installing solar in his premises, has been saving $180 per month from solar.
On top of which, installing solar for businesses is not only extremely cost-saving, but also an attractive value proposition for future business partnerships, as highlighted here:
For firms to be competitive, they also need to embrace sustainability. SMEs today sometimes still treat sustainability as an additional imposition and cost. But going green can be a competitive advantage. Because the MNEs are already looking to reduce their carbon footprint, and they expect their suppliers to do the same. In other words, to play in the MNE value chain, our own companies must be “sustainability-ready”.
DPM and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong
Find Out How Much Solar Costs For Your Home, Or Your Business
If you’ve always wanted to explore solar, but are unfamiliar with its potential costs & savings, GetSolar’s online solar simulator allows you to instantly generate an online quote within minutes for free, allowing you to fully understand how much solar would potentially cost you, and how much you can save. Give it a spin here!
