Reader Response Draft #4

In the article, “How Can Southeast Asia’s Clean Energy Transition Be Sped Up?” Ha (2019) wrote about energy experts addressing the important issue of clean energy transition in Southeast Asia. He mentioned Moniz, Chief Executive of the Energy Futures and Nuclear Threat Initiative, talking about deploying “low-carbon technologies and solutions” for energy to lower emissions in the ASEAN region. He also mentioned Moniz addressing nuclear fusion and hydrogen power as a substitute for solar and wind power in Singapore due to the country’s lack of natural resources and land. In addition, he mentioned how Wong, Group Chief Executive of utilities company Singapore Power, had stated that Southeast Asian nations must consider both their consumption and production of energy. The nations should consider new energy sources and ways to reduce energy consumption while maintaining the same lifestyle to comply with the Paris Agreement. Ha also stated that ASEAN should consider replacing coal to produce energy as it produces the most greenhouse gases. He also mentioned that Moniz had proposed to reduce costs in the power, industrial, and transportation sectors to be able to transition towards renewable energy. In my opinion, solar energy is the most promising clean energy source in terms of energy focus to reduce carbon footprints impacting global warming in Singapore.

Firstly, Singapore has implemented various solar energy methods across the country to reduce its carbon footprint. In a Business Times article, Tan (2021) mentioned to achieve the reduction of carbon footprints, Singapore has deployed the usage of solar panels at Marina Barrage where the deployment of solar energy is expected to quadruple by 2025, with a goal of 1.5 GWp by 2025 and at least 2 GWp by 2030. Tan then mentioned that by 2030, this corresponds to around 350,000 households being powered each year, or about 3% of the total estimated energy usage. This shows one of the active measures that Singapore has taken in planning to reduce carbon footprints. Adding on, a press release by JTC (2020) mentioned that solar panels would be installed along industrial land and rooftops as an initiative towards transitioning to clean energy. The process is intended to provide more than 82MWp of solar energy capacity to the 2030 Singapore 2030 Green Plan by supplying over 78,000MWh of electricity to power over 14,600 households and lowering more than 32,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

Secondly, Singapore has also taken further innovative measures to expand its solar energy production to play its role to reduce its carbon footprint. In the article, Tan (2020) mentioned that developers in Singapore are putting making use of water bodies to install solar PV panels. The floating PV systems will be installed in the Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs. Tan mentioned that Tengeh Reservoir will also see the completion of a massive 60 megawatt-peak (MWp) floating solar PV installation in 2021. The system will surpass those at the Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs by a magnitude of forty times. Tan concluded in the article that Solar PV systems are extremely adaptable and could be integrated into the urban environment in a variety of ways where one of the methods is to mount lightweight solar panels onto pedestrian walkways and bus shelters which are commonly found around Singapore.

Although using solar energy has its benefits, it still has its limitations. Each solar panel cell is only limited to how much energy it can generate into energy. This makes solar PV alone unable to power the whole of Singapore. According to Speed (2021), Singapore's dense cloud cover and urban shadows cause problems like intermittency. This results in Singapore being unable to dependably generate enough baseload electricity from solar energy to meet Singapore’s current level of demand as the average intensity of solar radiation across a full year is not very high. However, this constraint could be solved with technology towards a more efficient cell design to absorb a larger amount of energy in a shorter amount of time.

Hence, while solar energy is the solution to reducing carbon emissions that contribute to global warming in Singapore, it has limitations and drawbacks in what it can do in today's world. Despite the setbacks, significant progress is still being achieved every year with the technologies available.

References

Ha, T. (2021, January 11). How Can Southeast Asia’s Clean Energy Transition Be Sped Up? Eco-Business. https://www.eco-business.com/news/how-can-southeast-asias-clean-energy-transition-be-sped-up/

 

Jurong Town Corporation (2020, April 20). Singapore Meets Its 2020 Solar Deployment Target. https://www.jtc.gov.sg/about-jtc/news-and-stories/press-releases/singapore-meets-its-2020-solar-deployment-target#:~:text=The%20solar%20installation%20that%20helped,and%20operated%20by%20Sembcorp%20Industries

Tan, C. (2021, February 5). Commentary: Singapore’s Dreams of Becoming a Solar-Powered Nation Have Almost Arrived. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/singapore-solar-panel-roof-floating-clean-energy-carbon-emission-717031

 

Tan, E. (2021, April 21). Solar Shines as Singapore’s Energy Alternative; International Collaboration Is Key. The Business Times. https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/solar-shines-as-singapores-energy-alternative-international-collaboration-is-key

 

Speed, P. A. (2021, May 4). Commentary: Why Hasn’t Solar Energy in Singapore Taken off in a Big Way After So Long? Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/solar-energy-singapore-panels-cloudy-unpredictable-electricity-1882996