SOLAR TEST-BEDDING
ESTHER NG, estherng@mediacorp.com.sg
GRID parity — when solar power prices cost the same as retail electricity — may still be far away, but Singapore is already positioning itself as a solar test-bedding hub for when that day arrives.
Yesterday, five private sector projects were given the Solar Pioneer Award — under the $20-million Solar Capability Scheme (SCS) — for investing and integrating solar energy solutions in building design and test-bedding.
The awards were given out by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) to City Developments Limited’s Tampines Grande, Lend Lease Retail’s 313 at Somerset, Robert Bosch’s regional headquarters building at Bishan, Lonza Biologics’ manufacturing facility at Tuas, and Applied Materials’ manufacturing facility at Upper Changi.
These were chosen for their innovative design and effectiveness. For instance, Tampines Grande combined building materials with solar photo voltaic cells and is the first commercial property in Singapore to use solar thermal panels to power its air-conditioning system. Though not enough to generate electricity for the entire building, it is enough to cool the atrium and two lobbies.
Four public sector projects have also been added to the existing five in the $17-million Clean Energy Research and Test-bedding (Cert) programme. These are Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Changi Airport Budget Terminal, National Environment Agency’s Meteorological Station and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
Out of the $37-million fund from Cert and SCS, $8 million has been given out to 14 projects — nine from Cert and five from SCS. These projects complement the Housing Development Board’s $31-million solar test-bedding project which aims to fit solar panels in 30 HDB precincts by 2015. With these new projects, Singapore’s installed base of solar systems will increase five-fold from 200 kilowatts last year to about 5 megawatts.
The performance and climatic impact data from these test-bed sites will be captured by the newly-launched National Solar Data Repository — jointly set up by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic.
The cleantech industry is expected to generate $3.4 billion in value-added and create 18,000 jobs by 2015.
From TODAYOnline.com, News – Friday, 22-May-2009; see the source article here.
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