2GWp of solar power to be deployed by 2030

The government is exploring vertical solar panel installations.

Singapore expects to deploy 2GWp of solar power by 2030, equivalent to 10% of the city’s peak daily electricity demand, said trade minister Chan Chun Sing at a speech during the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2019.

In line with this target, the minister said the government is on track to reach a target of 350MWp of solar power deployed by 2020. “The government will continue to support the adoption of more solar solutions through streamlining our regulations, the SolarNova programme and the deployment of solar panels on rooftops. HDB aims to deploy solar panels on 1 in 2 HDB rooftops over the upcoming years,” Chan added.

Over the last 10 years, grid-connected solar installations have increased from 30 to over 3,000 in Singapore. The city is currently working to push the efficiency of its solar panels beyond the conventional 15-20%, and Chan said, this will be determined by “whether they can use vertical surfaces over and beyond the horizontal surfaces that they have today.”

“We should expect to see more solar panels to collect solar energy, be it on the reservoirs, be it in the sea, be it on top of the buildings or even the vertical surfaces of our buildings,” he added.

In order to make up for the intermittency of solar energy, Singapore also aims to about 200MW of energy storage solutions beyond 2025. “If we have a network of energy storage solutions across the entire island, it will also help us to manage the stability and resilience of our energy grid,” Chan said.

Natural gas as baseload
Even as the city transitions to low-carbon energy, the government still expects to rely on natural gas for the next 50 years. However, Chan said that they will continue to diversify their sources of natural gas and make upgrades to generation facilities to boost efficiency.

“The technology is moving very fast and we will continue to make sure Singapore stays ahead of the curve, even as we depend very much on natural gas. Singapore will also continue to grow ourselves as an LNG trading hub. This will include studying a potential additional LNG terminal for Singapore, issuing of new LNG import licenses and continuing to strengthen our basic fundamental financial and data support systems,” Chan said.