SINGAPORE
Despite being a small country, Singapore has significant interest in renewable energy RD&D. Noteworthy milestones in Singapore’s Ocean Renewable Energy (ORE) activities include the development of various marine renewable energy test bedding sites, and collaborative projects between academic research institutes and industry, all of which benefit from the support of public agencies.
Evidence of this collaboration is seen through the establishment of the Renewable Energy Integration Demonstrator-Singapore (REIDS), an initiative led by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and National Environment Agency (NEA), which will be the first hybrid micro-grid in the tropics. REIDS will test and demonstrate the integration of different renewable energy sources including wind and tidal and ensure these energy sources operate well together.
At the regional level, the Southeast Asian Collaboration for Ocean Renewable Energy (SEAcORE) was initiated by ERI@N with partners from Southeast Asia to promote renewables and create new markets for partner industrial firms (ERI@N Report, 2012-2014). The Asian Centre for Energy (ACE) has recognised ERI@N’s efforts in creating the SEAcORE network, making it its official technical working group on ORE in the Southeast Asia region.
On the commercial front, developments in tidal energy have been championed by Atlantis Resources Corporation whose headquarters are located in Singapore with sizable projects around the world; wave energy efforts have been spearheaded by Hann-Ocean Pte Ltd, which has developed the Drakoo (Dragon King of Ocean) wave energy converter for commercial deployment in Singapore waters. While the technical and economic feasibility of ocean energy in Singapore waters is still being studied, a number of projects, currently in various stages of completion, are being carried out countrywide. These projects, together with the enabling ecosystem of Singapore, form the basis of this report.
OCEAN ENERGY POLICY
NATIONAL STRATEGY AND TARGETS
To further enhance the energy efficiency across all sectors of the Singapore economy, Singapore aims to “achieve a 35% reduction in economy-wide energy intensity by 2030 (i.e. the amount of energy required to produce each S$GDP) (NCCS, 2012). Singapore is determined to embark on energy efficiency measures to achieve this national target.
With regards to policy tools for Renewable Energy (RE), the Government has set clear rules on the deployment of RE, and provided support to attract RE investments to develop Singapore to be the Research and Development (R&D) centre for RE in the region (IPSOS Consulting, 2012). To that end, the Government has been supporting RErelated RD&D projects through Government grants and other local funding schemes. These also include efforts to aid the industry’s capability of developing potentially promising renewable technologies in Singapore.
Singapore has made significant investments in research and innovation in the sustainability domain. Since 2011, Singapore has announced more than S$800 million of new public sector R&D funding for energy, water, green buildings and addressing land scarcity, a national strategic imperative for a small island3.
RELEVANT LEGISLATION AND REGULATION
The Energy Market Authority (EMA) continues to proactively enhance Singapore’s market and regulatory framework so as to facilitate the deployment of RE sources. For example, in July 2014, EMA issued a Final Determination Paper, making several enhancements to the market and regulatory framework for intermittent generation sources, such as solar energy.
The Final Determination Paper on Enhancements to the Regulatory Framework for Intermittent Generation Sources (IGS) in the National Electricity Market of Singapore (Energy Market Authority) deals with the feedback from different industry players (specifically on solar), electricity market licensees, companies and the public on how to improve the handling of IGS in Singapore.
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3 More information can be found on http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/industries/industries/alternative-energy.html
