Singapore's floating solar farms

The tiny city state of Singapore punches above its weight in terms of C02 emissions, being one of Asia's worst offenders.

In an effort to combat this, the island nation has turned its attention to renewable energy. Singapore has no rivers to power hydroelectricity plants and its light breezes are incapable of turning turbines, leaving solar energy as the country's only viable option.

However, according to Jen Tan, Senior Vice President of Sembcorp, harnessing the power of the sun in this tropical country is not as easy as some might think.

Jen Tan: "So, after exhausting the rooftops, the available land, which is very scarce, the next big potential is actually our water area and we've got many reservoirs in Singapore that we can do floating, dual use floating and reservoir at the same time."

A recent addition to Singapore's coastline, this solar farm extends out into the Johor Strait which separates the island from Malaysia. Anchored to the ocean floor, the farm's 13,000 panels are capable of generating 5 megawatts, enough to supply almost 1500 flats with electricity all year round.

The farm will soon be dwarfed by a 122,000 panel solar plant being developed at Tengeh Reservoir which, when completed, will be among the largest in South East Asia.

Singapore intends to increase its solar energy use four fold to fulfil around 2 percent of the nation's power needs by 2025, and 3 percent by 2030.

Subhod Mhaisalkar Executive, Director of the Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University, hopes that this figure will be surpassed.

Subhod Mhaisalkar: "I don't think Singapore has a choice. Singapore has to consider every possible option for solar cell deployment so that solar photo electricity or solar electricity can contribute anywhere between 10 to 20 percent of Singapore needs in a long-term basis." View Less