Path to sustainable Singapore starts with cleaner energy

Climate action took center stage in Singapore’s recently announced budget, an acknowledgement by authorities that true societal progress can take place only when we care for the planet. A major item on the agenda, the Singapore Green Plan 2030 is a mandate for everyone with implications across businesses, communities and each of us as individuals.

This renewed sustainability commitment shows that things cannot operate in silo – transportation, energy, agriculture, environment, people are all interconnected. Singapore too is part of a growing region with collective sustainability goals achievable only by multilateral collaboration.

One critical focus area within the plan – the energy reset – looks at Singapore’s energy sources, tackling decarbonization at its root by encouraging greater usage of cleaner fuels, accelerating deployment of solar, increasing power generation efficiency with new generations of hydrogen gas-fired plants, and ramping up clean electricity imports.

Organizations powering the nation need to progressively adopt a new mentality and make conscious decisions around the energy production value chain. Where does electric power comes from? How efficient are power plants? Where do the by-products go? Every step should be mapped and optimized for decarbonization, with support and collaboration of the wider industry.

Tax and tech will shape tomorrow

Singapore contributes a total of 0.1 percent of global emissions today, and to reduce overall emissions and pave a more sustainable pathway ahead, the Government is looking to gradually increase carbon taxes from $5 per tonne to between S$10 and S$15 per tonne by 2030.

This will provide the impetus for change. As alternative energy sources such as hydrogen, biomass, ammonia, and more are still being developed and scaled, power providers will need to reduce their emissions to minimize upcoming tax burdens. Carbon capture technologies would help in managing this. Apart from power plants, other large direct emitters such as refineries and petrochemical plants would also benefit from implementing a more sustainable approach.

In addition, intelligent solutions powered by artificial intelligence and data analytics can provide power plants the ability to reduce fuel costs, lower emissions and raise plant efficiency. Mitsubishi Power has taken this approach by validating TOMONIₜₘ digital solutions and gas turbines for power plants at our T-Point 2 facility in Japan. This allows us to monitor utilization rates, provide O&M support, enhance performance, and automatically identify and address reliability issues to make power systems more resilient, cost efficient and fuel efficient.

The constant upgrading of solutions and technologies will continue to give us creative ways to reduce emissions, especially when renewable solutions are still limited in scale.  

Partnerships critical to introduce low-carbon alternatives into the grid

Singapore has seen success in transitioning to liquefied natural gas as its main fuel source by increasing its imports from neighboring countries. As it looks to the next phase of the energy transition to support Green Plan 2030, potentially pursuing hydrogen as a fuel source, these relationships will remain crucial. Building on our strategic location, Singapore must continue to increase cooperation and partnership with neighboring counterparts and the region at large to explore cleaner energy options that make up for its lack of wind, geothermal and hydroelectric power. This will also mitigate any future energy crunches that could occur either from political or climate related challenges.

One way is by uncovering solutions with this “ultimate clean fuel”, hydrogen, through greater public-private partnerships and increased collaboration with the government. Trials have already kickstarted at SP Group’s concept lab in Woodleigh, where green hydrogen is generated through electrolysis and powered by solar energy. Singapore can also consider enhancing current gas power infrastructure that supports the country’s journey towards sustainable power generation: for example, utilizing advanced class gas turbines that can transition to run with other cleaner fuel options. We are seeing progress in this area in other parts of the world such as the United States where facilities such as the Intermountain Power Plant in Utah which is sequentially transitioning capabilities from coal to natural gas and finally to renewable hydrogen fuel for power generation. Such innovative experimental trials and energy infrastructure development will support the introduction of the fuel source to the grid – and are essential to achieving long-term sustainable development.

While hydrogen is for the future, there is also potential for Singapore to generate more power in the near-term from ammonia and biomass. Just look at how Singapore’s shipping industry is exploring a whole supply chain for sea-based ammonia refueling operations to reduce emissions. On top of that, with the country’s goals of reducing waste sent to landfill by 30%[9], biomass and waste-to-energy solutions have many benefits for the city-state. Not only will they support sustainable power generation but they also address growing concerns of waste generated from the country. Case in point is the Tuas South power plant, which combines waste collected from Nanyang Technological University and biomass charcoals, to produce electricity by test-bedding different aspects of gasification technology.

The country’s ability to push for home-grown innovation and greater partnerships will spur the development of decarbonization technologies and drive emerging clean energy solutions under the Research, Innovation & Enterprise Plan 2025.

It is imperative that Singapore’s sustainability journey incorporates decarbonized energy solutions. The energy reset provides us a pathway on how we can positively impact society by addressing emissions and exploring cleaner energy options. With creative ideas, new technologies, and a variety of public-private alliances, significant decarbonization; sustainable living and a green economy are within reach. What do you think are the opportunities and challenges facing Singapore and could its approach provide a blueprint for others around the region?

Written by: Osamu Ono, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Mitsubishi Power Asia Pacific