An SG sustainable development sample

1. Introduction

Being sustainable should not be considered as an alternative or a trade-off to economic

development and so all over the world is active to develop the global sustainable development.
While technology is blamed for much of the pollution that contributes to global warming,
it may also provide the solution to the problem. Current issues on global warming are negative
effects of technology and environmental factors.
Research into new methods of generating power and electricity is abundant; experts
hope to find cleaner, renewable sources of energy to replace the finite supply of fossil fuels and
reduce global warming and climate change. New methods such as wind turbines, solar power
and hydro-electric power are under scrutiny and are constantly subject to trails to improve the
efficiency of existing systems of the earth.
To support the global sustainable development, Singapore is exploring ways to increase
the amount of space available for the deployment of solar PV panels. While most solar PV
panels are deployed on land or rooftops, water bodies with significant areas present great
potential for harnessing solar energy, especially in land-scarce Singapore. A one MWp floating
solar PV system test-bed was launched at Tengeh Reservoir, in the western part of Singapore.
The world's largest floating solar photovoltaic cell test-bed measuring 1ha and
containing 10 different solar photovoltaic systems was launched on Tuesday Oct25, 2016 by
Masagos Zulkifli , Minister for the Environment and Water Resources of Singapore.
The $11-million test-bed - the size of about 100 five-room Housing Board flats located
at Tengeh Reservoir in Tuas is been using to study the performance and cost-effectiveness of
the various systems.

2. Objectives

(a) To pursuit of clean and renewable energy development, which is a venture into greater
opportunities and growth, and also a necessary step into the green era.
(b) To get the maximum solar source for limited space of Singapore, a highly dense city.
(c) To meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SGDs) under the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, including the six SDGs which the 2018 High-Level Political
Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will review in-depth.
(d) Towards a sustainable and resilient Singapore.
(e) To integrate nature of Singapore into the Garden City and prudently managed scarce
energy resources.
(f) To position Singapore as a living lab to test and commercialise innovative urban solutions

3. Strategies and actions taken

This project has been successful using a lot of strategies and actions.
Each solar photovoltaic system has a capacity of 1 kilowatt peak and will be studied with
some 100 sensors and the results pitted against one another. The floating system is also be
compared against a 20 kilowatt peak roof-top system that has been constructed in the vicinity
of Tengeh Reservoir.
The test-bed is an initiative by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and national
water agency of Singapore. The scientific evaluation of the various solar photovoltaic systems
will be conducted by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (Seris).
Examples of systems being tested include one that uses bi-facial solar cells which allow
sunlight to enter from both sides, and another that has an "active cooling" feature where water
is pumped onto the solar cells to cool them down to improve their performance.
 The Public Utilities Board (PUB), Singapore will also study the environmental impact
on the reservoir. This includes the impact on water quality and biodiversity of the reservoir as
a result of the photovoltaic installations.
4. Results
1
Floating solar photovoltaic cells are becoming an increasingly attractive way for
Singapore to harness sunlight due to limitations in roof space, and also for their higher
performance.
This project can be produced up to 20 per cent more efficient than roof-top systems in
tropical countries, and 5 per cent more efficient in temperate countries.
This is brought on by cooling effects provided by the water body the solar panels are
floating on.
Comprising rows of floating solar panels atop a hectare of water, the test-bed feeds
energy to the national power grid. It has thus far performed better than rooftop solar panels
because of cooler temperatures in the surrounding environment.
This initiative was a joint collaboration between Economic Development Board, the
Solar Energy Institute of Singapore under the National University of Singapore, and PUB,
Singapore’s National Water Agency.
Building on the results of the test-bed, we are exploring the feasibility of deploying
more floating solar PV systems in Singapore. One of them is a large-scale floating solar PV
system (up to 50 MWp) at Tengeh Reservoir.
Potentially, the energy generated could power about 12,500 four-room flats.1 We are
also conducting environmental studies and consulting environmental groups to study the
possible impact of large scale solar PV systems on natural habitats.
In the view of Ecological Footprint, we need to think how fast we consume resources
which are non-renewable such as Diesel, Oil and gas to produce energy and to measure how
much generate new resources. Using this solar system, we have no issue to generate energy
using non-renewable resources.
The method using coals and oil to get power and electricity produces toxics wastes to
effect the Stratospheric Ozone. This solar system is one of the eliminated way for this issue.

5. Lessons learned

We could get the study of the potential issues such as the following:
Constant movement of floating platform for mechanical stress, at the joints of rigid
structures, on equipotential bonding tape/wire and at the earthing tape connection for
grounding.
Soiling from bird droppings such as bird droppings observed on floating PV modules,
partial shading, reduced performance, less energy yield, cell reserve biased, hot spots, which
can lead to accelerated module degradation.
We learned how to solve them such as the following:
Solutions are part of the O&M routine (i.e. immediate actions / cleaning), barrier
methods, non-barrier methods, ultrasonic, Sonic Repeller.
Solutions for due to proximity to water, high humidity are such as potential induced
degradation (PID), anti-PID modules preferred, corrosions (more aggravated for off-shore
environments, combiner boxes, inverters, metal supporting structures, risk of solar cables
submerged in water, electrical safety, earth leakage, performance drop, system downtime,
structural and anchoring / mooring needs.
Depending on the lessons of this project, we can proceed to get more efficiency
experience of generating power using Solar system. When all the countries imitate this system
to generate the power with abandoned using base of Non-renewable resources such as gas, oil
and coal. They can build more and more amount of similar projects all over the world. Then,
the using of non-renewable resources will be reduced as well as carbon and toxic gases
production also reduced. Hence, the whole world will possess the clean air, water, environment
and one of the global warming issue will be solved later on.

Reference List 2

1. Singapore Straits Times published Oct25, 2016, 9:46AM SGT

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/worlds-largest-floating-solar-photovoltaic-cell-test-
bed-launched-in-singapore

2. World’s largest Floating Solar Testbed Overview & Findings by Dr. Thomas REINDL,
Deputy CEO, Cluster Director, Solar Energy Systems (June8, 2018)
https://d2oc0ihd6a5bt.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/837/2018/06/Thomas-Reindl-
Worlds-Largest-Floating-Solar-Testbed-Overview-and-Findings.pdf

3. Towards a sustainable and resilient Singapore Published by Ministry of Foreign Affairs

(2018)
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/19439Singapores_Voluntary_Natio
nal_Review_Report_v2.pdf

4. Floating PV R&D and Testbed written by Dr. Abhishek KUMAR, Head of Solar System
Technology Group
http://www.seris.nus.edu.sg/activities/Floating-PV-R&D-and-Testbed.html