Like most cities around the world, Singapore is short on land. But with rising awareness over the need to address climate change, the country finds itself facing a daunting new challenge in slashing its carbon emissions.
Measuring just 721 square kilometers, Singapore is half the size of metropolitan London, and is densely populated to boot (with a population of 5.6 million compared with London’s nine million). This appears to be an insurmountable problem for the space-constrained country.
However, the combination of a concerted masterplan by the government to embrace solar energy, an audacious commercial project to pipe in renewable energy from Australia, and the ingenious application of technology to reduce energy use in data centers may just help Singapore chart its way forward as a green data center hub.
Carbon capital
According to a biennial report submitted by the Singapore government last year, the country generated more than 50.9 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2014. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, Singapore agreed to cut emissions intensity from 2005 levels by 36 percent, to be achieved by 2030. Absolute emissions will continue to increase though, under an exemption under country-specific limitations that Singapore claimed, with emissions to peak by 2030.
The uphill battle to reduce its carbon footprint stems from limited renewable energy options. The country currently relies on natural gas for 95 percent of its electricity requirements, piped in via physical gas pipelines or shipped in as liquefied natural gas (LNG). This strategy isn’t set to change any time soon; a Singapore Minister just last month reiterating that natural gas will remain Singapore’s dominant fuel for its energy needs in the foreseeable future.
The lack of hydroelectricity and wind power means that any move toward renewable energy must come in the form of solar power. This explains the plan announced last month to increase solar capacity in Singapore by more than seven times by 2030 through a comprehensive plan to deploy solar panels on rooftops, walls, reservoirs, and even offshore sea space. When fully realized, the plan will bring it to a 2-gigawatt peak (GWp) or around four percent of the country’s total current electricity demand.
