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Singapore

Delegate: Prof. Subodh Mhaisalkar , Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).
Alternate: Dr. Srikanth Narasimalu , Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N)

SUPPORTING POLICIES FOR OCEAN ENERGY

NATIONAL STRATEGY
Singapore has set a national target for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 36% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. Singapore is also working towards stabilising its emissions with the aim of peaking around 2030 (Singapore Climate Action Plan, 2016). This makes improving energy efficiency as Singapore’s key strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and plans have been made to expand the scope of current initiatives across all sectors especially the power generation sector (NCCS, MEWR & MND, 2016).

MARKET INCENTIVES
The Green-e Renewable Energy Standard for Singapore allows Green-e Energy certification of renewable energy products throughout Singapore, in order to accelerate the development of renewable generation and renewable electricity markets, and to provide consumers a meaningful mechanism through which they can express demand for renewable electricity (Green-e, 2017). Instead of subsidies, Singapore has taken proactive steps to introduce regulatory enhancements to facilitate the entry of renewable energy when such technologies become commercially viable (EMA, 2017). The Government’s support for renewables mainly comes in the form of funding for Research & Development to develop capabilities within the industry.

PUBLIC FUNDING PROGRAMMES
More than S$800 million public funding has been set aside by the Singapore Government for research in energy, water, green buildings and addressing land scarcity, of which S$140 million is allocated for research into clean energy technologies under the banner of the Energy Innovation Programme Office (EIPO) (EDB, 2015). Ocean renewable energy has been identified as one of the prominent alternative energy by Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) specifically towards remote coastal and island regions as part of its strategic research interests. The Government also welcomes clean technology companies to use Singapore and its islands as a ‘Living Lab’ to testbed and demonstrate innovative solutions before scaling up for the rest of the world. In 2017, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) also secured investments from six clean energy companies worth $500 million for next five years (EDB, 2017).

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

ERI@N, supported mainly by the EDB, focuses on the areas of sustainable energy, energy efficiency infrastructure and socio-economic aspects of energy research. Its mission is to be a centre of excellence for conducting advanced research, development and demonstration of innovative solutions, which have both regional and global impact. The Institute has considerable expertise and strength in areas of offshore energy, which includes wind, wave and tidal energy and complementary technologies, such as energy storage, micro grids, and smart energy systems, and collectively provide an integrated set of expertise from materials design & synthesis, device fabrication and modelling, and systems integration and optimization.

ERI@N’s Wind and Marine (W&M) research programme is aimed at improving the performance, lowering costs and accelerating deployment of offshore renewable technologies specific to the tropics, where unique technology challenges exist. It advances the technology development and commercialization through early collaboration with industry. It works closely with government agencies to understand regional needs, and with local and global renewable energy firms to identify technology gaps and develop the appropriate technologies.

TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION

OPEN SEA TEST SITES

Sentosa – ERI@N Tidal Site
The Sentosa Tidal Test Site is a joint collaboration between Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) and ERI@N, funded by the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Core Innovation Fund. This project aims to showcase tidal energy extraction as a feasible and sustainable energy generating technology in Singapore and to provide opportunities to develop local technologies to harness the energy available in the narrow channel between Singapore and Sentosa. In November 2013, ERI@N and SDC officially launched the Sentosa Tidal Test Site (NTU, 2013). Recent developments on the test site include the deployments of tidal turbines supported from the floating barges. Also, novel concepts such as anti-biofouling coatings are being evaluated for better field performance. The power developed is used for electric lighting on the boardwalk.

Floating hinged turbine support frame to house tidal turbine devices(Left), Scaled (1:3) tidal turbine in tow tank (Middle)
and successful deployment of the turbine at Sentosa Test site. (Right)

ERI@N Tidal Turbine System
In the interest of promoting sustainable energy solutions to achieve energy security with reduced carbon footprint from tropical regions, the Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N) works with international partners in developing and test bedding tidal in-stream energy systems for island conditions with micro grids architecture. Recent developments include the deployment of scaled tidal turbines supported from the floating barges. Image below shows the successful deployment of the first tidal turbine installation at PT BUMWI’s woodchip factory located in the remote Pulau Amutu Besar, Bintuni Bay, West Papua, and Indonesia. The project was developed through a collaborative effort of Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), along with Green Forest Product & Tech Pte. Ltd. (GFPT), and its exclusive supplier PT Bintuni Utama Murni Wood Industries (PT BUMWI), together with SCHOTTEL HYDRO, OceanPixel, Aquatera.

This project is one of the pioneering tidal turbine deployments in Southeast Asia and may act as a model for smaller scale energy developments in coastal areas throughout Southeast Asia. This project also shows that successful deployment of ocean renewable energy technologies could be possible through regional and international collaboration with the involvement of academic and industrial partnership. The island micro grid is currently using diesel generators to power its operations. A hybrid renewable energy solution, including tidal energy, will improve the operations of the island in terms of having a cleaner and relatively cheaper energy source.

The continued monitoring of the deployed solution and of the project’s impact to GPFT and PT BUMWI’s locality will be a key in scaling up such initiatives. The present test bedding effort shows that a similar approach towards adoption of ocean renewable energy is achievable to empower remote islands in the Southeast Asian region. Taking this inspiration, there is now some traction in developing similar projects in locations such as those in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.

Successful development & deployment of a barge based tidal turbine by ERI@N along with its industrial partners: Schottel Hydro, Ocean- Pixel, Aquatera.

OPERATIONAL PROJECTS

Barge based floating tidal system
In the interest of promoting sustainable energy solutions to achieve energy security with reduced carbon footprint from tropical regions, the Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N) works with international partners in developing and test bedding tidal in-stream energy systems for island conditions with micro grids architecture. Recent developments include the deployment of scaled tidal turbines supported from the floating barges. Image below shows the barge based tidal system which is further scalable to any site flow conditions to operate in any south East Asian country. The project was developed through a collaborative effort of Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N) together with Schottel Hydro, OceanPixel and Lita Ocean Pte Ltd.

Barge based floating tidal system

PLANNED DEPLOYMENTS

Renewable Energy Integration Demonstrator-Singapore (REIDS)
REIDS aims to power Pulau Semakau, an island south of mainland Singapore, which serves as a landfill, purely through renewables, including ocean energy. First of its kind in the region, the hybrid micro grid will facilitate the development and commercialization of energy technologies suited for tropical conditions that will help address the growing demand for renewable energy technologies in Asia. REIDS will integrate multiple renewables and novel technologies such as power-to-gas technologies and smart hybrid grids, and enable the development of solutions suited for small islands, isolated villages, and emergency power supplies.

REIDS Onshore: The REIDS onshore project aims to solve engineering, economic, environmental and societal energy transition challenges for off grid communities. It customizes grid science towards remote islandic needs and integrates various renewables. Technologies deployed at the test bed include solar photovoltaic, wind, tidal, energy storage, bioenergy, innovative water desalination, hydrogen production, etc. Presently, work is in progress to make the island energy self-sufficient with its renewable sources.

REIDS Offshore: The offshore renewable energy integration and demonstration (Offshore REIDS) project, also termed as Tropical Marine Energy Centre (TMEC), has been initiated by ERI@N and financially funded by the ClassNK firm (a Japanese classification society) and seeks to pave the way for establishing the world’s first scaled marine renewable energy testing facility for tropical needs. In March 2015, the feasibility study for the test sites was officially launched and is expected to be completed by December 2017. Presently, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the test sites has been carried out to understand the impact of ocean energy system deployment on marine life and environment.

Renewable Energy Integration Demonstrator Singapore

The outcome of this project will be extended towards Singapore’s guidelines and standards development to support local supply chain’s marine energy resource mapping guidelines of new regions, such as our neighbouring region of Southeast Asia and other tropical islands and remote coastal regions. Overall, the present project aims to develop technologies and deployment methodology for meeting energy needs towards the remote island region.

RELEVANT NATIONAL EVENTS

Workshop on Tidal Current Extractable Energy: Modelling, Verification and Validation
The main goal of this workshop is to prepare a Tidal Energy Resource Modelling Guideline report through the study of the various factors affecting the result of the simulations along with code-to-code comparisons. This is likely to be a joint exercise effort concentrating on the accurate modelling and reporting of tidal energy resources. This workshop was organised and hosted by Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), Singapore, through teleconferencing in June 2017.

Workshop on Ocean Energy in Islandic Conditions
This workshop looked at the opportunities and barriers to local adoption of ocean renewable energy in island and remote coastal areas of the Asian region from the perspective of various stakeholders and the possible solutions to address the challenge. It also tackled the crucial roles of the different stakeholders (academia, policy makers, industry and end users) that each has to play to contribute to the uptake of ocean renewable energy in Southeast Asia. This workshop was organised and hosted by Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), Singapore in March 2017.

Asian Conference on Energy, Power and Transportation Electrification (ACEPT)
The second Asian Conference on Energy, Power and Transportation Electrification (ACEPT) was organized by Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), as a part of Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES), and was held in conjunction with Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW 2017) in October 2017. ACEPT 2017 cooperated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to bring together the world leading experts to present emerging topics on energy, power, and transportation electrification.

Conference on Energy, Power and Transportation Electrification (ACEPT)

International Floating Solar Symposium (IFSS)
International Floating Solar Symposium was organised by Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) as a part of Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES) and was held in conjunction with Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW 2017) in October 2017.

International Floating solar Symposium

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