SINGAPORE: It is “technically viable” for Singapore’s power sector to achieve net-zero emissions and aspirations to do so by 2050 are"realistic", an expert committee tasked to examine the future of the country’s energy system said in a report released on Tuesday .
These trends include how electricity demand will rise in the coming decades due to economic growth, digitalisation, and electrification of transport and some other sectors. The scenarios differ on how long the world takes to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic which in turn affects the geopolitical environment and technological advancements.
With these various pathways towards becoming net zero, the committee then came up with several strategies that will enable Singapore to be well positioned for this transition. Hydrogen, particularly low-carbon hydrogen, can also play a major role in Singapore’s supply mix in the medium to long run. Singapore should develop “a national hydrogen strategy” and work with local and international stakeholders to develop a robust hydrogen supply chain, the report said.
This involves creating a “multi-layered grid”, which will be necessary to manage the growth of distributed energy resources that require “grid resources and control mechanisms to evolve beyond the transmission level to be deployed at the distribution level”. “The Government should also work with energy-intensive sectors that are key to Singapore’s economy, such as advanced manufacturing and data centres, to develop deployment roadmaps in advance wherever possible.”
That said, the committee recognised that the transition to net-zero, while feasible, will be “a complex and challenging endeavour with inevitable trade-offs”. On the other hand, there are also opportunities for Singapore to “position itself as a technology frontrunner and become a living lab for innovative energy solutions”.