Kang Chanwoo, Liu Guangyuan, Sun Xiuqi, Tran Quang Dat
Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin
95% of Singapore’s electricity is generated using natural gas. While natural gas gives Singapore a stable and well-connected electrical grid, it is unsustainable due to the high environmental and energy cost in extraction. Solar energy as an alternative to natural gas has been implemented in recent year. However, hydropower research in Singapore is still in its infancy. According to Meteorological Service Singapore, it rains an average of 167 days a year and much of the rain is heavy. Furthermore, Singapore has 8000 km of drains, rivers and canals. These gives Singapore a lot potential in harnessing hydropower from rainfall. Our group aims to examine the feasibility and efficiency of hydropower generation using Singapore’s rainfall, with minimal modifications to existing infrastructure. In particular, our project focuses on generating power from the rainwater harvesting system deployed by newly built HDB flats. We assembled a prototype with a small hydro turbine, water hose and a funnel to examine the effects of various parameters on the efficiency of hydropower generation. From the data collected and studies done on Singapore’s infrastructure, we examined whether hydropower from rainfall collected by buildings would prove to be a viable supplement to Singapore’s energy supply. While its prospects initially seemed promising, much remains to be developed and researched on, for the results from our experiment falls short of our expectation. However, it is still possible that hydropower generation from rain fall could be integrated into buildings and underground drainage systems to generate electricity on a larger level.
Keywords: Energy and Climate, Hydropwer, Rainfall