Make a guess: What’s the average electricity consumption of a Singaporean household? What about Singapore’s total electrical consumption?
In 2018, the average household consumes 421.5kWh of electricity monthly[1]. It’s hard to tell how much power that is, so I did some detective work myself. My ceiling fan has a rating of 75W, so with that amount of power, I can keep my fan on for 234 days. Compare that to my air-conditioner which has a total rating of about 2.2kW. This means that I can only keep it on for 8 days. With these numbers, I think you will also have a better perspective of how much more power an air-conditioner uses, so use your fan more often!
Power rating of devices in my house. (L to R: fan, air-con unit, air-con compressor)
Total energy consumption is projected to increase in future years[2], leading to more fuel being burned for electricity and more carbon emissions. We need to prevent that from happening. One way is to rely on renewable energy. In Singapore, hydro, wind and geothermal energy are not viable[3], hence we have to rely on solar energy. After all, Singapore isn’t Singapore without the sun, so why not make full use of it 🙂
Floating Solar Farm on Tengeh Reservoir (Credit: PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency)
The installed capacity of solar photovoltaics (Solar PVs) has been slowly increasing from 0.4 megawatts-peak (MWp) in 2008 to 349.3MWp in 2019[4]. Singapore’s target capacity is 2GWp by 2030[5]. That’s more than five times the current capacity! One of the projects to get there by 2030 is the establishment of one of the world’s largest floating solar farms[6] in Tengeh Reservoir, which has a capacity of 50MWp[7].
While the 2GWp target seems quite ambitious, what I want to talk about today is not about whether we will get there, but whether solar energy is our solution. It is certainly cleaner than fuels, which is a good thing. But how much energy can we get from the sun?
Remember the earlier question? Singapore’s total electricity consumption in 2018 was 50.4TWh. Considering the annual solar irradiance in Singapore[3] and current solar PV efficiency[8] (I’m going to save you from the math here), we will need 159.5km2 worth of solar panels to meet our energy demands. That’s about 1/5 of our total land area! If you think about it, it sounds absurd to cover that amount of land with solar panels. Of course, we can install solar panels on rooftops, set up floating solar farms, but with electrical consumption projected to increase, so will the land area required.
We can hope that technology advances and increase PV efficiency, but we need to stop blaming technology and look at ourselves. Sure, industries and other sectors have a part to play too, but as individuals, the easiest way to start is at home. Setting the air-conditioner at 25 degrees isn’t going to help. Use a fan instead. Be conscious of your choices.
p.s. here’s an interesting project: the Australia-ASEAN Power Link. What do you think about it? Let me know in the comments!
SDG7: Affordable and Clean Energy
References:
[1] Energy Market Authority. (2019, October 28). Average Monthly Household Electricity Consumption by Dwelling Type, 2005 – 2018. EMA. https://www.ema.gov.sg/cmsmedia/Publications_and_Statistics/Statistics/8RSU.pdf
[2] Energy Market Authority. (2019, October 29). Singapore Electricity Market Outlook (SEMO) 2019. EMA. https://www.ema.gov.sg/cmsmedia/Singapore%20Electricity%20Market%20Outlook%202019.PDF
[3] Energy Market Authority. (2018, May 18). Renewable Energy Overview. EMA. https://www.ema.gov.sg/Renewable_Energy_Overview.aspx
[4] Energy Market Authority. (2020, April 15). Installed Capacity of Grid-Connected Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems by User Type, 2008 – 2019. EMA. https://www.ema.gov.sg/cmsmedia/Publications_and_Statistics/Statistics/47RSU.pdf
[5] Energy Market Authority. (2020, August 11). Solar Photovoltaic Systems. EMA. https://www.ema.gov.sg/Solar_Photovoltaic_Systems.aspx
[6] Lim, J. (2020, August 19). Work begins on Singapore’s largest floating solar farm in Tuas. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/work-begins-on-singapores-largest-floating-solar-farm-in-tuas
[7] National Climate Change Secretariat. (2020, August 20). Renewable Energy. NCCS. https://www.nccs.gov.sg/faqs/renewable-energy/
[8] Speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at the 12th Singapore International Energy Week 2019. (2019, October 29). MTI. https://www.mti.gov.sg/Newsroom/Speeches/2019/10/Speech-by-Minister-Chan-Chun-Sing-at-the-12th-Singapore-International-Energy-Week-2019
[9] Energy Market Authority. (2020). Singapore Energy Statistics 2019. EMA. https://www.ema.gov.sg/Singapore-Energy-Statistics-2019
Thanks for your reply !
Well, you and I are on the same page as far as cutting consumption goes.
You might be interested in this – the possibility of harnessing tidal power, which is being evaluated right now.
https://www.nyk.com/english/news/2019/20190919_02.html
jc
Hi Dr Coleman, yeap that is interesting! I do know that tidal energy generation is not as widely used in Singapore for now and is still being tested, so I am looking forward to it actually. After all, we are surrounded by sea, and that’s something we should take advantage of. (Of course, ensuring it doesn’t damage the coastlines nor coastal ecosystems).
Hi Ernest,
Brilliant post. Love that you went to the trouble to do these calculations, facilitating some outstanding critical thinking. Really like how concise it is too.
Let me ask you though why you’re so quick to dismiss the viability of solar. I mean, far be it from me to dispute the need to attack the root causes of the crisis (I’m on board with that) or to dismiss the reality that PVs do have environmental impacts…
But SG really has a lot of buildings with a lot of roofs. I read a study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114006996) where researchers estimated the viability of a “solar city” on a portion of Seoul’s rooftops, analysing the capacity of this solar city to meet Seoul’s energy demands (which are very high). And the outcome was that this was a major contributor to reducing Seoul’s environmental footprint. I’m not aware of a similar study here, and I believe Seoul gets more sunshine than we do (this is actually a fairly significant issue – the amt of cloud cover in SG), but still, it would be cool if someone would do the analyses based on weather & total roof area.
jc
Hi Dr Coleman, thanks for the comment! Perhaps I was not exactly clear as I did not explicitly state it, but I do support the use of solar energy! I am also supportive of using unconventional spaces such as rooftops to install solar panels, which we also have to balance out with other purposes, such as rooftop farming. Of course like you said, Singapore’s cloud cover is staggeringly high, I’ve read about that too. So there are limitations to using solar. Nevertheless, with solar being the only form of energy we get in Singapore, it’s pretty much the only form of energy we can reliably harvest… so it’s probably our best bet.
Actually, my main point of the post is this: While PV technology still has a long way to go to increase its efficiency (it’s only 15-20% now), I do hope that one day its efficiency will greatly improve and we can go 100% solar (yes I know it’s a really idealistic thought). Of course, with our limited land area (rooftops included), we have to strike a balance between different land uses, hence there’s a limit to how large an area we can cover with solar panels. As such, we also have to reduce our consumption, and not just rely on technology to increase electricity generation efficiency. Hope that clarifies!