Singapore

Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian Corp, has used the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York to announce plans to help fund the ambitious 10 GW, $20 billion, Sun Cable Project in the Northern Territory (NT).

The water authority of the city state wants to procure a 50 MW floating solar installation on the Tengeh Reservoir that will be operational by 2021. Details were revealed today by technical consultant DNV GL.

The Dutch banking group will serve as sole mandated lead arranger for the S$50 million loan. A unit of Singapore-based developer Sunseap will use the funds to build a 50 MW portfolio of rooftop PV projects.

Companies keen to offset their carbon emissions will be able to purchase renewable energy certificates at Singapore’s first blockchain-powered marketplace, launched by electricity provider SP Group.

Project developer Sunseap has announced plans for one of the world’s largest PV systems floating on seawater, to be built in the Johor strait which separates Singapore and Malaysia. The 5 MW system is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

The company data center in Singapore will be provided with solar power by Sembcorp Industries under a 20-year PPA. The required electricity will be generated across 900 rooftop PV systems totaling 50 MW.

Singapore’s National Water Agency is seeking proposals to deploy two floating solar plants with a combined capacity of 2.5 MW at the Bedok Reservoir and Lower Seletar Reservoir.

Scientists from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) have announced the development of a new wet chemical process to allow multi-cSi wafers to be cut with diamond wire saw technology, and subsequently textured to reduce their reflectivity.

Singapore-based solar developer Sunseap will develop 60 MW of rooftop PV across “hundreds of rooftops” on the island-state, to supply Microsoft with solar energy. The companies claim the project will be the largest cumulative solar project in Singapore, alongside being the largest of its kind to supply clean energy to a datacentre in the country.

The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are on track to make solar and other renewables account for 23% of the region’s total primary energy supply (TPES) by 2025, but governments will need to create better policy and investment frameworks to make it happen, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).