Reader's Response Draft #4

In the article “How can Southeast Asia’s clean energy transition be sped up?” Daubach (2019) discusses the challenges Southeast Asia faces in regards to transiting towards clean energy and how to speed up the use of it. The article states that Southeast Asia is a diverse region with economies growing at different speeds. Therefore, a single approach will not be adequate in progressing towards a clean energy future; customized solutions are advised. Daubach mentions that in order to proceed with the transition, the usage of low-carbon technologies needs to be increased. However, Daubach also suggests the use of nuclear fusion is not affordable for Singapore. In addition, it is observed that countries like Singapore consume a large amount of energy, and need to look at new energy sources, together with lessening the usage of energy whilst preserving the same habits. While Daubach believes that Southeast Asia will be at risk of global warming if coal usage is not being cut off completely, I believe that countries like Singapore could implement alternative methods such as solar and waste energy to reduce carbon footprints impacting climate change.

Despite the lack of resources available in Singapore, the usage of solar is one of the more feasible forms of renewable energy for the country to reduce the risk of global warming. Deployment of solar is targeted to quadruple by 2025, with the country working towards deploying 1.5 GWp, and at least 2GWp by 2030 (Tan, 2021). According to Ngiam, chief executive of Energy Market Authority, in the last quarter of 2020, the installation of existing solar energy systems has increased to close to seven times in the past 5 years, hence contributing to close to 1 percent of Singapore’s electricity demands (Tan, 2021). Thus, Singapore is on the right track in transiting to the usage of cleaner energy to reduce global warming. In order to lessen the inconsistency of solar energy produced due to the tropical climate, the excess energy will be stored in the Energy Storage Systems (ESS), which can power more than 200 4-room HDB households for a day (CNA, 2020). The usage of ESS facilitates enable consolidation of a large amount of sustainable energy into the country’s electricity grid, which can be used in the future. Singapore has targeted in deploying a large-scale solar installation in HDB blocks for future developments.

In addition, according to the article “Harvest green energy through energy recovery from waste”, Singapore can use waste energy to solve waste management problems and yet supply sustainable energy. In this aspect, Singapore has worked around the usage of waste energy to solve the issues, resulting in 2% of electricity demands contributed by Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) (Tong, H. et al. 2018). MSW is considered to be carbon-neutral and environmentally friendly, such as paper, food waste, and animal manure. Since the amount of carbon dioxide produced during the decomposition of MSW is being eliminated by using it for photosynthesis, it is generally not associated with the contribution of global warming.

Although the implementation of solar draws advantages in reducing carbon footprints, it also poses some disadvantages to the environment. According to iSwitch (n.d), the production of solar panels produces nitrogen trifluoride, which is a type of greenhouse gas that is more than a thousand times influential to global warming as compared to carbon dioxide. Henceforth, I feel that even though the usage of solar reduces carbon footprints, to produce the solar panel itself for usage would have already done damage to the environment. 

All in all, though Singapore is setting goals for the future into transiting towards clean energy via alternative methods available, it is still essential for the country to also consider the pros and cons of each of the methods so as to achieve desirable results.  In my opinion, even though Singapore is known as just a “little red dot” on the map, efforts and contributions made by the country will still impact greatly on a global scale.


Reference List

Channel News Asia. (2020, October 22). Singapore deploys energy storage systems to help maintain reliable source of solar power supply.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/energy-storage-system-first-utility-scale-deployed-ema-1339826

Daubach, T. (2019, July 19). How can Southeast Asia's clean energy transition be sped up?

 Eco-Business. 

https://www.eco-business.com/news/how-can-southeast-asias-clean-energy-transition-be-sped-up/.

iSwitch. (n.d). Solar energy pros & cons: what you need to know.

https://iswitch.com.sg/solar-energy-pros-cons/

National Climate Change Secretariat. (2021, August 13). Singapore’s approach to alternative energy. 

https://www.nccs.gov.sg/singapores-climate-action/singapore-approach-to-alternative-energy/

Tan, E. (2021, April 28). Solar shines as Singapore's energy alternative; international collaboration is key. 

The Business Times.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/solar-shines-as-singapores-energy-alternative-international-collaboration-is-key

Tong, H., Yao, Z., Lim, J. W., Mao, L., Zhang, J., Tian, S. G., Peng, Y. H., Wang, C.-H., & Tong, Y. W. (2018). Harvest green energy through energy recovery from waste: A technology review and an assessment of Singapore.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

https://www.sciencedirect.com.singaporetech.remotexs.co/science/article/pii/S1364032118306580

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