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.
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.
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
Thank you for the rewrite!
ReplyDelete