SINGAPORE: If all goes to plan, Batam’s Duriangkang reservoir will be home to the world’s largest floating solar farm and supply Singapore with low-carbon electricity in a few years.
Floating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on reservoirs and open waters have gained prominence, as more countries tackle the critical transition toward cleaner energy. Singapore already has multiple floating solar farms, such as at Tengeh Reservoir, and there are plans to expand installations to Kranji, Lower Seletar and Pandan Reservoirs.
Solar PV systems have some competition. There are plans to gradually retrofit existing infrastructures to transport hydrogen or ammonia, a less flammable but toxic hydrogen carrier, and use them alongside natural gas in power plants, ultimately fully substituting the fossil fuel.
Yet investing in both options and not excluding solar PV systems is prudent, as such systems can become more competitive through synergies with other uses and industrial applications. One clear synergy comes from combining building construction with rooftop solar installations, maximising the use of vertical space.
Floating solar PV installations provide additional advantages. Beyond electricity generation, they reduce evaporation through shade-casting, thereby conserving freshwater.
POTENTIAL OF SINGAPORE’S SEA SPACE
Shifting attention to Singapore’s sea space is a crucial consequence, as near-shore floating solar PV technology advances and tests are ongoing.
The country’s first near-shore project, launched in 2021 in the Strait of Johor off Woodlands, has a modest capacity of 0.005 GWp (Gigawatt at peak). Additional projects creating new synergies are under consideration, including a hybrid system with tidal power generation in the waters around Raffles Lighthouse.
Such combinations, however, require locations with strong tidal movements, which often affect larger maritime ecosystems, making environmental impact assessments typically more complex than in freshwater reservoirs. Synergies can also arise from integrating floating PV systems with wave energy converters, wave breakers, wind turbines (in windier regions than those near the equator), or with near-shore floating structures that adapt to sea level rise by rising with it.
Nevertheless, Singapore’s marine space faces important limitations due to busy shipping lanes and a port area that claims most of the country’s waters. Recreational sea space poses further limitations, and the aesthetic impacts of floating PV systems could be another factor if set up in large numbers along coastlines.
These factors currently make it difficult to estimate how much marine floating solar energy may contribute to the government’s solar energy target of at least 2 GWp by 2030. The Energy Market Authority reported 1.348 GWp of installed capacity as of the first half of 2024.