New research centre to build energy savings in Singapore

Grace Chua Straits Times 21 Oct 10;

BUILDINGS consume a quarter of all the energy used here, and a new research centre aims to drive that amount down - by figuring out how to make them more energy-efficient.

The Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore was one of two new research centres announced yesterday under the National Research Foundation's $1 billion Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (Create) scheme. The programme, set up in 2006, allows global universities to establish research centres here.

For its first project, Berkeley scientists will work with local researchers to make tropical buildings sustainable and energy-efficient, said Professor S. Shankar Sastry, one of the centre's leaders. He said 'smart dust' networks, made up of tiny sensors, could monitor and adjust temperature and lighting to reduce costs.

'I think nobody is looking at the tropics,' Prof Sastry said, observing that buildings' energy needs here are vastly different from those in colder climes. 'And now that most buildings are being built in tropical or subtropical regions like India and China, the potential impact is huge.'

Some of the five-year project's targets include cutting energy use by 80 per cent in new buildings and by half in retrofitted ones.

The other Create centre announced yesterday is a tie-up between Nanyang Technological University and Israel's Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion University. It will study nanotechnology's applications for sensing water pollutants and recycling water, as well as energy harvesting and conservation.

Both centres are expected to officially open in the middle of next year. This brings the number of Create centres to seven, including tie-ups with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Technical University of Munich.

National Research Foundation chairman Tony Tan, who also addressed the press conference, explained that universities have a role to play in inventing products and thus contributing to the economy.

The Create centres will be housed at a $360 million facility at the National University of Singapore's University Town, which is expected to be ready next year.

NRF hopes new research centres will bear fruit
They will carry out research into energy efficiency and water management
Nisha Ramchandani Business Times 21 Oct 10;

TWO new research centres will be set up here as part of the National Research Foundation's (NRF) Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme, to carry out research in areas such as energy efficiency and water management.

UC Berkeley will establish the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS) centre here, while Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will collectively develop and apply nanomaterials to boost the efficiencies of energy and water management technologies.

'We expect that innovations arising from the research carried out will spawn new enterprises and help existing locally based companies to become more competitive,' said Tony Tan, chairman of NRF, at a press conference yesterday.

BEARS' first major project will look at how to make buildings more energy efficient as well as how to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.

This will be done in collaboration with NTU, the National University of Singapore (NUS), and other local research institutions here.

According to S Shankar Sastry, dean of engineering at UC Berkeley, one key target of the five-year programme is to reduce energy consumption in new buildings by 80 per cent and by 50 per cent in retrofits.

Besides Singapore, the research and its outcomes could also greatly benefit countries and regions such as India, China, and the Middle East, given that a sizeable amount of new building stock will be coming from such markets in the future.

Meanwhile, Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University, said that the BGU-HUJ-NTU programme 'may potentially lead to breakthroughs in the field of energy conversion and conservation, and water sensing and remediation'.

The two new centres will raise the number of universities with a research presence under NRF's CREATE programme to seven.

The seven research centres will be relocated to the CREATE campus once it is completed in 2011. Located at the southern end of the new NUS University Town, the campus will house some 1,000 researchers.

The NRF did not disclose how much was being invested in the two new research centres. The two new centres are expected to commence next year.

Two more research centres to be set up in Singapore
sara grosse Today Online 21 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE - Two more research centres, which will focus on energy efficiency, will be set up here under the National Research Foundation's (NRF) Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise programme, bringing the total number of centres under the programme to seven.

The new centres, which will be up and running next year, will be associated with the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, in collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Nanyang Technological University.

The Israeli university will jointly develop new nano-materials to increase efficiencies for energy and water management, while the Berkeley university will establish a research centre focusing on reducing the carbon footprints of buildings. UC Berkeley professor S Shankar Sastry said it will work with Singapore researchers on making tropical buildings sustainable and energy-efficient. For example, smart dust sensor networks could be used to monitor and tweak temperature and lighting.

The NRF has set itself high targets for the next five years, such as cutting energy use by 80 per cent in new buildings.

NRF chairman Tony Tan noted that the research will stimulate Singapore's economy, while NRF chief executive officer Francis Yeoh added: "We think these two centres, plus the five that are already here, would give a lot of depth, breath and vibrancy to the research eco-system in Singapore." Sara Grosse