It says this will help Republic secure position as global clean energy hub
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 21 Jun 08;
SINGAPORE is taking preliminary steps to set up a 'cleantech' park to showcase the country's burgeoning green energy technologies.
The Economic Development Board (EDB) said yesterday that it is talking to other agencies about the proposal.
The comments came as a high-powered global panel said Singapore could cement its position as a global clean energy hub by setting up just such a cleantech park.
This was one of the key recommendations by a panel of experts which wrapped up its inaugural two-day meeting at the Swissotel in Singapore yesterday.
It concluded that the establishment of such a park would help the Republic differentiate itself from other countries that are also making headway in the cleantech industry.
The panel, formed earlier this year to advise Singapore, also said in a statement that the Republic was 'on track to developing a robust clean energy ecosystem'.
At a press conference, EDB managing director Ko Kheng Hwa said the idea of the cleantech park is now being discussed with other government agencies. 'We have proposed allocating a sizeable parcel of land,' said Mr Ko. This will be dedicated to creating a cleantech cluster and community for the next two decades.
At the park, researchers and professionals in the industry would work and play together. Cleantech innovations can also be tried and tested, with a plug-and-play setting, and the facility will make use of environmentally-sustainable technologies, he said.
It is too early to disclose details or a specific location, but the park will be separate from the current manufacturing cluster in Tuas, said Mr Ko.
The clean energy international advisory panel, which has seven members and will meet once a year, also commended Singapore's clean energy initiatives.
These included Singapore's research and development drive, efforts to groom local and foreign talent, and construction of an industry ecosystem by attracting established clean energy firms to set up shop in the Republic.
Lord Ronald Oxburgh, the panel's co-chairman and former chairman of the British House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, told The Straits Times: 'From what we've seen, Singapore is on its way. I don't know of any country that has taken the initiatives Singapore has taken.
'But you can expect other countries like Japan and China to also move quickly to get first-mover advantage...so Singapore must act fast.'
The panel is also chaired by EDB chairman Lim Siong Guan, and was formed for Singapore to glean insight from clean energy experts around the world.
'The panellists' valuable insights will help Singapore accelerate our efforts to be a leader in clean energy. If Cepo implements our strategies well, there will be many exciting business opportunities available for firms based here,' said Mr Lim. The Clean Energy Programme Office, or Cepo, was set up last April to implement and coordinate clean energy programmes.
The panel also noted that Singapore must move rapidly to become the regional leader in clean energy solutions.
'This would in turn lead to the export of these solutions to overseas markets, and would also hasten mass adoption in Singapore when they become cost efficient,' said the panel.
Live, breathe clean energy?
Clean tech park to be set up here, to test such an ecosystem
New Chai Chin, Today Online 21 Jun 08:
IN THE field of clean energy, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say changes are happening at the speed of light. Because of this, the inter-government agency’s Clean Energy Programme Office decided to hold its International Advisory Panel’s first meeting over Thursday and Friday this week, despite two of the seven members not being able to make it.
The report card from the panel — co-chaired by the Economic Development Board (EDB) chairman Lim Siong Guan and former chairman of Shell Transport and Trading, Lord Ronald Oxburgh — is this: Singapore is on the right track in building its research capabilities in clean energy applications, especially solar energy. But it needs to become a living example of a clean energy ecosystem.
To do this, a clean tech park looks set to be built and developed into a “working, living and production laboratory for ideas to be easily tried out”, said Mr Ko Kheng Hua, the EDB’s managing director, who addressed reporters together with the panel on Friday.
The park will be built on a sizeable parcel of land dedicated to creating a clean tech community over the next two decades, said Mr Ko. A set of “smart regulations” governing the distribution of energy, waste and water would also be experimented with at the park.
While the timeline for the park has not been drawn up, it cannot happen a moment too soon, said the panel.
“There are lots of places in the world that want to be hubs or clusters of clean tech. The race is on,” said Mr Nicholas Parker, one of the panel members and chairman of the United States-basedCleantech Group. The park will put notions of “industrial ecology” into practice, where one company’s waste stream becomes another company’s input, he said.
Besides urging Singapore to get a headstart in clean tech knowledge and expertise, panel members also urged the Government to make converts of its people.
And the perception that clean energy is pricier than conventional energy needs to be changed as it is fast becoming a myth, said Dr Winfried Hoffmann, president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association.
For example, Californians now pay up to US$0.45 ($0.61) per kilowatt hour for their electricity during peak summertime periods in the afternoons. But with photovoltaic systems on their roofs, they would only have to pay US$0.25 per kilowatt hour, said Dr Hoffmann.
Clean energy developments could bring energy prices back to “affordable” levels in 20 to 30 years’ time — unlike current levels with oil prices hovering around US$140 per barrel, he said.
“As we go forward, what we regard as expensive, as alternative energy sources, will before very long be the cheapest form of energy,” said Lord Oxburgh.
Singapore on track in developing clean energy ecosystem
Channel NewsAsia 20 Jun 08;
SINGAPORE: Singapore needs to move quickly on the clean energy front, says the International Advisory Panel (IAP) following an evaluation of the sector here.
Overall, the panel says, Singapore is on track to developing a robust clean energy ecosystem. But it would like to see more building regulations to incorporate clean energy.
The IAP says that it is key for Singapore to drive research and development in order to keep ahead and tap into the growing demand for clean energy.
Singapore has already taken some key steps in clean energy. For instance, Singapore is constructing its first zero-energy building to promote green technology.
In addition, Singapore will be hosting Renewable Energy Corporation's integrated solar manufacturing complex.
But according to the clean energy IAP, Singapore can push further ahead from the pack.
Ronald Oxburgh, former chairman of Science and Technology at UK House of Lords, said: "Singapore has got an immense resource in its people who are technologically very well trained, very ingenious and very innovative and entrepreneurial. I think it is a matter of Singapore spotting the opportunities. I think this is clearly an opportunity that Singapore should spot and get first mover advantage.
"There is little doubt that people all around the world will be seeing this business opportunity but I doubt that any country has actually got the agility and the technical expertise to move as fast and as appropriately as Singapore."
One idea is to develop a clean technology park. Plans for such a park, which would act as a working/living/production lab, are still in the early stages.
The international advisory panel says Singapore needs to move fast to build its strengths, skill and talent to tap into the huge knowledge-base capital in the renewable energy sector.
Nicholas Parker, co-founder & chairman of Clean Tech Group, said: "Renewable energies are part of the bigger clean tech stories that are playing out and we could see Singapore taking 2% of the global jobs....and if about a million and a half jobs are being created over the next few years, that's a very significant employment number. You're talking about thousands of jobs at stake, but there is the other side of the coin, which is if you don't act...the jobs are going to go and (with it) the loss of competitiveness in the industry."
The IAP was formed to advise the Clean Energy Programme Office (CEPO) on overall development of the clean energy industry in Singapore. - CNA/ir
Singapore mulls setting up cleantech park
Zone producing and operating on clean energy could be running in a decade
Jamie Lee, Business Times 21 Jun 08;
IMAGINE a business zone where companies run only on sun, wind, water or any other form of clean energy.
Singapore could see such a cleantech park aimed at producing and operating on clean energy over the next decade, state investment agency Economic Development Board (EDB) said yesterday, even as experts urged it to 'move fast' to beat the competition.
EDB has suggested setting up a cleantech cluster that could operate as a 'living lab' for clean technology (cleantech) experiments, based on recommendations by the International Advisory Panel on Clean Energy, which met over the last two days to assess Singapore's clean energy efforts.
'What we have proposed with our partner agencies is to allocate a sizeable parcel of land, which we can develop over the next one or two decades, that is dedicated to creating a cleantech community,' said Ko Kheng Hwa, managing director of EDB.
'It will be a living lab. A place for new ideas that can be easily mounted and tried out . . . and for those workable ideas, to scale it, apply it to other parts of Singapore and then, perhaps project it to other markets around the world,' he added.
Singapore must build its pool of homegrown researchers to stay ahead of the competition, noted experts in the panel, which included Ronald Oxburgh, former chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, and Winfried Hoffmann, chief technology officer of Applied Materials' Solar Business Group.
The country must also complete the 'clean energy ecosystem' by boosting its clean energy manufacturing sector.
Singapore has thus far attracted a $6.3 billion project by Norway's Renewable Energy Corp to build the world's largest solar manufacturing plant here, and Dr Hoffmann said Applied Materials is 'in intense discussions' with the company to provide crystalline silicon wafers.
While the clean energy sector has seen limited success and has yet to reach the economic scale to bring costs down, the panel experts said clean energy is a good long-term investment that companies can use to offset even higher fuel and other raw material costs expected in the future.
Singaporeans must also be convinced of clean energy, even as anecdotal evidence suggests that people here are less environmentally conscious. During the recent Earth Hour movement, which aimed to get people worldwide to switch their lights off for an hour, most households and shops kept their lights on.
'You people here have got a very important role to play,' noted Lord Oxburgh, who is also deputy chairman of the science and engineering research council of A*Star. 'In other parts of the world, the evidence of climate change is perhaps more conspicuous than it is in Singapore.'
