Letter to the Editor, Business Times 22 Jul 08;
I REFER to the article: 'Subsidies the thorny issue for a sustainable renewable energy market' (BT, July 17), which reported a roundtable discussion on the theme 'Is Singapore ready for renewable energy', held by the LKY School of Public Policy and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS).
The panel discussion aimed to raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities Singapore faces in its bid to become a clean energy hub.
Opinions differed on some ideas to promote the adoption of renewable energy, most notably the option of feed-in tariffs versus other forms of incentives and technology to kick-start widespread adoption.
But the roundtable succeeded in generating robust debate, ending in a general consensus that much has improved in the last two years.
As the chairman of SEAS, I summarised the panellists' united opinion that:
# Singapore (like most of the world) is not yet quite ready for renewable energy (RE) as it is in its infancy, and there is still much work to do to look at applying RE successfully and find a model to fit into Singapore's open and competitive energy market yet encouraging the test-bedding and showcasing of this technology in Singapore.
# The most cost-effective form of energy conservation today is to improve energy efficiency, and initiatives by BCA and NEA promote this nicely.
# The Singapore government has decided that the clean energy sector, like the water sector, will be one of the growth pillars of the economy and has already initiated significant investments to promote manufacturing and R&D in this sector, but has yet to finalise a model for the successful mass-market adoption of RE.
# To take Singapore ahead of the pack as a clean energy hub, the industry and SEAS would welcome quicker convergence of government and industry views, leading to a clearer policy road map.
SEAS, being an association representing renewable energy and energy efficiency companies, welcomes coverage of this important topic in The Business Times. But we were disappointed at the unbalanced reporting that chose to:
# Sensationalise the debate as 'crossing swords', which implied that industry is at odds with government, while failing to mention the overall consensus on the sector's potential and recognition of the government's positive steps thus far;
# Conclude that the discussion ended on a 'pessimistic note', whereas all parties actually expressed the optimistic view that Singapore is heading in the right direction.
Renewable energy is critical to sustainable development and the mitigation of climate change globally and in Singapore and we look forward to The Business Times' continued interest and support in covering this topic factually.
Edwin Khew
chairman
The Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore
