Seris says it needs tech innovations to make it competitive without subsidies
Joyce Hooi, Business Times 19 Nov 09;
SOLAR energy may be deemed the most promising renewable energy in Singapore, but a lack of subsidies has kept costs high, made building owners wary and created challenges for solar energy firms here.
'The challenge in Singapore is that there is no clear incentive scheme. Most people perceive solar energy to be expensive,' said Christophe Inglin, managing director of Phoenix Solar.
While solar module prices have come down 35 per cent over the past 12 months, they remain costly. Installing a solar photovoltaic system for a typical landed residence in Singapore costs $100,000 on average.
'For commercial buildings in Singapore, the payback period is 20 years. In Europe, it's 10 years because of the subsidies,' said Mr Inglin.
European countries, the United States and Australia have already adopted the 'feed-in tariff', an incentive structure that obliges electricity utility companies to buy renewable energy electricity at above-market rates, which will defray the high costs of solar energy installation.
In Queensland, Australia, customers who participate in this scheme are paid 44 cents (S$0.56) per kilowatt hour for surplus electricity fed back into the grid.
In Singapore, commercial building owners need to apply for a licence to sell back excess electricity generated from solar energy, and then only at market rates.
'There should have been a feed-in tariff in place from the beginning. The solar energy industry is a very technology-driven industry that is very suitable for a country like Singapore,' Armin Sandhoevel, chief executive officer of Allianz Climate Solutions, told BT yesterday.
The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (Seris), however, believes in tackling the cost issues inherent in solar energy production.
'We need technological innovations to make solar energy competitive without any subsidies,' said Armin Aberle, deputy chief executive officer of Seris, speaking at the Clean Energy Expo panel discussion yesterday.
Other practical concerns continue to dog a solar energy industry that has yet to mature here.
While landed properties are well-placed to benefit from roof-top solar photovoltaic systems, similar efforts by residents in condominiums and multi-storey buildings have been thwarted by lack of coordination.
'The initiative has to come from the property developers,' said Jason Lee, a sales manager with Phoenix Solar.
The field of renewable energy is also such a novel one that mechanical and engineering consultants here lack familiarity with installation.
On that front, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has moved to launch a handbook for contractors and laymen on installing solar photovoltaic systems.
In the absence of a clear mandate for solar energy, however, the EMA said yesterday its renewable energy test-bed site on Pulau Ubin will include wind and bio-mass energy along with solar energy. This suggests that Singapore continues to hedge its bets where the choice of renewable energy is concerned.
'There is currently no clear winner, but solar photovoltaic energy is the most promising one in Singapore,' said EMA deputy chief executive David Tan.
Currently, 1MW of solar photovoltaic capacity has been installed in Singapore and another 4MW is planned.
