Today Online 31 Jul 14;
SINGAPORE — The Government is investing S$100 million in two major initiatives in energy research and development (R&D) to improve overall building energy efficiency and research on green data centres here, the Energy Research Development and Demonstration executive committee announced yesterday.
Ms Yong Ying-I, co-chairman of the committee, made the announcement yesterday at the first Energy TechRoadMap symposium.
The first initiative, the Building Energy Efficiency R&D Hub, will be implemented and managed by the Building and Construction Authority, while the second, the Green Data Centre Research Hub Programme, will be managed by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
The initiatives come under five national energy technology road maps that were revealed at the symposium, namely solar panel research, carbon capture and storage or utilisation, green data centre, building energy efficiency and industry energy efficiency.
They will be used to guide government agencies in formulating their technology master plans and funding initiatives to secure the nation’s energy future and address climate-change challenges.
As buildings, including households, consume about 50 per cent of the Republic’s electricity, the building energy efficiency road map will be used to help Singapore attain the medium- to long- term goal of Low Energy High-rise Buildings in the Tropics, focusing on technological areas such as integrated design and air-conditioning, as well as mechanical ventilation.
Data centres are energy-intensive facilities and, with the sector expecting strong growth, there is also a need to develop those that use energy efficiently. Singapore already serves as the data centre hub of South-east Asia, hosting 58 per cent of the region’s data centre capacity in 2012.
The green data centre road map will outline ways in which the research community and data centre industry can assess technology options — together with Singapore’s energy efficiency initiatives — to achieve sustainability objectives.
All five road maps are part of efforts under the Energy National Innovation Challenge announced in 2011, which aims to develop cost-competitive energy solutions that can be deployed within 20 years to improve the Republic’s energy efficiency, reduce its carbon emissions and broaden its energy options to sustain economic growth.
Another two technology road maps in the areas of e-mobility and solid waste management are also being worked out and will be led by the Land Transport Authority and the National Environment Agency respectively, said Ms Yong, who is also Permanent Secretary of the Public Service Division and National Research and Development.
The symposium was jointly organised by the National Climate Change Secretariat and the National Research Foundation, and was attended by more than 700 participants.
Singapore's energy R&D sector gets S$100m funding boost
Monica Kotwani Channel NewsAsia 30 Jul 14;
SINGAPORE: The Government will pump in S$100 million to fund two initiatives in energy research and development (R&D), specifically in building energy efficiency and research on green data centres, the Energy Research Development and Demonstration Executive Committee announced on Wednesday (July 30).
Ms Yong Ying-I, the committee’s co-chairperson, said the first initiative, the Building Energy Efficiency Research Development and Demonstration Hub, will be implemented and managed by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
The second, the Green Data Centre Research Hub Programme, will be managed by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), she added
The announcements were made at the first Energy Technology Roadmap Symposium, where five national energy technology road maps were revealed. They are in the areas of solar panel research, carbon capture and storage or utilisation, green data centre, building energy efficiency and industry energy efficiency.
One of the five roadmaps concerns carbon emissions. The authorities are studying the possibility of capturing the emissions from Singapore's power plants, refineries and petrochemical industries instead of releasing them into the air.
Carbon dioxide from these emissions can then be separated and stored thousands of metres underground. Experts said the carbon dioxide can also be used to make products like formic acid and urea.
“It can provide an interesting revenue stream, for instance in oil recovery,” said Ms Cecilia Tam from the International Energy Agency. “In countries like Singapore where you don't have suitable storage sites, it is a good opportunity to demonstrate and develop these technologies, but there is a question of scale that will need to be addressed in the longer term."
Apart from carbon capture, storage and utilisation, other energy technology roadmaps include research into solar panels, industry energy efficiency, and building energy efficiency.
Experts estimate about 80 per cent of existing buildings in countries which are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will still be around in 2050.
Closer to home, buildings make up about a third of Singapore's total energy consumption. In both OECD countries and in Singapore, experts said there is an urgent need to either retrofit buildings with energy-efficient features or build greener buildings.
The pursuit of green technology for data centres also received a boost. Singapore currently hosts more than half of South-east Asia's data centre capacity. "We should be able to design data centres to work more efficiently in tropical climates such as Singapore, where there is high temperature and high humidity – and this is quite different from data centre research done in sub-tropic areas,” said Dr Yeah Lean Weng, Director of the National Research Foundation's Energy and Environment Research Directorate.
Organisers said two more technology roadmaps involving e-mobility and solid waste management are also in the works.
- CNA/cy/rw
S$8.3m in grants awarded to improve building energy efficiency: BCA
Today Online 30 Jul 14;
SINGAPORE — In a bid to improve building energy efficiency, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic were awarded S$8.3 million in grants by the BCA, BCA said in a press release today (July 30).
Under the Building Energy Efficiency Grant Call, the public and private sectors were encouraged to collaborate and develop innovative technologies and solutions in the areas of Air-Conditioning & Mechanical Ventilation (ACMV) and Building Management & Information Systems (BMIS) for building retrofits in the tropics that can be adopted in five years’ time, BCA said.
The scheme, first introduced in September last year, aims to support the development of energy efficient and cost-effective technologies and solutions for buildings in the tropics.
While ACMV systems take up 40 to 60 per cent of energy used in a typical air-conditioned building, there is a need for technology that can effectively remove water from the air by using less energy will greatly improve efficiency of air-conditioning system, BCA said.
It also noted the need to develop cost-effective solutions so building owners and developers will adopt the new technologies.
Meanwhile, a grant recipient from NUS, Dr Lee Poh Seng, will be collaborating with Daikin Air-Conditioning and four other SMEs to develop a new air-conditioning system that integrates a “novel oblique fin technology into a small capacity air-conditioning system, which can significantly enhance the air side-heat transfer”.
The new research project will raise “energy efficiency of the air conditioning system potentially by as much as 30 to 40 per cent”, said Dr Lee.
“More efficient buildings mean better use of resources,” said Dr John Keung, CEO of BCA.
“Low Energy High-rise Buildings in the Tropics” will be possible in Singapore if researchers are provided with the “right support and environment”, he added.
