Solar Energy
Space-starved Singapore builds floating solar farms in climate fight
Thousands of panels glinting in the sun stretch into the sea off Singapore, part of the land-scarce city-state’s push to build floating solar farms to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
It may be one of the world’s smallest countries, but the prosperous financial hub is among the biggest per capita carbon dioxide emitters in Asia.
And while authorities have been pushing to change that, renewable energy is a challenge in a country with no rivers for hydro-electricity and where the wind is not strong enough to power turbines.
So the tropical country turned to solar power — however, with little land space in a place half the size of Los Angeles, it has resorted to setting up energy plants off its coasts and on reservoirs.
“”After exhausting the rooftops and the available land, which is very scarce, the next big potential is actually our water area,” said Jen Tan, senior vice president and head of solar in Southeast Asia at conglomerate Sembcorp Industries, which is building a project.
An island-state threatened by rising sea levels because of climate change, Singapore is aware of the urgency of cutting emissions, although critics say authorities’ environmental commitments have thus far fallen short.
The government last month unveiled a wide-ranging “green plan” that included steps such as planting more trees, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and building more charging points to encourage the use of electric cars.
Among the measures is increasing solar energy use four-fold to around two percent of the nation’s power needs by 2025, and to three percent by 2030 — enough for 350,000 households per year.
As well as on water, solar power plants have already been built on rooftops and on the ground.
– ‘New frontier’ –
One newly built solar farm spreads out from the coast into the Johor Strait, which separates Singapore from Malaysia.
The 13,000 panels are anchored to the seabed and can produce five megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,400 flats for an entire year.
“The sea is a new frontier for solar to be installed,” said Shawn Tan, vice president for engineering at Singaporean firm Sunseap Group, which completed the project in January.
“We hope that this will set a precedent to have more floating projects in the sea in Singapore and neighbouring countries.”
Under development at Tengeh Reservoir is a far bigger project — once completed later this year, the 122,000-panel solar farm will be one of the biggest in Southeast Asia covering an area the size of 45 football pitches.
The project, developed by Sembcorp and the national water agency Public Utilities Board, will generate enough power to meet the energy needs of Singapore’s water treatment plants, said the agency’s senior planner Sharon Zheng.
This will lead to a reduction in carbon emissions equivalent to removing 7,000 cars from the roads.
The solar panels are imported from China, the world’s largest manufacturer of the technology, and anchored to the floor of the reservoir with blocks of concrete.
– ‘Insufficient’ targets –
But the maritime hub could even face some space constraints when it comes to floating solar, said Subhod Mhaisalkar, executive director of the Energy Research Institute at the city-state’s Nanyang Technological University.
“Do you use the ocean waters for deploying solar, or do you use it for shipping?” he told AFP.
And despite the push for green power, the city-state will struggle to wean itself off a reliance on climate-damaging natural gas, and to cut emissions without impacting its refining and petrochemical sectors.
In addition, projects such as floating solar farms are not enough unless backed up with a greater official commitment to cut emissions, said Red Constantino, executive director of the Philippines-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities.
Singapore has pledged to halve its 2030 peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and achieve net zero emissions “as soon as viable” in the second half of the century.
But this is behind other developed economies, and the Climate Action Tracker, which tracks governments’ commitments, has classified its targets as “highly insufficient”.
Singapore is not doing its “fair share”, Constantino told AFP, adding the solar farms risked becoming “mere bling” unless the government moved faster.
“They need to set a higher absolute target. Such a target sends a signal to the very business community by which Singapore’s economy thrives.”
DGIST enhances quantum dot solar cell performance
by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Oct 04, 2024
A research team led by Professor Jongmin Choi from the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at DGIST, in collaboration with Gyeongsang National University’s Professor Tae Kyung Lee and Kookmin University’s Professor Younghoon Kim, has developed a new method that significantly boosts the performance and longevity of perovskite quantum dot solar cells. Their innovative approach addresses a key issue: surface distortions on quantum dots that hinder solar cell efficiency.
Perovskite quantum dots are widely regarded as essential for next-generation solar cells due to their high light-to-electricity conversion efficiency and scalability. However, the process of replacing the “ligands” on their surface often causes distortions, akin to crumpled paper, that degrade solar cell performance.
The research team tackled this problem by introducing short ligands that firmly grip both sides of the quantum dots. This method effectively restores the quantum dot’s distorted surface, resembling the process of flattening crumpled paper. By smoothing the surface, they significantly reduced defects and improved both the performance and the stability of the solar cells. The power conversion efficiency rose from 13.6% to 15.3%, and the cells maintained 83% of their performance over 15 days, marking a major advancement in solar cell technology.
“Through this research, we could minimize surface defects on the quantum dots and stabilize their surfaces by newly adopting these amphiphilic ligands, thereby significantly improving the efficiency and stability of the solar cells,” explained Professor Jongmin Choi. He also noted the team’s intention to extend this approach to other photoelectric devices in the future.
This study, a collaborative effort by DGIST, Gyeongsang National University, and Kookmin University, was supported by the National Research Council of Science and Technology, the DGIST R and D Program, and the New Faculty Research Foundation at Gyeongsang National University. The findings were published in the ‘Chemical Engineering Journal’ on September 15, 2024.
Research Report:Multifaceted anchoring ligands for uniform orientation and enhanced cubic-phase stability of perovskite quantum dots
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Philippines’ Marcos opens first EV battery plant
by AFP Staff Writers
Manila (AFP) Sept 30, 2024
President Ferdinand Marcos inaugurated on Monday the first factory for electric vehicle batteries in the Philippines, calling it the “future” of clean energy.
The Australian-owned lithium-iron-phosphate factory aims to produce two gigawatt-hours of batteries per year by 2030, powering about 18,000 electric vehicles or nearly half a million home battery systems.
“We have worked very hard and tried to do our best to bring this kind of technology to the Philippines with a clear recognition that this is the future,” Marcos said in a livestreamed speech.
“As the first manufacturing plant in the Philippines for advanced iron phosphate batteries… (it) sets the stage for the Philippines to become a player in clean energy storage in our part of the world.”
Located in New Clark city north of Manila, the StB Giga Factory Inc. facility will create 2,500 local jobs and channel five billion pesos ($89.2 million) into the economy each year, Marcos said.
The investment aligns with the government’s efforts to “transition our country to renewable energy”, and would help Manila “entice more investors in renewable energy facilities in the country”, he added.
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Fire breaks out at Chinese battery giant CATL plant
by AFP Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Sept 29, 2024
A fire broke out Sunday at a factory belonging to Chinese battery giant CATL, which supplies electric vehicle makers including Tesla, but only a “relatively small” impact on operations is expected, the company said.
A CATL spokesperson said no injuries or casualties had occurred at the plant in the coastal city of Ningde, and that “the reasons behind this accident are still under investigation”.
Emergency services were sent to the plant to fight the fire and to organise the evacuation of any people who were inside the 15,000 square metre (160,000 square feet) site, a statement by the Dongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone said.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze just before 11:30 AM local time (0330 GMT).
It was not immediately clear what was produced at the plant, CATL’s base in the eastern province of Fujian, but the company said the effect of the now extinguished fire would not be significant.
“The impact to CATL’s overall production operation is relatively small,” the spokesperson said.
Videos published by the Chinese business media outlet Cailianshe, and posted on the Weibo social network, showed parts of a large white building in flames with thick gray smoke rising into the air.
AFP could not immediately verify the authenticity of the images.
CATL was founded in 2011 and produces more than a third of the electric vehicle batteries sold worldwide for automakers that include Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai.
ehl-reb/des
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