Govt to invest S$100m in research on energy efficiency

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 and 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.