Essay Example on Singapore's Solarisation: Public Housing, Floating Solar & More

"Solarisation of Singapore" has gained lots of momentum for the last one year. The governments have been on the front line to support the solar industry and ensure that they achieve their objectives in 2020. Singapore has continued to advance in producing renewable energy, installation of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV), especially in public housing. The solar industry recently launched the floating solar energy development project.

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In 2019, it was anticipated that the Singapore solar power generation capacity would exceed the 350 megawatts peak, which is a national goal. Companies are advised to embrace solar power as they will have the chance to enjoy renewable energy that will reduce the company's energy costs (Reindl et al., 2017). In the earlier days, solar was the most expensive source of energy that one could buy. However the prices of these panels have continued to decrease. The solar industry in Singapore has worked hard and came up with the best solar panels that will help reduce the costs of energy.

As a result of solar energy costs decreasing in the last years, companies are finding it more useful to explore solar energy. For Singapore to achieve this goal by the end of this year, the government has decided to reduce greenhouse gas (Milani et al., 2020). The carbon tax rates have also changed, which shows that the plan to reduce the costs of energy is being implemented, and soon the project will be completed for the people of Singapore to enjoy.

Due to the increase in climate change in the world, most countries are in search of clean and alternative energies. There have been lots of carbon emissions in the air that have led to unpredictable climate change. Singapore could use this chance to its advantage and advise people on the need to have their new model of solar panels. There are available and also require less sunlight for them to light.

Just like any other industry, the solar industry in Singapore is faced with some challenges that they need to overcome. One of the problems is the presence of market gaps and failures. National Solarisation Centre (NSC) has been on the first line to address the gaps that were known to hinder the adoption of solar power. Efforts have been made to cater to the developments and ensure that there is a reduction in carbon emissions.

Solar photovoltaic system costs have continued to decrease over the last few years. Due to the decrease in these costs, solar electricity has become cost-competitive in all countries all over the world. As a result of cost competitiveness, market failures, and gaps have been identified.

Another main challenge is the lack of enough space required for installation. Singapore is a city-state that is faced with the challenge of inadequate space. Those in the solar industry are forced to explore new areas where they can utilize solar application developments. One significant negative effect of solar energy is that it causes land degradation and loss of habitats. Although the solar PV systems can be fixed in the already existing building or structures, the utility-scale PV requires a larger piece of land for them to be installed. Research shows that the utility-scale PV can consume up to 10 acres of land per megawatt. Also, the CSP used requires around 16.5 acres of land for each megawatt.

Also, there is the intermittency of sunshine due to the presence of cloud cover and urban shading. However, although the presence of cloud cover is a challenge, there is less the industry can do. The only thing that can be done to reduce the cloud cover is the reduction of green gas emissions in the air. Therefore, solar energy may not be useful during the nights. However, the shortage may not be a problem if the areas are incredibly sunny during the day, as they will generate more than enough capacity. It should be noted that if the panels are of low-cost quality, then they will not accumulate enough energy despite the extreme sun energy.

Lack of proper and enough materials is also another challenge faced by the solar industry. PV technology is the most affected as it was invented less than a decade, and some of the materials used are not available. Most of the elements that are required are byproducts of other products rather than mining them. They also need to be recycled, which also proves to be a huge task since the process may prove to be a bit difficult.

The solar industry in Singapore has a goal to ensure that by 2050, most countries will be able to increase the proportion of renewable energy in their country (Hussain et al., 2020). A global road map known as RE-map has been prepared by the international renewable energy agency (IRENA), which has indicated that in 30 years, renewables will have increased in more than 60 percent of the countries in the world. A good example is China, which is expected to increase its renewable solar energy from 7% in 2015 to around 67% in 2050. Countries in the European Union (UN) are scheduled to shoot from 17% to 70%. India and the United States are also expected to increase by two-thirds after 30 years.

The global population has continued to increase. It is the high time that people make use of the existing fuel supplies and ensure that the increase instead of running out. Renewable technologies have come up with new ways to increase energy supplies. The first strategy to embrace is the use of biomass. Biomass is formed from the recently developed material that is obtained from living things such as chicken droppings.

When the biomass is burned, it generates electricity. Another strategy that can be used is fitting solar panels in all homes. The solar panels will absorb the energy that will then be used as electricity. In case there is a shortage of power, the people can still have access to light since the solar panels will have conserved energy from the sunshine.

Since the space available in Singapore is limited, the PV systems that have been installed should have a high energy conversion that will be efficient and ensure that the amount of PV electricity produced is maximized. The silicon solar cells are said to be limited by 29% when using natural sunlight and 26.7% while using artificial energy. Another strategy that could be implemented is making proper use of the low fertile lands.

Since solar energy requires vast land to be implemented, the Singapore solar industry can trace the locations that have low fertile lands rather than using the fertile lands that could be used for other purposes. With this, they would also prevent soil degradation that was being caused by this solar energy machines. They will make proper use of the infertile lands.

When all this done and set, then it solar industry will have accomplished its 2050 national goals. The central vision of the solar industry in Singapore is to ensure that they achieve the 2020 targets for producing solar energy. It is after achieving these goals that they will start working on achieving the 2050 goals, which will involve the whole world.

References

Hussain, T., Haris, M., Shakeel, A., Ahmad, G., Khan, A. A., & Khan, M. A. (2020). Bio-nematicidal activities by culture filtrate of Bacillus subtilis HussainT-AMU: new promising biosurfactant bioagent for the management of Root Galling caused by Meloidogyne incognita. Vegetos, 1-10.

Milani, D., Nelson, S., Luu, M. T., Meybodi, M. A., Puxty, G., & Abbas, A. (2020). Tailored solar field and solvent storage for direct solvent regeneration: A novel approach to solarise carbon capture technology. Applied Thermal Engineering, 171, 115119.

Reindl, T., Walsh, W., Yanqin, Z., & Bieri, M. (2017). Energy meteorology for accurate forecasting of PV power output on different time horizons. Energy Procedia, 130, 130-138.