this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Renewables (solar, wind) need a lot of land, which Singapore lacks. Nuclear is iffy because, safe as it is, one meltdown = destruction of the entire country. No geothermal or hydro resources available.
Singapore's best bet, really, is to pay neighbouring countries to generate renewable energy on its behalf. Then you get into the issue that Southeast Asia is a lot less developed and hence further behind on decarbonization.
@cyd that’s interesting, and some insightful thoughts. Still they could put solar on roofs though that would hardly make them self-sufficient.
If I'm not mistaken they are actually covering roofs of new HDBs with solar panels. But I would guess they can control the outgoing supply more easily from a central farm rather than distributed panels.
@peachfaced older HDBs also have them now. Wondering if similar to how we get our water, we could “own” lands in our neighbour’s backyard to build solar farms, resell the power and send them back too.
@geoffpetty @cyd there are efforts to increase use of solar. Eg floating solar farms on our reservoirs https://www.pub.gov.sg/sustainability/solar/floatingsystems
If Singapore has the will, there are safe ways to get a nuclear power plant operating in Singapore. I wouldn't trust a commercial entity to do it, and I would rather that it is built as a state-owned, state-run government facility.
Singapore paying other nations to produce electricity that is clean is just like automotive clean energy credits all over again. There's nothing to it but penalty and Singapore should be better off building the nuclear power plant or investing in more clean energy solutions.
Anyways, we are in a geographically stable area far from earthquake zones. If we dig deep enough, we might be able to get geothermal working. But it might not be economical.