Summary Reader's Response Final

According to the article “Super Low Energy Building Technology Roadmap” (Building Construction Authority, 2021), Building Construction Authority (BCA) has collaborated with many agencies to work towards the goal of making 80% of Singapore’s buildings environmentally friendly. Around S$45 million has been invested into 70 environmentally friendly R&D buildings to maximise energy efficiency in the nation. BCA mentions that funding provided has aided in the development of “several disruptive technologies such as reinventing air conditioning to cool buildings in the tropics”. Innovations such as highly effective desiccant membranes and passive displacement ventilation systems contribute to energy savings of more than 40% on air conditioning alone.

Piloting projects to apply R&D results to reality are also encouraged by BCA, through creating a real-world building setting to illustrate the impact and actualise energy efficiency potential of several developing technologies. Hence, BCA suggests that the industry will be more assured in embracing new technologies and practices if benefits and positive outcomes are observed. Besides BCA efforts, I believe that Singapore is on the track to achieve net-zero emissions as it launched the floating solar photovoltaic (PV) system and introduced the ongoing Singapore Green Plan 2030.

Firstly, Public Utilities Board (PUB) began researching the potential of installing floating solar PV systems at reservoirs to analyse the solar potential and possible environmental implications in 2011 (PUB, 2021). PUB observes positive outcomes and that floating solar PV systems have 5 to 15% better performance compared to standard rooftop solar PV systems. After several years of testing and research, PUB announced launching one of the world's largest inland floating solar farms of 60MWp floating solar PV system on Tengeh Reservoir in July 2021. PUB states that the generated clean energy covers around 7% of PUB's yearly energy requirement as it is enough to "power PUB's five local water treatment plants and the Marina Barrage", which "is equivalent to powering about 16,000 four-room HDB flats and reducing our carbon emissions by about 32 kilotonnes per year, the same as taking 7,000 cars off Singapore's roads". Thus, the floating solar farm allows Singapore to be one of the few countries in the world to merge green technology with water treatment which results in a fully green waterworks system.

Secondly, Singapore has introduced the ongoing ten-year plan, Singapore Green Plan 2030. Green Plan (2021) proposes solutions such as the installation of solar panels on the roofs of HDB (public housing) blocks, extensive usage of smart LED lights and solar energy in HDB towns, and making it mandatory for "all newly registered cars to be cleaner-energy models by 2030". Green Plan suggests that with all the initiatives, we can cut down our annual energy usage by more than 8 million megawatt-hours and in 2030, this amount of energy will be enough to power practically all of our households' annual energy consumption. As a result, domestic greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by at least 3 million tonnes yearly by 2030.

However, within the construction industry, the lack of interest from stakeholders is hindering green practices towards sustainable construction (Yin et al., 2018). According to Rafindadi et al. (2014), one of the causes for stakeholders' lack of interest could be due to the uncertainty and the risk that sustainable projects hold. Rafindadi et al. have also suggested that future studies should include interviews and content analysis to do qualitative analysis and gain a better understanding of stakeholders' risk perceptions. As such, I believe with in-depth research, it could attract the stakeholders' interest and encourage them to implement sustainable construction.

Lastly, another of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 initiatives is to set aside 50% more land, which is around 200 hectares by 2030 for nature parks. According to Green Plan (2021), a park will be "within a 10-minute walk" of every house and one million more trees will be planted across the island, sequestering an additional 78,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Hence, Singaporeans will benefit from cleaner air and cooler shade due to the implementation of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 in the future.

Despite Singapore being a land-scarce country, the willingness to set aside land for nature parks and trees has shown its determination to achieve net-zero emissions as soon as we can. The exploration of the idea to install solar panels in the open waters instead of the conventional way which is to install on the roof has also enabled Singapore to diversify its energy sources. I believe in the near future, Singapore will be able to achieve its target of net-zero emissions.

 

References:

Building and Construction Authority. (n.d.). Super Low Energy Building Technology Roadmap. https://www.bca.gov.sg/GreenMark/others/SLE_Tech_Roadmap.pdf

Green Plan. (2021). Our Vision. https://www.greenplan.gov.sg/key-focus-areas/vision/

Public Utilities Board. (2021, July 14). Floating Solar Systems. https://www.pub.gov.sg/solar/floatingsystems

Rafindadi, A. D. U., Mikić, M., Kovačić, I., & Cekić, Z. (2014). Global perception of sustainable construction project risks. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, 456-465. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814021429

Yin, B. C. L., Laing, R., Leon, M., & Mabon, L. (2018). An evaluation of sustainable construction perceptions and practices in Singapore. Sustainable cities and society, 39, 613-620. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210670717317420