Oil producer Royal Dutch Shell has joined hands with JTC Corporation of Singapore to deploy a minimum of 72 MW solar power capacity on 60 hectares of land on Singapore's only operational landfill, the Semakau landfill, through its local presence Shell Singapore.
"The solar farm will also be the first large-scale solar project in Singapore where a sanitary landfill is also used for clean energy generation," claimed the duo.
JTC Corporation is a government agency that develops industrial infrastructure in Singapore. Its CEO Tan Boon Khai said the project is part of its SolarLand initiative where the target is to optimize available land for solar generation to support Singapore's clean energy switch. It aims to generate 100 MW of installed solar PV capacity by 2030 on JTC properties.
Under a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed—supported by Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) and Energy Market Authority (EMA)—the 2 project partners will jointly explore realization of the said facility.
It will be located close to Shell's Pulau Bukom Energy and Chemicals Park, and the company said working together with JTC Corp will allow an 'innovative integration of an intermittent renewable source to Bukom'.
"This project is aligned with our 10-year plan to repurpose our core business, cut our own CO2 emissions in the country and help our customers decarbonize," stated Chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore, Aw Kah Peng.
Both the project partners plan to jointly conduct a request for information (RFI) exercise on June 24, 2021 to 'source for innovative solutions from the market'.
Shell plans to become a net zero carbon emitter by 2050 and to get there, it plans to invest $2 billion to $3 billion annually on renewables and energy solutions, however its strategy still includes $8 billion annually to be invested on oil related activities (see Shell To Invest In Renewables, But More On Oil & Gas).
For Singapore, the 72 MW solar project is envisaged to help lower its carbon emissions while meeting 'growing clean energy needs'. Singapore aims to have at least 2 GW solar power capacity by 2030, however SERIS believes it has the potential to install 2.5 GW capacity by 2030 and increase it to 5 GW by 2050 (see New Study Pegs Singapore's PV Potential At 5 GW By 2050).