- Cooling is responsible for one-third of the nation’s electricity consumption.
- Commercial building sector offers the biggest opportunity to adopt clean cooling solutions.
- The report highlights four clean cooling solutions that can bring grid flexibility to support Singapore’s decarbonisation goals
SINGAPORE, 30 June 2022 – WWF-Singapore (World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore) today launches a new report titled “Decarbonising Singapore’s Energy System in the Context of Cooling” authored by the Carbon Trust. WWF-Singapore worked with the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) to shape the study which focuses on the importance of clean cooling and provides viable recommendations on how it can play a critical role in achieving Singapore’s net zero ambition.
The nation’s electricity consumption for cooling is projected to rise even further due to climate change and the urban heat island effect. The main cooling demand is expected to come from commercial buildings, households, industries and data centres. Without clean cooling interventions, electricity consumption from cooling demand is expected to increase by 66% by 2030.
Singapore has made significant progress in adopting clean cooling solutions, including optimising cooling design and infrastructure, raising minimum energy performance standards for cooling equipment and promoting the adoption of innovative technologies in line with the Singapore Green Plan.
“This report builds on Singapore’s existing strengths in clean cooling and highlights the multi-stakeholder collaboration needed to create systemic change. WWF-Singapore brings science based knowledge to support Singapore’s decarbonisation journey. It is important that we work with pathfinder companies to test and pilot solutions so that we can scale clean cooling to achieve Singapore’s climate goals,” said WWF-Singapore’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr R. Raghunathan.
The report finds that the biggest opportunities to adopt clean cooling interventions exist in the commercial buildings sector. It also outlines four clean cooling solutions that could be considered for further development across multiple sectors in Singapore, based on their ability to address cooling demand and provide flexibility to the grid:
- District cooling for grid flexibility
- Control systems for demand-side response management
- Phase change materials for short-medium duration storage capacity
- Cryogenic energy storage systems for long duration storage capacity
These solutions have the potential to scale to meet the growing demand for cooling, while limiting greenhouse gas emissions by enabling greater grid flexibility to support Singapore’s energy transition.
Benedict Chia, Director (Strategic Issues), National Climate Change Secretariat, Strategy Group, Prime Minister’s Office said, “The development of innovative cooling solutions presents new opportunities for Singapore to decarbonise our energy sector. We look forward to collaborations that these findings may inspire, which can contribute to Singapore’s raised ambition to achieve net zero emissions by or around mid-century.“
Chris Stephens, Asia Director at the Carbon Trust commented, “As countries begin to transition towards Net Zero by scaling up renewable energy, new challenges related to variability and grid flexibility must be tackled to decarbonise successfully. As a major contributor to energy demand, cooling is well placed to be leveraged as an energy vector and provider of flexibility.“
The report was developed through multi-stakeholder consultation, including discussions and interviews with 15 government agencies, businesses and research institutions.1
Read the full report here.
For more information please contact:
| Jolene Lim, Strategic Communications, WWF-Singapore jlim@wwf.sg | Hazel Xu, Strategic Communications, WWF-Singapore hxu@wwf.sg |
About WWF-Singapore
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisations. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.
1Refer to Annex A for the complete list of participating stakeholders from the Singapore government agencies, private sector organisations and research institutions and think tanks.
As one of WWF’s international hubs, WWF-Singapore supports a global network spanning over 100 countries.
WWF-Singapore works closely with local stakeholders towards a greener and more sustainable Singapore and the region around us. We work to address key conservation areas, such as deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, oceans, food security, sustainable finance and sustainable consumption through education and outreach efforts with individuals, businesses and governments. For more information, please visit wwf.sg.
Annex A
As mentioned in the report, special thanks to participating stakeholders:
Singapore Government Agencies: Building Construction Authority (Guang Yu Jin, Sam Chang, Shuhadah Abdul); Economic Development Board (Desmond Li, Tingfeng He); Energy Market Authority (Meng Hwee Chia, Joel Loong, Yee Jiunn Terh, Wilfred Yu); Infocomm Media Development Authority (Arvind Verma, Lek Heng Ngoh); Ministry of Trade and Industry (Ivan Tan, Michelle Zhu); Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (Weijie Zhang, Farhana Anuar, Yuan Sherng, Goh Ping Yao, Adil Hakeem); National Climate Change Secretariat (Benedict Chia, Joseph Tay); National Environment Agency (Guan Hong Tan, Jun Wen Wong, Yuqing Chen, Zahin Amrad, Lee Xin Min); Urban Redevelopment Authority (Santhosh Manivannan, Dilys Teoh)
Private Sector Organisations: ENGIE (Thomas Baudlot, Yeo Kong Nee, Anh-Hà de Foucauld , Dr Lu, Anne Miclo, Arifeen Wahed, Jonathan Lauw); SP Group (Harsha S); Surbana Jurong (Eugene Seah, Praveen Hassan Chandrashekar) Research Institutions and think tanks: Cooling Energy Science and Technology Singapore (CoolestSG) Consortium (Prof SK Chou, Prof Lee Poh Seng, Peter Lindgren); Cooling Singapore 2.0 ((Winston Chow (Singapore Management University), Ander Zozaya Guisasola (Singapore-ETH Centre), Mathias Niffeler (Singapore- ETH Centre), Luis Santos (TUMCREATE)); Energy Research Institute @ NTU (Alex Chong Chia Chuan, Kathiresan Ramprakash, Sundar Raj Thangavelu, Suveera Kakkar)
