Singapore Opens One Of The World’s Largest Floating Solar Farms
Singapore’s floating solar farm announced its opening a few months ago, in a mission to increase solar energy capabilities by 2025. This innovative farm on the Tengeh Reservoir is made up of 122,000 solar panels, spanning across the size of 45 football fields! The creation comes in a bid to help tackle the global climate crisis.
Credit – The Straits Times
Why Are Singapore Turning To Solar Energy?
The most significant pollutant emitted from Singapore is carbon dioxide, from the burning of fossil fuels to create energy. As the island has little wind, wind power was not an appropriate option for them. The country’s best alternative was to turn to solar as a use for energy. This densely populated island has little space on land for farms of this size, therefore further research resulted in the idea to move onto water to utilise these empty areas.
Subhod Mhaisalkar from the Energy Research Institute said that they need to “Look at every possible option for solar cell deployment so that solar electricity can contribute anywhere between 10-20% of Singapore’s needs on a long-term basis”
The government has now laid out the plan to quadruple its solar energy capabilities for the future, in order to power 350,000 homes across Singapore.
How Is The World Innovating To Create A Greener Future?
People across the world are realising the huge benefit to making use of space to create these farms and push towards a more sustainable way of living. Another example of this includes projects led by BayWa r.e., who shape renewable energy trends, researching and developing solutions for a greener future.
They transform unused bodies of water into clean energy generators, using long life floaters with no abrasion, topped with an innovative solar boat design ensuring optimal yield. But the development doesn’t stop there, they have even installed underwater bio huts underneath the solar panels filled with shells and wooden material to provide shelter and food for fish.
These innovative solutions across the world are helping us to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and deduct the rate of global warming. With a high demand for us to find clean energy and reduce toxins emitted into the atmosphere, all of these farms will have a great impact on helping us strive towards a more sustainable planet.
