The construction tender for the two 1.5 megawatt-peak (MWp) floating solar PV systems on Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs has been awarded to a local engineering firm BBR Greentech Pte Ltd. Construction works are in progress and the systems are expected to be operational by 2Q 2020.
BBR Greentech was one of the companies that had participated in the PUB/EDB floating solar PV testbed on Tengeh Reservoir to study the feasibility of floating solar photovoltaic (PV) technology in Singapore.
The floating solar PV systems will be deployed on the reservoir surface adjacent to Bedok Pump Station and the Lower Seletar Pump Station. Taking up just 0.5% of Lower Seletar Reservoir’s surface area and 2% of Bedok Reservoir’s, they will not affect the operational and recreational uses of the reservoirs.
Electricity generated by the two floating solar PV systems will directly power Bedok Waterworks and the raw water pumping stations at Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs. Together with an existing 0.5 MWp rooftop solar array at Bedok Waterworks, the floating solar systems will produce enough green power to satisfy 30% of the installations’ total energy requirement.
Investing in solar power to mitigate climate change
PUB continuously seek to make its operations more sustainable, to reduce its carbon footprint and to contribute to Singapore’s climate change mitigation effort. Solar power is a viable source of renewable energy in sunny Singapore. While the majority of solar PV systems are deployed on land or rooftops, waterbodies such as reservoirs, with their large surface areas, can also be used to harness solar energy.
The two floating solar PV systems at Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs can potentially generate enough energy to power about 800 four-room HDB flats, and reduce PUB’s carbon emissions by around 1.5 kilotonnes annually – or the same as taking 300 cars off our roads.
PUB has already announced that it looks to deploy a very large 50MWp floating PV system on Tengeh Reservoir by 2021. The tender for this is expected to be awarded by end 2019.
