Singapore eyes clean energy sources from Australia, Malaysia

Singapore is looking to Australia's deserts and Malaysia's rainforests for clean power.

The Southeast Asian nation aims to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, but it relies heavily on imported oil and gas.

The country lacks the conditions to produce either wind or hydropower, and while it aims to generate two gigawatts from locally installed solar by 2030, it does not have space for large solar farms.

Meanwhile, its demand keeps increasing, particularly from data centres, which already account for 7% of Singapore's electricity consumption. That is projected to grow to 12% by 2030.

To meet that demand, Singapore's Energy Market Authority has already granted conditional approvals to import 1GW from Cambodia, 2GW from Indonesia and 1.2GW from Vietnam. Those are from a mix of solar, wind and hydropower.

This week, Australia announced a massive solar farm that it hopes will eventually offer two gigawatts (GW) of power to Singapore via undersea cable.

According to think tank Ember, renewable imports are expected to account for at least 30% of Singapore's electricity by 2035.

Niels de Boer, chief operating officer at the Nanyang Energy Research Institute, said that there are many challenges in import energy including transmission distances, energy losses and intermittency.

Dinita Setyawati, senior Southeast Asia electricity policy analyst at Ember, said that demand from Singapore holds promise for the region's massive untapped renewable energy potential, and can pump up heightened renewable energy ambitions in the region.