Singapore announced plans on Monday to dedicate additional land on Jurong Island, its key manufacturing hub, for the development of renewable energy projects and a new data centre park, according to a joint statement by the Singapore Economic Development Board and JTC Corporation.
About 300 hectares (741.32 acres) of land on the island’s western side, roughly 10% of Jurong Island’s total area, will be set aside for renewable power projects and low-carbon fuel production, the agencies said.
The 3,000-hectare Jurong Island is the centre of Singapore’s energy and chemicals industry, housing two of the city-state’s three refineries operated by Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and PetroChina.
Jurong Island will be a global test-bed for new energies and low-carbon technologies, said Tan See Leng, Singapore’s minister-in-charge of energy, science and technology, at the Singapore International Energy Week conference on Monday.
Scaling Up Renewable Energy Sources
The development will scale up facilities for renewable energies, including solar sources, sustainable aviation fuel, low-or-zero carbon ammonia solutions for power generation and maritime bunkering, as well as battery storage, according to EDB and JTC.
These include Singapore’s project for low-or-zero carbon ammonia power generation as well as hydrogen-ready power plants.
Separately, another 20 hectares of land will be set aside to develop Singapore’s largest data centre park, designed to support up to 700 megawatts of power capacity.
Operators will be able to tap Jurong Island’s existing ecosystem, including shared energy storage and utility infrastructure, ample power supply, and access to emerging low-carbon energy sources.
At the same time, Jurong Island will continue to diversify and drive growth opportunities in specialty chemicals and sustainable products, while battery storage infrastructure is also expanding on the island.
“There has been increasing interest from specialty chemicals players to grow their presence in Singapore, driven by growth in regional demand for higher-quality products,” Tan said.
Sembcorp Industries said on Monday that it has piloted a battery stacking solution at its existing Jurong Island energy storage system facility.
The vertical expansion increases storage capacity without enlarging the physical footprint, boosting the energy storage system’s capacity from 285 to 326 megawatt-hours.
(With inputs from Reuters)
