Tackling Singapore's constraints in renewables could make it a regional model for energy transition: panellists

The city-state's other strengths include the availability of capital and the ability to make meaningful decisions around its allocation, they add. Stories by Sharon See

- Stories by Sharon See

Singapore could become a model for energy transition in the region, if constraints around renewable energy spur the city-state to innovate in terms of deploying capital and business models, panellists at a sustainability dialogue said.

"This is a very demanding place to do this because there's not a lot of... space to go ahead and do large-scale renewables," said Nat Bullard, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Halcyon, an artificial intelligence-assisted platform for climate-related information.

"You have to have your innovations come in, in other ways, to think about how you're going to decarbonise," he added. "Using that constraint as an advantage and as a model is, to me, something I hope to see more of."

Bullard was speaking at the second edition of the Sustainability Impact Dialogue jointly organised by The Business Times and UOB, under the theme of "Navigating Sustainability Forward: Unlocking Opportunities in Green Energy Transition".

He was responding to a question from the moderator, Melissa Moi, head of sustainable business at UOB, on how Singapore is positioned in the demand-and-supply shifts undergirding the energy transition.

Compared with the US, where plans are reshaped with administration changes and new schemes become overly politicised, Singapore has a huge advantage - from a policy perspective - in how climate-related issues are "quite apolitical", said Bullard.

Another edge Singapore has is the ability to make decisions on capital allocation over a longer time period, as well as long-term planning.

"Being able to see multi-decade master plans for energy and infrastructure in Singapore is a very helpful way to allow people to think ahead," he added.

Fellow panellist Yoon Young Kim, cluster president for Singapore and Brunei at Schneider Electric, echoed these views.