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   Industry Spotlight & Innovation
    then assembled to form the final structure, in a kind of “LEGO-like” manner. In this way, customised solar panels can be used to replace certain building elements such as windows, balcony fences and wall sections without incurring retrofitting costs at a later stage. SERIS is working with various stakeholders to drive this initiative forward, so that in the future we can expect to see new buildings in Singapore with integrated solar arrays that fit well into the building design. In fact, you might not even notice that they are there!
On Water
Another way to avoid the use of land for solar energy deployment is to install panels that float on water. As counterintuitive as it may sound (after all, mixing water and electricity is usually frowned upon), this has actually proven to be an effective idea that is quickly gaining popularity around the world. In 2015, SERIS, together with the PUB and EDB, set up the world’s largest floating solar testbed to thoroughly validate this concept. The testbed returned useful research data that confirmed the viability of floating solar, and underlined Singapore’s thought leadership in the field. Today, there is already a pipeline of projects lined up by PUB to deploy more floating solar energy systems – two smaller ones in Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs totalling 3 MWp, as well as a large 50 MWp system at Tengeh Reservoir. The EDB has also launched a request for information to explore the feasibility of deploying an even bigger 100 MWp system at Kranji Reservoir. It is clear that floating solar will become a useful way to overcome the shortage of land, and also overcome the scalability issue of rooftops. Therefore, one might expect a few more floating solar energy systems being built on other reservoirs on the journey to meet the 2 GWp target by 2030. But inland reservoirs are not the only locations where floating solar systems can be installed. Another enticing avenue is actually in the open sea, albeit likely still near the shore to avoid long and costly cable connections. Local solar developer Sunseap is in the midst of constructing a 5 MWp system in the Straits of Johor. When completed, this system will
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be roughly the size of five football fields and one of the largest offshore floating solar energy systems in the world.
Deploying floating solar energy systems on seawater is not without its challenges. The high salt content in seawater corrodes materials more quickly. Stronger wave action and biofouling from marine life have to be well-managed for offshore floating solar applications to work. But when these challenges are overcome, the potential benefits can be plenty. For example, they could be co-located with other applications, providing much needed energy to industrial or commercial activities such as water desalination and offshore fish farming.
Developing Solar Cells
for the Future
Today, most solar cells are built using a material called silicon. Silicon is an element that is abundant in the Earth’s crust, and the semiconductor technologies required to turn it into solar cells are relatively well understood. However, silicon-based solar cells have a serious drawback – they can only reach a maximum e ciency of around 29%. This is largely because they are only able to
harvest a part of the solar spectrum. Modern solar cells are already nearing this limit. In fact, the best silicon solar cell today is already 26.7% e cient, so there is not much more e ciency potential to leverage.
One possible way to overcome this limit is to combine materials together in innovative ways. Many brilliant scientists in renowned institutions globally are working together to push the boundaries of solar cell efficiencies. Singapore is not one to shy away from competing with other juggernauts of solar energy research around the world either. Locally, three institutions have teamed up together in this quest to push the limits of solar cell efficiencies. SERIS is collaborating with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) to develop special variants of so-called “tandem solar cells”. As their name suggests, this special type of solar cell is built by stacking two very di erent types of materials together to better harvest the solar spectrum. If this project succeeds, we will be able to deploy solar panels in the future that are signi cantly more e cient than what is possible with today’s technology.
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