Singapore's PUB sets to build 50 MW floating solar PV system in Tengeh Reservoir

Singapore's national water agency, PUB, is set to deploy a 50 MW floating solar photovoltaic system located in Tengeh Reservoir by 2021. The agency has launched a request for proposal (RFP) to invite private sector companies to design, build, own, and operate, for 25 years, the solar farm. 

PUB is also in the process of implementing two other smaller 1.5 MW floating solar PV systems on Bedok and Lower Seletar reservoirs. The construction tender for these two projects has closed and will be awarded in the third quarter of this year. The systems should be in place by early 2020. It will have a total solar capacity of some 57 MWp. This is significant enough of solar energy to power the equivalent of 15,500 4-room HDB flats for a whole year. Solar panels on the roof of Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, when it is finished in 2025, will add another 5 MW.

The project will generate green energy to power water treatment and is expected to offset 7% of PUB’s current energy needs, reducing the company's carbon footprint at the same time. Because solar energy does not involve the burning of fossil fuels, the floating Tengeh system will eliminate the need to emit 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year that it is in operation. This is equivalent to removing 6,000 cars off the roads.