by Zheng Xiaoyi

    SINGAPORE, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Facing rising cost of conventional sources of energy, especially the volatile oil prices in recent years, Singapore has endeavored to explore alternative clean energy to ensure the city-state's energy security and power its economy.

    In Singapore, the clean energy industry was defined as comprising a broad range of areas, including solar power, fuel cells, wind power, energy efficiency and carbon trading.

    Experts believe that developing clean energy industry is one of Singapore's efforts to diversify its energy sources. Today, approximately 80 percent of Singapore's electricity is generated from natural gas.

    Amidst the current financial crisis, the long-vision move by the Singapore government to develop clean energy, especially solar energy, has been proved to be a smart strategy to diversify the economy and to help minimize the impact of global economic slowdown.

    In early 2007, the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) identified the clean energy industry as a strategic key growth industry for Singapore.

    According to the Clean Energy blueprint of the country, Singapore's clean energy sector is expected to generate a total of170 million Singapore dollars (114.07 million U.S. dollars) in value-added and 7,000 new jobs by 2015.

    Since the blueprint was outlined in March, 2007, the government has pledged a total of 350 million Singapore dollars (234.8 million dollars) in research, development and technology in the sector, and a series of manufacturing and R&D projects have been announced.

    The government's push to attract big players in clean energy to Singapore is already showing results. Singapore is now home to the world's largest wind power systems maker Vestas and European solar company Conergy.

    In October, 2008, Norway's solar energy company Renewable Energy Corp (REC), world's leading solar manufacturing plant, announced that it will invest 6.3 billion Singapore dollars (about4.23 billion dollars) to build the world's largest solar manufacturing complex in Singapore.

    Following that, Vestas, the world's top wind technology company, decided in November to set up a Global Wind Technology R&D Center in Singapore, the largest one outside Denmark, and committed 500 million Singapore dollars (335.5 million dollars) of investment in the center over the next 10 years.

    Also in November, the Singapore government hosted the International Energy Week. At the event, Singapore announced a series of measures to woo foreign investment to help spur the creation of a more conducive environment to implement new energy solutions. For example, it set up a 25 million Singapore dollars (16.8 million dollars) R&D fund to provide financial support to realize new energy technologies.

    The government said these were significant milestones in the city-state's efforts to further develop its nascent but growing clean energy industry, which has been deemed to be a new engine for the economy in future.

    Mr Lim Siong Guan, chairman of the Economic Development Board (EDB), said "Singapore is well-placed to be a Global Clean Energy Hub as we possess key competitive advantages arising from our existing electronics, precision engineering and chemicals capabilities. These, coupled with manufacturing know-how, availability of engineering talent, an extensive supplier base and strong intellectual property protection, mean that many Clean Energy sectors such as solar and fuel cells play to our strengths."

    Though Singapore has been putting in much effort in attracting renewable energy companies to set up their operations in Singapore and create jobs, and encouraging research and development in renewable energy technology, some analysts said that the local adoption of clean energy in Singapore is less than desirable. They argued that the government is not in favor of subsidies for clean energy. Without subsidies, the use of renewable energy, such as solar energy, is still not price competitive as compared to current electricity tariffs.

    For example, solar power currently costs around 60 to 70 cents per kilowatt-hour, while electricity from traditional grid costs just 30 cents, and prices will likely fall by next year in line with the falling of fuel prices worldwide.

    Experts say that solar panels will gain popularity only when the average cost of producing electricity from solar panels is roughly equal to that of electricity supplied by the national grid.