House lights, refrigerators, computers and, most of all, air-conditioners all work off electricity that is mostly generated by natural gas.

With fossil fuels increasing in price exponentially, many Singaporeans will not be able to afford to run their aircons within a few years if electricity rates increase relentlessly.

Fortunately, Singapore might be uniquely positioned to make as great a success of electricity generation as it has of water treatment or air travel.

It does not have any oil or gas but it has one renewable, eternal natural resource in abundance: sunlight.

And, by good fortune, today's solar panels are 10 times more efficient creators of electricity than the early 1970s models that were tried out in colder, less sunny climates.

Perhaps the Government should seriously study setting up ultra-efficient solar panels on the rooftop of every HDB building, office tower, and countless other flat, inconspicuous surfaces that point upwards towards the sky.

If added to the electricity grid, such inexpensively generated electricity could do wonders to keep electricity rates affordable.

It would also give Singapore a shining new high-tech industry that could be just as great a generator of jobs and exports as information technology and biotech are today.

The number of solar panels on top of HDB buildings could even be divided by the number of flats so that each homeowner could get a share of the electricity generated at very low cost.

As was the case with IT and biotech, tax breaks should be offered to leading solar-panel makers from countries like Germany to set up both production and R&D facilities in Singapore.

Given that fossil-fuel prices are poised to rise indefinitely, all the above-mentioned ideas warrant very serious consideration.

Eric J. Brooks