About 40 per cent of Singapore’s greenhouse gas emissions now come from the power sector, so if the Republic is to reach its ambitious target of being net zero by 2050, a lot of its effort must go to greening this sector.

By 2035, natural gas will still make up more than 50 per cent of the country’s energy mix, though much less than now, with imports of renewable energy accounting for about 30 per cent. Which are the energy sources that could form the remainder of Singapore’s future fuel mix, and what are the key changes needed to decarbonise the energy sector?

Here’s a look at what could happen.

Currently, almost all of Singapore’s energy is generated from natural gas

As at June 2023, 94.3 per cent of the fuel mix came from natural gas.

According to Mr Chong Zhi Xin, the director of gas, power and climate solutions at S&P Global Commodity Insights, slightly more than 40 per cent of Singapore’s total gas supply is liquefied natural gas (LNG), carried here on ships from countries such as Australia, Qatar and the United States.

The remaining 60 per cent is natural gas piped from Indonesia and Malaysia.

About 4.4 per cent of Singapore’s energy comes from other sources, such as solar and municipal energy waste.

Singapore has at its disposal more than 1 gigawatt-peak (GWp) of solar power, which would take about 5 million sq m of solar photovoltaic cells to produce, said Professor Chan Siew Hwa, who is co-director of the Energy Research Institute at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

It also has four waste-to-energy plants, which incinerate all the nation’s waste and produce electricity in the process.

Some 0.9 per cent of the energy mix comes from coal. Singapore’s only coal-burning plant, the Tembusu Multi-Utilities Complex on Jurong Island, supplies steam and electricity to chemical companies on the industrial island.

Finally, 0.3 per cent of power for Singapore comes from petroleum products, such as oil.

By 2035, Singapore aims to reduce reliance on natural gas, which will make up more than 50 per cent of the energy mix, paving the way for other sources of renewable energy

This is the current energy mix for Singapore in 2023. Continue scrolling to see how it’s projected to change by 2035.

Natural gas is projected to be reduced from the current 94.3 per cent to more than 50 per cent.

Some 30 per cent is expected to come from renewable energy imports. By 2035, import deals signed with Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia are expected to be in force.

The final 20 per cent could include solar, various forms of hydrogen, biofuels, nuclear power and geothermal power.

For the more than 50 per cent of the energy mix that will still come from natural gas, a larger share is likely to come from LNG imports, as existing piped gas contracts expire. For instance, contracts with Indonesia to import piped gas will expire in 2023 and 2024.

For the 30 per cent from renewable energy imports, the deals signed so far for which the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has given conditional approval are:

• 2 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon electricity from Indonesia, predominantly solar;
• 1GW of solar, hydropower and potentially wind from Cambodia;
• 1.2GW of primarily wind energy from Vietnam.

There could be more, as EMA has received more than 20 other proposals for low-energy imports since it started soliciting applications in 2021.