Soak up the sun: Floating solar farm will help S'pore achieve its clean energy ambition

An aerial shot of the 60 megawatt-peak floating solar photovoltaic system on Tengeh Reservoir on May 15, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Piles of floats waiting to be assembled onto the solar panels at the construction site next to Tengeh Reservoir on March 11, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Workers unloading the floats from a container truck at the construction site next to Tengeh Reservoir on March 11, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Workers assembling solar panels onto floats at the construction site next to Tengeh Reservoir on March 11, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Workers piece the panels and floats like a jigsaw puzzle onto the ramp, waiting to be towed out to their designated positions on Tengeh Reservoir on March 11, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

A worker checking the cable continuity of the solar panels on Tengeh Reservoir on March 18, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

A worker laying direct current (DC) cables from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to the DC combiner boxes on one of the 10 islands of solar PV arrays on Tengeh Reservoir on April 27, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

A worker checking the cable continuity of the solar panels on Tengeh Reservoir on March 21, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

A top-down aerial shot of the 60 megawatt-peak floating solar photovoltaic system on Tengeh Reservoir on May 15, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Project engineer Chan Jun Ting (right) shares with Sembcorp Floating Solar Singapore intern Justin Yang the design concept of the solar farm on March 11, 2021. PHOTO: STST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Workers lifting the power conditioning system onto the platform at Tengeh Reservoir on March 18, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Two power conditioning systems during sunrise on April 27, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Site acceptance test at the power conditioning system on Tengeh Reservoir on April 27, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Workers on the construction barge laying insulated cables from a power conditioning system in Tengeh Reservoir to the control building on land on April 27, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

The lowering of sinker, which serves as anchors, to hold the positions of the floating solar photovoltaic arrays on Tengeh Reservoir on April 27, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Dr Khoo Yong Sheng, a senior research fellow from the National University of Singapore, using a drone to do thermal mapping of solar panels to check for defects that human eye cannot see, at Tengeh Reservoir on March 21, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Grey herons on a testbed on the reservoir in April 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Sunrise over the testbed and a construction barge equipped with crane for the lifting operation of sinkers, power conditioning system platforms and power conditioning system on Tengeh Reservoir on April 27, 2021. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Lim Yaohui

Photojournalist

Updated

Published

May 17, 2021, 06:30 AM

It is one of the world's largest inland floating solar photovoltaic systems, covering 45ha and spreading across 10 "islands".

Occupying the space of 45 football fields in Tengeh Reservoir, the Sembcorp Tengeh Floating Solar Farm will produce 60 megawatt-peak of energy, enough to power around 16,000 four-room Housing Board flats for one year.

The plan to build the facility was announced in August last year by national water agency PUB and Sembcorp Floating Solar Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries (Sembcorp).

The bulk of the construction work started last December, with the project slated to be completed in a few months' time. The official opening will be in the second half of this year.

PUB and Sembcorp, which inked a 25-year power purchase agreement, said the solar farm will help to cut dependency on fossil fuels and curb carbon emissions, as well as build national climate resilience for a more sustainable future.

The Straits Times executive photojournalist Lim Yaohui went behind the scenes to document how the solar farm is being set up using floats, solar panels, sinkers, combiner boxes, power conditioning systems and cables in land-scarce Singapore.

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