Singapore (VNA) – Singapore has set a target of stepping up its solar capacityby more than seven times from the current level, and increasing the currentoutput of 260 megawatt-peak (MWp) to 2 gigawatt-peak (GWp) by 2030.

Minister forTrade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said at the opening of the SingaporeInternational Energy Week on October 29 that the targeted output is enough tomeet the annual power needs of around 350,000 households in Singapore, or about4 percent of its total electricity demand today.

Currently,solar energy contributes less than 1 percent to Singapore's total energy mix.More than 95 percent comes from natural gas, the cleanest form of fossil fuel.Other sources, such as oil and coal, round up the mix.

To reach thetarget, the Singaporean Government is considering several measures, he said.

The first isto maximise the deployment of solar panels onto available surfaces, includingrooftops, reservoirs, offshore sea space, and on the vertical surfaces ofbuildings.

By 2020, onein two HDB rooftops will have solar panels deployed. Under the recently awardedSolarNova Tender 4 announced earlier this month, solar panels will also bedeployed at 30 schools, as well as 13 Ministry of Defence sites.

Singaporewill also invest more in research and development into energy storage systems.These essentially function as batteries when hooked up to solar systems,helping to overcome the challenge of intermittent sunshine.

Experts saidSingapore's target of having 2GWp of installed solar capacity by 2030is an ambitious target, but one that was achievable if certain conditionsare met.

ProfessorSubodh Mhaisalkar, executive director for the Energy Research Institute at theNanyang Technological University, pointed to Singapore's limited land area andbuilt-up environment, saying that besides HDB rooftops, solar panels should beinstalled on residential and industrial buildings, walkways and depots, and onwater bodies such as reservoirs and the sea.

Meanwhile,Dr Thomas Reindl, deputy chief executive of the Solar Energy Research Instituteof Singapore (Seris) at the National University of Singapore , said the targetseems achievable, as long as oil and gas prices don't fall well below today'slevels./.