Major Infrastructure Works
A total of $138 million was spent in FY 2019/ 2020 on major infrastructure works for public housing development programme. 72 Infrastructure and road-related facilities projects in HDB towns were implemented on time to serve the BTO developments. The major areas of works are in the towns of Bidadari, Tampines North and South, Punggol North, Tengah, Kallang Whampoa, Woodlands, Yishun, and Sembawang.
Land Reclamation Projects
HDB is the agent to MND to carry out land reclamation works. Ongoing land reclamation projects include the $1.03 billion contract for the Construction & Management of Staging Grounds & Infilling Works (Phase 1) and $602 million contract for the Construction & Management of Staging Grounds & Infilling Works (Phase 2), which are scheduled to be completed by August 2020 and March 2023 respectively. The $418 million contract for the Construction and Management of Staging Ground and Infilling Works (Phase 3) commenced on 24 February 2020 and is scheduled to be completed by May 2026.
Other ongoing land reclamation projects include the $1.23 billion contract for the Construction of Polder at Areas A & C of Pulau Tekong, which is scheduled to be completed in April 2022.
The Environmental Monitoring & Management Plan (EMMP) contracts supporting these land reclamation projects to monitor and ensure that the construction works will not cause any adverse impacts to the environment are also ongoing.
Construction for Land Reclamation at Changi East was carried out successfully, creating a total of 48ha of land. The reclaimed land has been proclaimed by the President as state land in 3 plots, with Plots 1 and 2 proclaimed on 12 June 2019 and Plot 3 proclaimed on 20 November 2019 respectively.
National Strategic Stockpiles
The Ministry of National Development (MND) has re-appointed HDB as the agent to carry out the infrastructure and development works related to the national strategic stockpiles in FY2019. The agency agreement is extended for 3 years. HDB is managing 3 ongoing distant-sourced sand stockpiling contracts in FY2019.
Solar Capacity
The solar capability building programme for public housing started with a wide-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) test-bedding in new and existing precincts. The test-bed has enabled HDB to achieve various developmental objectives. These include studying the performance of solar PV system based on different block configurations, geographical settings and technologies in a tropical setting; gathering and learning from its design and development; helping the industry build technical expertise and capability; and developing more cost-effective solar PV systems.
As the largest stakeholder in the installation of the solar PV system in Singapore, HDB has progressively rolled out the test bedding in both new and existing HDB precincts. To date, HDB has committed a total of about 278 MWp of Solar PV systems for some 5,500 public housing blocks across Singapore. Of these, more than 2,000 HDB blocks have been installed with solar PV systems so far.
Solar Leasing Model and the SolarNova programme
The solar leasing model is an enhancement of HDB’s solar capability building programme, and a continuation of HDB’s ongoing efforts to test-bed solar energy to promote sustainable development.
The solar leasing model involves leasing solar PV systems from private solar system developers who will design, finance, install, operate and maintain the solar PV systems. The solar PV developers will recover their cost from the solar energy sold and consumed by the Town Councils, at a preferential rate that is not higher than the retail electricity tariff rate. The solar leasing model has also been expanded to include implementation in projects such as HDB Greenprint @ Yuhua and Greenprint @ Teck Ghee.
The SolarNova programme was launched in 2014 by HDB and EDB to encourage government agencies to come together to harness solar energy to power their activities and to spur the growth of the solar industry in Singapore.
Taking the lead in the SolarNova programme, HDB aggregates solar PV demand from across the whole of government, and allows government agencies with solar PV demand to ride on its solar leasing tenders, thus achieving greater economies of scale and better discount rates of the prevailing tariff for solar energy purchased.
In 2015, HDB awarded the first SolarNova tender, which saw a solar PV capacity of 76 MWp spanning across 831 HDB blocks and 8 government agency sites. SolarNova Phase 2 was awarded in June 2017 and has a tender capacity of 40 MWp across 636 HDB blocks and 31 government agency sites. SolarNova Phase 3 was awarded in June 2018 and has a tender capacity of 39MWp from HDB across an estimated 848 HDB blocks and 11 MWp from 29 government agencies sites. SolarNova Phase 4 tender was awarded in October 2019 and has a tender capacity of 70 Wp, consisting of about 40 MWp from HDB across an estimated 1,218 HDB blocks and about 30 MWp from 49 government agencies sites.
The latest SolarNova Phase 5 tender was launched in December 2019 and has a capacity of 60 MWp across 1,154 HDB blocks and 46 government agencies sites, creating more clean energy and helping to reduce carbon emissions, thereby helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The SolarNova programme initially aimed to implement 350 MWp of solar PV capacity across the public buildings in Singapore by 2020, of which, 220 MWp was committed by HDB. HDB has since met our target in December 2018 with the launch of the SolarNova Phase 4 tender.
With the government’s new 2 GWp solar target by 2030 announced at Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2019, HDB has extended the SolarNova programme up to 2030, and will continue to be the lead driving agency for solar PV deployment on public sector rooftops. Correspondingly, HDB has also increased our commitment to install 540 MWp of solar PV across 70% of HDB buildings by 2030.