How green is Singapore energy production?

It depends on how you define “green”. Even solar energy can be seen as dirty due to the materials and costs involved in production, maintenance of the panels.

The majority of Singapore powergen is via natural gas. They have sizable rooftop solar installations and a test bed for alternative technologies.

They also produce about 60+ million tons of Co2. About 50% of this is due to the petrochemical/refining industry.

Comparing with Hong Kong

Hong Kong still uses coal for around 20% of their powergen. They also have nuclear and natural gas. Like Singapore they are building out renewables where possible. From 2017, they are slowly retiring their coal plants and replacing them with natural gas. Around 20% of their power comes from mainland China which still has a dominate amount of coal powergen. China is also the world's largest installer of wind and solar year on year.

Both cities are investing in greentech, conservation and reduction of greenhouse emissions. Both are supporting the Paris Accords.

On balance, Singapore certainly has a much greener power production base than Hong Kong. And Hong Kong produces much less Co2 than Singapore. Each city accounts for around 0.10% of global carbon emissions.

What is the best?

I, personally, prefer to think of Singapore as more green all around inclusive of power. Yet, I am biased.

This is a modified version of an answer I posted to Quora in July 2017. I’m slowly moving all my Quora answers to Medium and modifying them to be longer form and more relevant. This is ongoing.





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Connor Clark-Lindh

Connor Clark-Lindh

Duct Tape

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