Singapore studies electricity generation from ocean waves

In order to diversify power sources and meet increasing domestic demand, Singapore is actively researching to produce electricity from ocean waves.

The Straits Times newspaper said in September, experts from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will conduct a survey of the area near St John Island and Pulau Sebarok island in the south of the island nation.

According to initial studies, the current velocity is estimated from 1.2-3m / s, enough to make turbines placed under the seabed to generate electricity.

The waters around the islands of St John Island and Pulau Sebarok in the future will contribute to Singapore - (Google Map photos)

The amount of electricity generated from these two places could be enough to supply 6,700 households of the island nation, said Dr. Michael Abundo from NTU's Energy Research Center.

The research team, led by Dr Abundo, estimates tidal energy in many areas of southern Singapore could meet 1.5% of the country's electricity demand by 2011.

In 2011, Singapore consumed nearly 42,000 gigawatt hours (GW.h = 1 million kW.h), an increase of 10% compared to 2009.

However, the narrow waters of Singapore are bustling with maritime activities, aquaculture, so only the two locations mentioned above are possible to place power generation turbines.

In the near future, sensors will be placed on the seabed in these two areas within a month to collect data to predict the long-term flow rate.

'Wind and solar energy can be affected by the weather, but the wave energy is very stable. If there is sufficient data for a lunar month, ie 29.5 days, we can fully predict the hourly flow within the next year , 'said Dr Abundo.

In addition, the research project also uses sound scanning equipment to determine the sea floor slope. Places with steep slopes will not be suitable for placing turbines.

It is expected that by the end of 2013, the research results will be completed and the re-design of suitable turbines of local conditions will be carried out, by the turbines that other countries use are designed for flow. has a speed of about 4m / sec.

Despite the small sea area and most of the projects currently focused on solar energy, Dr Abundo said: ' Singapore should not ignore any energy resource.'

Currently, 80% of Singapore's electricity consumption is produced from natural gas, remaining from petroleum products and domestic waste incinerators.