Sembcorp Clinches 50-Megawatt Solar Project from HDB and EDB

Sembcorp Industries Ltd (Sembcorp) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sembcorp Solar Singapore Pte Ltd (Sembcorp Solar) has won a 50-megawatt project from the Housing & Development Board (HDB) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

As the winning bidder for the project, Sembcorp will build, own, operate and maintain grid-tied rooftop solar systems with a total capacity of 50 megawatts across 848 HDB blocks under the West Coast and Choa Chu Kang Town Councils and 27 other government sites in Singapore. Sembcorp Solar’s winning bid was put together with one of its appointed engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) players, Kurihara Kogyo Co., Ltd.

This project is part of the SolarNova programme, a whole-of-government effort spearheaded by HDB and EDB to accelerate the deployment of solar photovoltaic systems in Singapore and drive the growth of Singapore’s solar industry. Construction of the rooftop solar systems by Sembcorp will begin in 3Q 2018, and is targeted to be completed by 2Q 2020.

This deal makes Sembcorp a major solar player in Singapore. Sembcorp’s combined solar energy portfolio in Singapore now extends to 104 megawatts of capacity situated across more than 1,500 sites in the country. This is enough to power around 27,400 four-room HDB flats in Singapore per year. Sembcorp’s rooftop solar systems are located on top of public housing blocks, commercial and industrial premises as well as government sites.

Koh Chiap Khiong, Head of Singapore, Southeast Asia & China (Energy), Sembcorp, said, “As a home-grown company that has built up an established renewable energy portfolio internationally, Sembcorp is committed to a sustainable future for all. We are very excited to apply our global expertise here at home, and contribute to the growing momentum towards cleaner energy in Singapore.

“With the full implementation of the open electricity market in the country later this year, we look forward to making a difference to households and businesses not only with value-for-money power packages, but also by delivering more sustainable electricity to them.”

Sembcorp’s move to grow solar is in line with its recently set Climate Change Strategy as a group. In recognition that the world is rapidly transitioning to a low-carbon economy, earlier this year, Sembcorp announced ambitious targets to double its renewables portfolio to around 4,000 megawatts by 2022. At present, Sembcorp has over 2,500 megawatts of renewable energy assets, comprising wind and solar power projects across Singapore, China and India.

This latest 50-megawatt project will be internally funded and is not expected to have a material impact on the earnings per share and net asset per share of Sembcorp for the financial year ending December 31, 2018.