A power plant operated by PacificLight Power in Singapore. Photo courtesy of the company
PacificLight Power, backed by Indonesian billionaire Anthoni Salim, has won a contract to build a SGD1 billion (US$733 million) hydropower plant in Singapore.
The plant will be the largest single and most efficient combined cycle gas turbine facility in Singapore, it said in a statement.
The plant has a capacity of 600 megawatts and will be able to generate electricity by burning 30% of hydrogen, with natural gas accounting for the rest.
It is set to begin operation in 2029, and ultimately will have the capacity to burn 100% hydrogen, which is a cleaner fuel compared to natural gas as it does not produce carbon dioxide.
It will be the largest among nine hydrogen-ready power plants that Singapore plans to have by 2030.
Singapore currently relies on natural gas to generate most of its electricity, but needs to turn to greener sources to meet its net-zero goals, according to The Straits Times.
The government forecasts that Singapore’s peak electricity demand is expected to grow by at least 3.7% over the next six years, reaching between 10.1 gigawatts and 11.8 gigawatts by 2030.
PacificLight is a subsidiary of the power generating arm of Manila Electric, the largest Philippine power retailer and controlled by Metro Pacific Investments, a Philippine unit of Salim’s First Pacific and partly-owned by tycoon Manuel Pangilinan, according to Bloomberg.
