A general view of Shell's Pulau Bukom petrochemical complex in Singapore July 15, 2019. (Photo: Reuters)Singapore (VNA) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC is considering to install solar panels to power its Pulau Bukom refinery site in Singapore, according to the company.
The Pulau Bukom site includes a 500,000 barrels-per-day refinery, which is Shell’s largest wholly owned refinery.
The oil and gas company has been exploring solar installations for its other sites in Singapore as part of its plans to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon footprint, Shell said in a statement.
The firm is installing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roofs of seven lubricant manufacturing plants in China, India, Italy, Singapore and Switzerland, the firm noted.
It has so far identified three manufacturing and logistics sites in Singapore’s Tuas, Jurong Island and Pandan to install a solar PV power generation system, with a combined capacity of about three megawatts.
The first and largest of the three Shell solar farms, which will go live next month, will have more than 6,500 panels placed atop a lubricant plant in Tuas.
The solar farm is expected to produce about 3,300 megawatt hours of renewable energy every year.
The generated solar energy will be used to help power operations at the Tuas lubricants plant, the company said, adding this can result in the avoidance of a third of the greenhouse gas emissions from the plant’s electricity use, or approximately 1,200 tonnes on a carbon dioxide-equivalent basis per year. This is also equivalent to taking about 700 cars off the road for one year.
Installations at Shell’s sites in Pandan and Jurong Island are expected to start in late 2019 and early 2020, respectively.
As part of its efforts to trial low carbon solutions, Shell has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Energy Market Authority of Singapore (EMA) to jointly work on spurring the adoption of energy storage systems. This could include piloting commercially viable business models with innovative solutions that integrate storage systems and solar power to Shell's sites in Singapore. –VNA
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