Keppel Bay Tower to become first commercial development in Singapore to be fully powered by renewable energy

SINGAPORE (Dec 29): Keppel Bay Tower will be the first commercial development in Singapore to utilise renewable energy to power all its operations, including the offices of tenants in the building, Keppel Corporation announced on Dec 29.

Keppel Corp’s property arm, Keppel Land, which owns and operates the building, will be installing an assembly of photovoltaic (PV) panels spanning about 400 sqm on the roof of the 18-storey Keppel Bay Tower, as well as its six-storey podium block.

This will reduce the building’s reliance on grid power, the group says.

Through its electricity retailer, Keppel Electric, Keppel Land will be purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), which are generated from PV panels installed in Keppel Offshore & Marine’s yards in Singapore.

When completed in 1Q20, Keppel Bay Tower’s PV system is expected to generate an energy yield of about 100,000 kilowatt hour (kWh) per annum.

According to the group, the initiatives will result in a reduction of over 2,400 tonnes of carbon emissions per annum – an amount which would otherwise require about 12,000 trees to absorb over about 50 years.

“The efforts for Keppel Bay Tower demonstrate a good example of how even existing large commercial buildings can tap on innovation to achieve Super Low Energy (SLE) status, by combining smart air-conditioning and lighting with integrated controls,” says Hugh Lim, CEO of Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

“We hope more building owners and industry players will be inspired to set new benchmarks for how we build and operate buildings – new and existing – contributing to the urgent task of mitigating climate change through Super Low Energy Buildings,” he adds.

In 2018, Keppel Land was awarded a grant of about $1.28 million by BCA to testbed new and emerging technologies which would reduce the building’s energy consumption significantly.

By June 2020, this is targeted to improve its energy efficiency by 20% compared to other Green Mark Platinum buildings.

Keppel is currently on track to meet its goal of reducing the annual energy consumption of Keppel Bay Tower to 115 kWh/m² per annum by June 2020, from its initial consumption of about 145 kWh/m² per annum.

Moving ahead, Keppel Land is also actively seeking new solutions to further reduce the building’s energy consumption to below 100 kWh/m² per annum, which would result in Keppel Bay Tower being 50% more energy efficient compared to typical office buildings in Singapore.

“Keppel is committed to sustainability, both as a provider of solutions for sustainable urbanisation and as a responsible corporate citizen. We will continue to take proactive steps to enhance the environmental performance of our developments to build a more sustainable future for all our stakeholders,” says Tan Swee Yiow, CEO of Keppel Land.

Shares in Keppel Corp closed 2 cents lower at $6.73 on Friday.