Shining a new light on solar energy
A new solar-energy platform lets building owners sell solar power to other consumers connected to the electricity grid, allowing more companies to tap into clean energy.
Everybody loves a great rooftop party — but for Dr Matthew Peloso, 38, rooftops are his current passion. In June 2017, Dr Peloso’s startup Sun Electric won the first-ever contract allowing solar energy to be fully exported to Singapore’s electricity grid.
The contract, inked between JTC and Sun Electric will see hundreds of solar panels being installed on the rooftops of 27 industrial buildings owned by JTC and generate about 5MWp of solar energy worth about US$6 million. The model, called “SolarRoof”, is already making waves in an industry whose existing leasing models have always been mainly for building owners who want to generate solar energy for their own use.
It was developed jointly by JTC and Sun Electric after years of research and testing to develop the right solution for the industry. Under this model, building owners can use Sun Electric’s innovative platform, SolarSpace, to export and channel the solar power they generate directly into the nation’s electricity grid. That power can then be tapped into by companies, SMEs, or other power consumers who want clean energy.
Building owners will be able to charge Sun Electric monthly rentals for the rooftop spaces that are pegged to market prices for electricity while supplying clean solar power to Singapore consumers.
The idea for a smart solar energy distribution system came to Dr Peloso after he worked as a consultant on clean energy in 2013. Four years later, after a test-bedding stint at JTC’s Tuas South standard factories and Jurong Town Hall under its first Open Innovation Call, and plenty of meetings together with JTC’s engineers to understand more about industry challenges and relevant government authorities and building owners, Sun Electric has won one of the largest contracts in Singapore’s solar energy market just as the energy market is opening up.
“If we can create this network, where people can access and trade that energy inside of the city, then there is really no reason that they wouldn’t want to sign up.”
— Dr Matthew Peloso, Founder and CEO of Sun Electric
JTC held four sessions last year with potential solar adopters to gain more insights in order to refine the programme before creating the model, SolarRoof. Said JTC’s Group Director of Facilities and Estate Management, Mr Mark Koh: “In existing solar leasing models, the solar energy primarily serves users of the building itself, before excess power goes into the grid. These models were less suitable for JTC’s multitenanted properties.”
Moving on, the next step would be to engage the market and encourage building owners to consider adopting solar PV, with the goal of making available ready-made solutions for the mass market.
“We hope that this model can be shared with other building owners,” added Mr Koh.
As for Sun Electric, this is just the beginning, said the cleantech company’s founder and chief executive officer.
Including the 27 buildings owned by JTC, the company has already secured the rooftops of 50 buildings, and it is currently in talks to secure more every day. Out of the 50, eight already have solar panels installed on their rooftops. The rest are expected to be completed by the end of 2017 or early in 2018, and Dr Peloso hopes to sign up about 1,000 rooftops by 2020.
He said: “We’d like to get about 800 or 900 industrial rooftops before 2020, but it really depends on oil prices. If oil prices are high, we might want to go faster. That’s a huge factor.”
And it is not just Singapore’s rooftops that Dr Peloso has his eyes set on. He has already registered the company in several cities, including in the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines — basically, any city whose energy market can tap power from buildings’ rooftops and, of course, has plenty of sun.
Said Dr Peloso: “I think there’s huge potential. We’ve picked a good brand, and we have great tech. If I look at any city in the world, there’s probably going to be sun, people are probably going to use electricity, and there are a lot of industrial roofs that are simply untouched. If we can create this network, where people can access and trade that energy inside of the city, then there is really no reason that they wouldn’t want to sign up.”
— Originally published in print on 31 May 2018 © JTC except where noted.
