Plans for Southern Islands to be fully self-reliant for water, power needs, after Kusu Island success

SINGAPORE: Plans are on the cards for Singapore’s Southern Islands to become self-sufficient for their water and power needs, following the success of a Kusu Island project.

Kusu Island had become the first to completely generate its own energy needs using solar panels, along with having an operational desalination system, as part of a S$2 million project. Research had first started back in 2019, and the systems were deployed in 2020.

The Southern Islands refer to a cluster of nine islands about 5km south of mainland Singapore, which also includes Sentosa and the Sisters’ Islands Marine Park.

Popular diving spot Pulau Hantu Besar is set to be the next site to become self-sufficient some time next year.

For two years now, Kusu Island has been functioning daily without the use of diesel-powered generators.

Instead, all the energy needed to power the whole island comes from over 350 solar panels installed in the tidal pond in front of the iconic Da Bo Gong Temple.

Kusu Island typically gets busier at the end of the year, as tens of thousands of devotees visit the island for the annual Kusu Pilgrimage, to mark the sacred birthday month of Taoist deity Tua Pek Kong.

This year’s pilgrimage fell between Oct 15 and Nov 12, and coincided with the 100th anniversary of the temple, which was constructed in 1923.

The Kusu Keramat, another attraction on the island which houses shrines believed to belong to three Malay saints, is located a 152-step climb up a nearby hill.

Kusu Island’s power generation capabilities produce more than 230 megawatt-hours a year, enough to power 52 four-room HDB flats.

The project is a tie-up between Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), which manages the island.

“We found that these areas, these lagoons, were quite good sites for us (to install the solar panels), so that we don't occupy useful land,” Dr Narasimalu Srikanth, programme director at the Energy Research Institute in NTU, told CNA.

He added that as the lagoons help in water transpiration, installing the solar panels there also helps to cool them down.

This makes them between 10 to 15 per cent more energy efficient than land-based solar panels, said Dr Srikanth.

The solar panels, which occupy an area about the size of two basketball courts, were installed with the environment in mind.

Their legs, for instance, are covered with marine-safe paint, and are constructed long enough so that fishes and turtles can swim freely beneath them.

The power generated from the solar panels is also stored in batteries and used for the island’s jetty, toilets, temple and main desalination system.

The desalination system makes seawater drinkable through reverse osmosis, and can produce enough for 140 people every day.

More checks are currently still being done to ensure that the desalinated water is completely safe for consumption.

Once done, the same set of technologies will be used in neighbouring Pulau Hantu Besar next year.

“Since the 1970s, the islands had been relying on water boats to supply its water and diesel for power generators. Daily monitoring of water supply and diesel was needed so as to make orders to top up the supplies,” Ms Lilian Chua, SLA’s deputy director for estate management, told CNA.

“This cost had been rising, hence we engaged NTU to go into research, development and deployment of a renewable solar (power) and water desalination system.”