By Jessica Jaganathan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Singapore state firm JTC Corp to explore developing a solar farm on part of a landfill in southern Singapore, the companies said on Thursday.
If successful, the solar farm will reduce the city-state's carbon emissions and meet its growing clean energy needs, they said in a statement.
The solar farm will be the first large-scale solar project in Singapore where a sanitary landfill is also used for clean energy generation, they said, adding that the project is aligned with Singapore's target to increase solar deployment to at least 2 global warming potential (GWp) by 2030.
The MoU is also supported by Singapore's National Environment Agency and Energy Market Authority. JTC and Shell said they will jointly conduct a Request for Information (RFI) exercise on June 24 to source for "innovative solutions from the market".
The solar farm, likely to be located on part of Semakau landfill which is about two kilometres from Shell's Bukom manufacturing site, is expected take up an area of 60 hectares (148.3 acres) and have a capacity of at least 72 MegaWatt peak(MWp), sufficient to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 37,000 tonnes a year.
Land-scarce Singapore has been finding ways to harness solar energy, which it finds the most promising renewable energy source.
Shell said as part of a 10-year plan, it is changing its manufacturing business where Bukom is pivoting from a crude-oil, fuels-based product slate towards new, low-carbon value chains.