Sembcorp Industries' Singapore-based subsidiary has been selected to build the largest floating PV plant in the Southeast Asian state, standing at 60MW on Tengeh Reservoir.

This reservoir in western Singapore is already the world’s largest testbed for floating PV led by research institute SERIS, which also held the first global conference on the emerging technology.

The project, tendered by Singapore’s National Water Agency (PUB) and scheduled for completion next year, will be amongst the largest floating solar plants in the world once installed. It will also bring Sembcorp’s solar PV capacity in Singapore to around 240MW, contributing to a significant proportion of the state’s 2GW by 2030 solar goals.

Sembcorp Solar Singapore will now work on the requisite project agreements and the precedents set out in PUB’s request for proposal. PUB is a statutory board under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. Last October, PUB also awarded contracts to build two 1.5MW floating solar projects on the Bedok and Lower Seletar Reservoirs to local engineering firm BBR Greentech.

Elsewhere, Sembcorp has recently started ventures on sustainable smart energy solutions in Vietnam, a virtual power plant (VPP) in Singapore, and partnered with UBS to create solar-powered offices.

Singapore-based solar developer Sunseap Group is developing one of the world’s largest offshore floating photovoltaic (OFPV) systems, a pilot system standing at 5MW on seawater along the Straits of Johor.

Land constraints for ground-mount PV have made Southeast Asia an attractive proposition for floating solar.