There is a question that was posted on the previous article about how Singapore can be fully sustainable in terms of locally produced food, water & I have to add Energy into the question as well.

Firstly, Singapore is one of the 1st few countries that have “New Water” that basically comes from our sewage system…yes urine however due to our ever growing population we unfortunately have to depend on our friendly neighbors for water supply and without their water & natural gas supplies…we may be in serious trouble.

I as a ordinary citizen of of Singaporean fully understand the risk to be living in a small country of one of the world largest population densities in the world where everywhere you see outside your home is people.

High population density means very high demand for all the necessities of urban living such as water, food & energy.

Shelter is being covered constantly by land reclamation & smaller public housing flats/apartments or we call it executive unit HDB.

The tipping point is very of all the supply side is very dangerous to even discuss as it may spark wars or panic…however we must understand the risk if we go on blindly to believe that Singapore is SUSTAINABLE without imports.

Singapore are not sustainable…period.

The Government are trying their best to get all kinds of approval to do the impossible but such massive scale of implementation of renewable energies take huge amount of cost…and it WILL COST us huge amount in terms of Taxes (Don’t need me to spell out all of those exotic names of taxes with 3 alphabets.)

Currently, the problems with implementing renewable energies lies with the following.

1. Huge Cost
2. High Risk of Not Getting Profits & possible Loss over time
3. No support from finance sector for the same reason above (No Huge Loans)
4. Zero corporation linked investment scheme
5. Fear of complains from intermittent power supply due to “cloud cover, lack of sun/wind & etc”
6. Lack of research on new technologies on renewable energies.

The current trend or policies I had recently heard from the Government via forums, news and media is through conservation, recycling and rationing water & electricity.

This is good but not enough to save us all as many of us are conditioned into this comfortable lifestyle that many are duped to believe that they will die without the air conditioning or 24/7 hot water for shower & coffee.

The political analyst will advice the leaders to allow the economy to self regulate demands using higher cost due to demand.

This resulted in the deregulation of the electricity market to allow “competition” & “better quality service”….but in regular terms for layman is to let our electricity under the controls of private corporation that may not be regulated at all….

Remember Enron that caused the California Energy Crisis…go research on that.

Ok, back to the question of how Singapore can be fully sustainable in terms of food, water & Energy.

Firstly, I must express this as a personal opinions that is not associated with anyone or approve by anybody hence you only listen to this as a personal ideas or suggestions.

Food

Unfortunately we depends heavily on imported food from our close neighbors and far away land that cost us dearly at the supermarkets.

1. First, we need to bring in experts from all over the world including Cuba on how to farm in urban landscapes.

2. Convert all rooftops into mini-farm land with at least 1 meter of top soil on top of concrete.
3. Use reflected lights or Artificial ultraviolet lights to grow vegetables indoors via hydroponics. That covers ALL common corridors that face the sun and does not have obstacles blocking the sun.
4. Hire or appoint farmers from old folks to jobless group of people with crash course on how to grow food the ancient way e.g. natural fertilizers from animals “shit” & “urine” and natural soil compost from rotting fruit peels.
5. Set up a distribution chain for home grown food with no taxes or GST to promote locally grown food to the locals.
6. Give tax breaks & incentives for these farmers as they are the special sustainable Singapore providers.

Water

1. Conservation via non-essential Government control usage
2. Public leakage monitoring system
3. Massive marketing on conservation.
4. Desalination of sea water (via renewable energy)
5. New Water (already done that renew sewage water into drinkable water)
6. Distillation in all neighborhood towns to make water via the SUN (I will explain this in my other blogs in future date…or you can research on solar distillation)
7. Air to water devices via condensation of humid air into drinkable water using renewable energy.

Energy

1. Renewable energy – solar, wind, waves, geothermal and etc but all are pretty much costly and inefficient….this said this MUST not be discounted as emergency electricity phone charging points and radio stations.

2. On the contrary of current policy of ever growing population to maintain a ever growing GDP, we should maintain our current population or REDUCE the current population to reduce demand for electricity.
3. Nuclear – discussed by our ministers and leaders that we should not discount it’s high efficiencies & RISK involved. With high risk of totally annihilation of the whole Singapore in any event of nuclear accident or terrorist act…..I won’t want a nuclear plant in my own back yard.
4. HOME self powered generators – if it’s using diesel…it’s noisy and probably more costly then conventional power from the Singapore natural gas powered power stations. However, if all homes have a pedal generators or more than one pedal generators….it can be used for emergency power for radio & lights.
5. For homes that have individual roof tops or have balcony that faces the afternoon sun rejoice as you can put your own personal solar panels to charge batteries (big ones) to power your notebooks, hand phones, radios and LED lights for your home! Some use it to heat your water for showers but I think it’s a waste as you don’t net hot water in a hot countries like Singapore to “survive”.
6. Solar-Electric vehicles for transportation which is very convenient. Solar powered electric cars may be accelerated if the Government relax laws on modification of cars specially for renewable energy (green) related modification & still be safe on the road.
7. Solar powered electric tricycles/bicycles…to be allowed on the road.
8. Solar Power Charging stations to be subsidized & allowed advertising to sponsor the cost of construction of such charging stations.
9. Hand/Leg Crank EVERYTHING, including your PSP, Phones, Laptops, Radios, Torches with legitimate manufacturers with REAL rechargable batteries included.

The pressing issues still comes with high cost & very very low profits due to the fact that renewable energies cannot be metered at a central point hence not possible to charge the people $/kWh tariff hence it will be a ONE TIME PROFIT hence the HIGH COST involved.

The problems comes at WHO WILL ACT to construct all these “solutions”, WHO WILL PAY & WHO WILL BENEFIT from all these?

I suggest to pool a group or a community of people who potentially BENEFIT from the above to SELF INVEST or POOL INVEST on each infrastructure and SELF BENEFIT from the fruits of your OWN INVESTMENT.

The returns of renewable energy only comes when the cost of electricity via fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas (Singapore uses 80% Natural gas to generate our electricity for the whole Singapore) goes sky high.

The event of high natural gas prices is not a speculation but a certainty with current economic crisis, inflation, fossil fuel depletion, political instabliity in resource supplying nations (e.g. Russia) and ever growing global demand for natural gas & oil can put those who cannot afford it into immediate blackout. (Power cut due to nopayment of utilitility bills)

Renewable energy cannot depend on our Government to implement but it’s our own personal individual responsibility to move on to RENEWABLE energy by ourselves by one way or another.

Start by conservation of electricity as much as possible.

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