SINGAPORE: It is luxury and green development at its finest. For Singapore residents, the new eco-town of Punggol is to be the pride of the city-state, and government officials agree, hoping that by pushing the new development it can create a greener and better living environment for the Southeast Asian country. “We are very excited about this and hope that it will spur on other similar ventures in the near future so Singapore can lead the world on being green and maintaining our high standard of living,” an official with the ministry of environment told Bikyanews.com on Thursday. The optimism comes as the Housing & Development Board (HDB) awarded a tender to Sunseap, a solar system developer, to lease three mega-watt-peak (MWp) solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for another 80 HDB residential blocks at Singapore's first eco-town in Punggol. Under the solar leasing model, Sunseap will design, finance, install, operate and maintain the solar PV systems. Installation works for the second phase is scheduled to complete by 2014. “The Housing & Development Board (HDB) has awarded a tender to Sunseap, a solar system developer, to lease three mega-watt-peak (MWp) solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for another 80 HDB residential blocks in Punggol Eco-Town. This tender attracted keen competition from the industry with a total of 13 bidders, compared to the first Solar Leasing project in 2011, which only garnered 3 bids,” read a press release on the new tender. “Under the solar leasing model, Sunseap will design, finance, install, operate and maintain the solar PV systems. Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council will enter into a service agreement with Sunseap to pay for the solar power generated and consumed, at a preferential rate of up to 5 per cent discount off the retail electricity tariff rate. The expertise of private enterprises can be harnessed to maximize solar generation without additional cost to the Town Council.” BN
