Phoenix Solar to build largest PV solar system in Singapore for supermarket giant Sheng Siong Group,

Sheng Siong’s distribution centre to house largest single solar panel installation

shengsiong_zb

Monday, September 23, 2013 – 16:16

Grace Chua

The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – The 11,000 square metre installation will supply up to 1.2 megawatts when running at peak, and will be built by major solar energy firm Phoenix Solar. The system is expected to start producing electricity by the end of this year, and supply at least 15 per cent of the centre’s consumption. 

Phoenix Solar to build largest PV system in Singapore

The Singapore-based firm will design and build Singapore’s largest photovoltaic system for supermarket giant Sheng Siong Group, which will reduce 730 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year

Phoenix Solar on Monday announced that it will design and build the biggest photovoltaic (PV) system in Singapore for supermarket giant Sheng Siong Group.The solar project, which will be completed by year-end, is for CMM Marketing Management Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Singapore-listed supermarket retailer.

Phoenix Solar, an international photovoltaic system integrator with headquarters in Germany and an Asia Pacific branch in Singapore, will install the PV system on the roof of the main office and distribution centre of CMM, which covers an area of 11,000 square metres.

The project has an estimated capacity of 1.2 megawatt-peak of renewable energy. This is equivalent to switching 15 per cent of the marketing and distribution firm’s current fossil fuel-powered electricity consumption to solar energy.

This also mitigates at least 730 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year from Singapore’s gas-fired power plants, said Phoenix Solar.

Currently, there are over 60 PV systems in the country, according to the National Solar Repository of Singapore, and Phoenix Solar is one of eight system integrators on the agency’s list.

To date, the biggest PV system installed in Singapore is at Resorts World Sentosa, with 503.37 kilowatt-peak system capacity. Singaporean solar integrator SolarGy did the project.

The second biggest is a 380-plus kilowatt-peak system at Changi by Phoenix Solar. Unlike the Resorts World PV system, which uses monocrystalline cell technology – a highly efficient material with high costs – this system at Changi uses micromorph thin-film technology, a different kind of material that is more affordable and has seen recent advances in efficiency, making it the largest thin film system in the country, said the National Solar Repository.

Phoenix Solar’s latest project demonstrates an increasing demand for bigger PV systems in the city-state. Due to ample production of photovoltaic modules around the world, costs are now greatly reduced, making industrial installations of rooftop PV systems economically viable.

Such a system in Singapore can pay for itself in seven to ten years, amounting to an unlevered project IRR (an internal rate of return before interests and taxes are paid) of eight to 13 per cent, said Phoenix Solar.

Christophe Inglin, managing director of Phoenix Solar, said, “Thanks to the attractive returns on investment, we expect the installed PV capacity of Singapore to more than double in 2013, reaching at least 20 megawatts by December.”

“The commercial and environmental returns of this project make it a viable business decision, which will continue to yield benefits for a long time,” Lim Hock Chee, Sheng Siong chief executive, added.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

One Response to Phoenix Solar to build largest PV solar system in Singapore for supermarket giant Sheng Siong Group,

  1. Caryl Anne's avatar Caryl Anne says:

    I couldn’t agree more that installing these solar panels to any business or home will definitely pay off in the end! They provide businesses with a ton of great benefits, such as saving money and protecting the environment. That’s a win win situation in my book! Thanks for sharing!

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