Singapore awards US$6.6M in grants to make buildings more energy efficient

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic have been awarded US$6.6 million in grants by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) to work on ways to help make buildings here more energy efficient.

Under the Building Energy Efficiency Grant Call, a scheme first introduced in September last year, the public and private sectors are encouraged to develop energy-efficient and cost-effective technologies and solutions for buildings in the tropics.

They will look into areas such as air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) and building management and information systems (BMIS) for building retrofitting in the tropics that can be adopted in five years.

While ACMV systems take up 40 to 60 percent of energy used in a typical air-conditioned building, there is a need for technology that can effectively remove water from the air using less energy, which will greatly improve the efficiency of the air-conditioning system, the BCA said.

It also noted the need to develop cost-effective solutions so that building owners and developers would adopt the new technologies.

Meanwhile, a grant recipient from the NUS, Dr. Lee Poh Seng, will be collaborating with Daikin Airconditioning and four other small and medium enterprises to develop an air-conditioning system he says will raise “energy efficiency of the air-conditioning system potentially by as much as 30 to 40 percent”.