Developers offered new incentives to use greener cooling solutions

Bonus floor space for those that build new district systems or tap existing ones

- Ng Keng Gene

More buildings here might soon use centralised chillers for their air-conditioning needs, after the Government announced new incentives for developers that tap these energy-efficient cooling systems.

From Sept 18, building owners will receive bonus gross floor area for their developments should they establish new district cooling systems, or tap existing ones, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee.

This means developers will be given additional floor space over and above what is prescribed for their respective development sites in the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) masterplan.

Mr Lee, who announced the new incentives at the NUS Cities Symposium on Sept 18, said such centralised cooling solutions help Singapore achieve both space and energy savings, contributing to efforts to make the country greener.

Air-conditioning can account for about half of a building's energy consumption. The Government previously said that users of the district cooling system in Marina Bay presently the largest such system in the world - have seen energy savings of more than 40 per cent.

District cooling systems typically supply the cooling needs of several buildings using centralised chiller plants, doing away with the need for each building in the network to build and operate its own plants.

By sharing the load of cooling and optimising energy consumption, members of the network lower carbon emissions and save costs.