Infrastructural Plans for Increased Reliance on Low-carbon Hydrogen Fuel

10 Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Minister for Trade and Industry with the new plans for increased reliance on low-carbon hydrogen fuel to address our power needs (a) what sources will the hydrogen come from; (b) how will the Government prepare our infrastructure to transport and store hydrogen; (c) whether the potential increase in spending on infrastructure will lead to significant cost increases for consumers; and (d) how will the Government work with regional countries to encourage the take-up and production rate of hydrogen for energy use.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Deputy Speaker, global developments surrounding low-carbon hydrogen have accelerated significantly in recent years. A growing pipeline of production projects from around the world is being announced. Key technologies that enable the transportation and use of hydrogen in various carrier forms, such as ammonia, are also expected to become commercially ready in the coming years.

Given the strong momentum, low-carbon hydrogen is showing increasing potential to be a broad-based decarbonisation pathway for Singapore, especially for our power sector. Nevertheless, there still remain uncertainties in its technological as well as supply chain development, and we will take a phased approach towards its adoption, including pacing significant investments in public infrastructure, accordingly.

Our immediate priority is to start gaining experience in the importing, storage, distribution and handling of hydrogen through small-scale pathfinder projects because these will help our industry, workers as well as the Government build up skills and capabilities to design infrastructure in a way that is safe, land efficient as well as scalable. The projects will also allow us to co-create solutions with the industry and develop rules and regulations to enable hydrogen supply chains in Singapore.

To enable widespread deployment of hydrogen in Singapore, new infrastructure, or the retrofitting of existing infrastructure, will be required. Such infrastructure will likely include import terminals that can unload hydrogen, large storage facilities and a distribution network to get the hydrogen to its end-use sites.

In developing the long-term infrastructure development roadmap, we will need to strike a careful balance between the pace of roll out to enable decarbonisation and the cost. To that end, we will take into consideration a range of factors, including the pace of technological and supply chain development of low-carbon hydrogen and the relative attractiveness of hydrogen vis-à-vis other low-carbon alternatives. We will also identify synergies for hydrogen adoption across different sectors and applications, to create greater economies of scale and to derive savings.

Besides domestic infrastructure, we also need to establish regional and global low-carbon hydrogen supply chains, so that we can import the hydrogen we need. Singapore adopts a diversified portfolio in importing our energy to ensure security and resilience, and we will take the same approach for hydrogen. Where we import from and in what quantities will depend on a few factors, such as the availability of exports, costs and the need for diversification in sources.

We are working closely with our international partners to enable these supply chains. Singapore has signed several MOUs with countries that have made significant strides in their hydrogen efforts. Together, we will collaborate on areas, such as advancing interoperable and mutually recognised guarantees of origin certifications for low-carbon hydrogen, facilitating the physical movement of hydrogen across the borders and joint R&D efforts to overcome technological challenges.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Dr Lim Wee Kiak.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang): Sir, let me thank Minister of State Low Yen Ling for the reply. The Government recently also announced that hydrogen could supply up to half of our power needs by 2050. Can MTI now share more on how this can be achieved and what is Singapore's target for the adoption of low-carbon hydrogen? How much hydrogen is Singapore expected to import in 2050? And to meet this net-zero goal by 2050, how soon and how fast can we expect to scale up hydrogen adoption, especially green hydrogen?

Ms Low Yen Ling: I want to thank the Member, Dr Lim Wee Kiak, for his supplementary questions. Hydrogen will form an important part of our nation's long-term, low-emission development strategy and effort to fight climate change – a topic that we spent four hours talking about and debating during yesterday's Sitting.

In our strategy for the use of hydrogen, we envision, like what Dr Lim mentioned, that this fuel, hydrogen, has the potential to contribute up to 50% of Singapore's power needs by 2050, if technological advancements materialise.

However, like I shared earlier, there still remain some uncertainties in two areas, the technological development as well as the supply chain. Supply chain development is critical because it involves transportation and storage. We will take a very phased approach towards adoption, bearing in mind the cost – not just the cost of transporting, but also storing and distributing – and including placing a significant investment in our public infrastructure.

Therefore, we have, yet, to set the targets for the adoption of low-carbon hydrogen at this juncture. But for the time being, we will focus on taking very concrete steps in the near term to build up our skills, capabilities as well as our experience in four key areas: importing, storage, distribution and the safe handling of hydrogen.

And we will do so by embarking on smaller-scale projects. As we do so, we want to co-create the solutions with the industry. And as we do so, we want to develop rules and regulations to enable that hydrogen supply chain in Singapore.

As we embark on all these small-scale projects, this will allow us to scale up our workers, as well as the industries and also the Public Service officers in the Government to build up our capabilities in this important area.

As we do so, it will help us to design the infrastructure that has three very important attributes. We need an infrastructure that is safe, land-efficient for the storage of the hydrogen and also scalable. In developing our long-term infrastructure development plan for hydrogen, we are very mindful to keep our eyes and ears on the developments globally on what is the emerging technology in this area that is cost-effective and safe, and to strike a very careful balance between the speed of the rollout and the cost.