This piece of news brings back memories of what I've talked about back in 2007 in one of the forums. I was lamenting the fact that Singapore, despite being smack down near the equator, has not taken advantage of its position to research on solar panels on rooftops and make buildings energy sufficient.
One of the reasons I heard of not going into solar power is due to our cloud cover. However, do they know that Germany, despite being a typical cloudy country, is one of world's biggest use of solar power and they have villages equipped with solar panels that produce more energy that they use? In fact, I believe with a light sensor, you can position the panels such that it gets maximum efficiency throughout the day. You can read more about the Germany's push towards solar energy here.
The sad fact is that it took a very big earthquake and a nuclear meltdown for Japan to make this decision. Singapore fortunately has already embarked on this initiative but it seems to be half-hearted. More work and research needs to be done before we're truly self-sufficient in energy. I just hope that we can be a leader in this, just like our home-grown Hyflux.
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