[Photo: The HDB's solar test-bedding site in Serangoon is an initiative that is part of Singapore's sustainable-development blueprint. A $680 million fund has been set aside for R&D and manpower training to grow the greentech sector.]

By Grace Chua

MONEY does not grow on trees but the Government hopes a green economy will pay off by creating 18,000 more jobs and adding $3.4 billion to the Republic's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015.

Yesterday, the Government released its sustainable-development blueprint which projects that environment and water technologies and clean energy solutions will each contribute $1.7 billion to GDP in the next six years.

Of these, 11,000 jobs will come from environment and water technologies, such as water-treatment plants, while 7,000 will come from the clean energy industry, such as solar-cell plants or biofuels.

To grow the clean technology - or 'cleantech' - sector, a $680 million fund has been set aside for research and development (R&D) and manpower training.

And January's Budget pledged an additional $1 billion for sustainable development over the next five years.

Though this figure is a small percentage of Singapore's $257.4 billion GDP last year, Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said: 'We are not looking at headline-grabbing numbers...We are looking at something that is doable in the Singapore context, that is practical, that will give us results.'

One strategy is to develop Singapore as a 'living laboratory' for companies to test-bed technologies here.

A 55-hectare cleantech park - about 25 per cent larger than Beijing's Tiananmen Square - will provide companies with a ready testing ground.

The first phase of the park will be ready at Jalan Bahar, near Nanyang Technological University, by 2011, and will be completed over the next 20 years.

The park will set standards for users in carbon emissions, energy use, and water and waste management, said the Economic Development Board (EDB), which is developing the facility with JTC Corporation.

The EDB said details are still being worked out and will be released in the third quarter of this year.

Mr Lee Thiam Seng, chief executive of environment-solutions provider eco- Wise, which operates a biomass co-generation plant, said the cleantech park was a good long-term strategy for Singapore.

'A lot of these things take time. For instance, hydrogen fuel cells may not be commercially viable within the next 10 years, but technology keeps on improving and advancing,' he said.

Another strategy to grow the cleantech sector here is to attract 'queen bee' companies such as Norway's Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S.Iswaran.

Mega investments like REC's $6.3 billion solar cell plant in Tuas will in turn attract other supporting companies, he added.

Besides REC, other renewable-energy companies which are calling Singapore home include Finland's Neste Oil, which is building a $1.2 billion biodiesel plant in Tuas, and Danish wind-power firm Vestas, which last year set up its $500 million R&D centre at Fusionopolis.

Returns from investing in solar energy are expected in the next five to eight years, said Mr Iswaran.

But issues such as integrating solar power into the current electricity grid will have to be addressed if it is to be used on a large scale, he added.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.