Sembcorp’s Expansion to its Woodchip Boiler Renewable Energy Plant in Singapore Comes Onstream

- The expansion is in line with Sembcorp’s drive to offer its customers competitive energy solutions which also reduce their carbon footprint

Sembcorp Industries (Sembcorp) continues to deliver on its strategy to grow its green energy capacity in Singapore, commencing commercial operations of a S$30 million expansion to its Sembcorp Woodchip Boiler Plant on Jurong Island. The expansion triples the output of the plant – which produces renewable energy from woodchip, a sustainable alternative fuel derived from waste wood – to 60 tonnes per hour of steam from its initial of 20 tonnes per hour capacity.
Funded through internal resources, the expansion to this green energy plant is in line with Sembcorp’s drive to provide its customers with a competitively priced solution to their steam needs, while reducing their carbon footprint.

The Sembcorp Woodchip Boiler Plant was Sembcorp’s first renewable energy plant in Singapore. Since it began operations in 2011, it has offered an economical, environmentally-friendly source of steam to serve the needs of petrochemical manufacturers in the Sakra area of Jurong Island. The newly enlarged woodchip boiler plant will use around 400 tonnes per day of woodchip processed from construction and demolition waste collected by Sembcorp’s solid waste management operations, the largest operator in Singapore. It is also estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 70,000 tonnes a year.

This expansion of the Sembcorp Woodchip Boiler Plant comes on the back of Sembcorp’s recent announcement that it will invest over S$250 million to build, own and operate the Sembcorp Energy-from-Waste Plant, a steam production facility capable of producing 140 tonnes per hour of process steam using industrial and commercial waste. With both facilities, come 2016 Sembcorp would have grown its energy-from-waste capabilities in Singapore by ten-fold in five years to 200 tonnes per hour, and met its target of fulfilling one-third of its existing customers’ steam demand using alternative fuel.

Globally, Sembcorp’s renewable energy capabilities span biomass, wind power and energy-from-waste solutions, with facilities in Singapore, the UK and China. In the UK, Sembcorp owns and operates a 35 megawatt wood-fuelled biomass power station, and has announced the development of a second energy-from-waste facility capable of generating 49 megawatts of gross power or 190 tonnes per hour of steam using municipal and commercial waste. In China, it has wind power assets with a combined capacity of 248 megawatts in Inner Mongolia and Hebei. Put together, Sembcorp’s renewable energy assets comprise around 5% of its global portfolio of power and steam assets.
The transaction is not expected to have a material impact on the earnings per share and net asset value per share of Sembcorp Industries for the current financial year.