ST : Cool tool to cut energy needs in industrial sites

Feb 19, 2010

Cool tool to cut energy needs in industrial sites

Computer program helps planners to identify potential hot spots

By Grace Chua

INDUSTRIAL estates could well become cooler and more comfortable to work in.

Less heat will be trapped between their buildings, which will also use less energy to cool them down.

This comes courtesy of a computer program which enables town planners to map out potential hot spots and so design industrial estates or improve existing ones to have fewer of these.

The program, the brainchild of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and planners from the industrial real estate firm JTC Corporation, guides planners on how to site buildings, plant trees or place ponds, among other measures to dissipate heat.

Similar mapping tools have been developed in the West, but are inapplicable to tropical climates, said associate professor Wong Nyuk Hien, a design and environment researcher at NUS.

And in Singapore, where temperatures can be broiling, such a mapping tool can make a difference.

Lowering the outside air temperature by a mere 1 deg C can cut a building's energy consumption by 5 per cent, previous NUS research has found.

To develop the program, Dr Wong's team collected data from JTC's 200ha one-north industrial zone in Buona Vista - information on the temperature and solar radiation at different times of day, and even the amount and type of greenery there. The zone houses Biopolis, Fusionopolis, Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate, and residential and mixed-use areas.

It is the first time a tool has been developed to study climate in industrial estates here, and a first in South-east Asia too, although Japan is coming up with a similar tool, said Dr Wong.

He and his colleagues will also use the program to study temperatures in Punggol residential estate, in a separate project with the Housing Board.

The presence of hot spots in built-up areas is not unique to Singapore, said JTC planners, but it is especially pronounced here because Singapore is land-scarce and densely populated.

This leads invariably to high - and expensive - energy needs for cooling.

JTC engineering planning director Koh Chwee said that since there was no way around the need to develop complex industrial areas, the computer program would help lower ambient temperature and slash energy bills.

The first phase of the two-part study, which cost JTC $150,000, found that on a hot afternoon, the hottest and coolest parts of one-north could have a temperature difference of as much as 2 deg C.

The second phase will involve fine-tuning the program and checking its accuracy by running it in other JTC estates such as the Seletar Aerospace Park.

Already, JTC is using the software to come up with guidelines for other developers who build on its sites.

Besides one-north, JTC has 6,600ha of projects across Singapore, from Jurong Island to Changi Business Park.

Dr Wong said the program should work for other parts of Singapore, as the climate is the same across the island.

caiwj@sph.com.sg