Singapore's role in the Mekong's sustainable energy transition (2025)

Story 17 Apr, 2025

Southeast Asia is the fourth largest energy consumer in the world, with demand predicted to continue rising by 5% annually through 2030, above the global average. Amidst this growing demand, increasing impacts of climate-related hazards is spurring the clean energy transition.

Singapore is taking strides to reduce its reliance on natural gas to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This is driving interest among Singaporean companies and government agencies to invest in and purchase clean power from the Mekong region.

To avoid energy purchases from high-risk hydropower projects, more work is needed to increase understanding in Singapore of the Mekong River system’s vital role in bolstering food security and ecosystem services that tens of millions of farmers and fishers rely on.

The Stimson Center, through IUCN’s BRIDGE programme, has engaged the Singapore government and businesses to raise their awareness of the risks and opportunities associated with increased hydropower imports and how Singapore could be a regional leader in incentivising hydropower projects that deliver the most power for the lowest impacts on fisheries and food security.

Analyses by Stimson also show how, through careful and coordinated planning, Singapore can achieve energy security at minimal social and environment cost. This includes opting for electricity imports that exclude dams, which disconnect large stretches of river, block fish migration, and threaten local livelihoods and food security, to catalyse a greener ASEAN power grid.

Floating solar builds resilience

An emerging trend in the clean energy transition is floating solar (FPV) that sit on water bodies and convert sunlight to energy. In the first of a two-part series on FPV and new or emerging energy tech opportunities in the Mekong region, the Stimson Center assessed the need for power supply diversification in times of growing electricity demand and increasing climate uncertainty. In the Mekong countries, where ample hydropower has been installed but still struggle to meet energy demands, FPV offers a low-cost energy supply that complements hydropower and doesn’t further block fish migration or devastate fisheries.

The second in the series provides an in-depth analysis on reducing overdependence on hydropower in the Sekong, Srepok and Sesan (3S) river basin. The analysis makes the case for using FPV to complement hydropower, which loses its ability to generate energy during the dry season when water levels are low. FPV, on the other hand, peaks in the dry season when sunlight is more predictable. Given a high number of hydropower already in the 3S basin, floating solar offers a more sustainable option to meet the growing energy demands of the three countries that share the 3S river basin.

With Laos recently selling power to Singapore, and Cambodia, Indonesia and Viet Nam signing agreements to follow suit with low-carbon energy by 2035, this analysis explores the timely role Singapore can play in investing the regional renewable energy transition.

Another IUCN and Stimson Center report on opportunities for Singapore to Drive ASEAN’s Green Transition delves deeper into the options for Singapore’s future imports as well as its role in supporting regional sustainability. Through the BRIDGE programme, IUCN will continue exploring opportunities to promote sustainable and efficient use of water resources.

About BRIDGE

The BRIDGE (Building River Dialogue and Governance) project is facilitated by IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The project aims to build water governance capacities through learning, demonstration, leadership, and consensus building, in transboundary river basins. Currently in its fifth phase, BRIDGE has operated in the Mekong since 2011.