In June 2008, Norway-based Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), a leading global company in solar power began exploring the building of a world-class, integrated solar facility to meet rising demand. After evaluating some 150 possible locations, REC selected the tropical sunny island of Singapore and decided to build on a greenfield there. In that same month, another decision was made to invest S$2.6 billion in the island state.

John Andersen, Jr., Executive President REC and Group Chief Operating Officer, said: “When we set out to find the new location for this manufacturing and research and development complex, we actually looked at more than 150 sites across the world. And I have to say that a number of regions and cities were quite anxious to attract a business like REC.

“Clean tech is obviously very high on the agenda for governments across the world. In the end, I think we found that Singapore had the right balance between a business friendly environment, a skilled workforce and a well-regulated economy.”

Research and development is an important aspect of REC’s business and protecting their latest solar innovations was a key factor for the scientists and engineers at REC. The robust legal system tipped the scale in the Republic’s favour, allowing REC to rely on Singapore’s strong intellectual property (IP) protection regime.

Having made the decision and with a plan to have the plant operational by 2010, REC’s next step was to hire the employees and have them trained in time. Andersen related: “When we decided to move to Singapore, we quickly realised that we would need to recruit and train about 1,700 employees so that the plant could be operational. This mammoth task was made so much easier through strong support from the Singapore government.”

Singapore, already established as a semiconductor and precision engineering hub, proved a boon for REC. The workforce capabilities and skill sets in these industries were also applicable to the solar industry. When hiring, REC found the people very well-educated and skilled in areas relevant to their operations.

This is by no accident as the Singapore government had set aside S$350 million to develop the Republic as a global clean energy solution hub. Part of this funding had been apportioned for training and manpower development in this sector.

Andersen said that REC was pleasantly surprised when they received 35,000 applications for their initial 1,700 job vacancies. “But we also found that behind this very high number of 35,000, was a ready pool of high quality workforce,” he added.

Diversity of talent is also another aspect that REC values, at the executive and R&D levels, the talent at REC includes Europeans, Americans, Taiwanese and Chinese who have relocated to Singapore or were already based in the country. The fact that Singapore had been voted the best Asian city to live, work and play has certainly made recruiting staff much easier for companies such as REC.

In addition, to boost its pipeline of talent for the clean energy industry, the island state expects to train more than 2,000 specialists through its universities and polytechnics within the next five years.

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Another significant step taken by the Singapore government to develop the country into a global clean technology hub, was the establishment of the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERIS) to conduct industry research on solar energy. This bodes well for REC as the company has moved a significant portion of its R&D work to its new facilities in Singapore. According to Andersen, REC is looking to move more of its R&D functions to Singapore in the future. He added that the company was already working closely with SERIS and other private solar research establishments in Singapore.

“When it comes to the solar R&D activity in Singapore, we now see that other solar companies are also moving in and establishing more research programmes. And of course, we think that will benefit the whole cluster of solar companies,” he added.

REC held the official opening of its fully integrated facility in November 2010. It sits on a 321,000 sq m site and produces more than 190,000 solar modules per month which are exported to European and American markets. Demand from Asia – including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and more recently, China and India – is also increasing.

Asked if he was pleased with the set-up in Singapore, Andersen replied: “I couldn’t be more pleased.”

And to illustrate this, he added: “When we started operations here, the research team from Singapore innovated and produced a new product for the company. The new product was very well received by our customers.

“This is a testament to the capabilities of the team in Singapore. Not only did we start up a completely new plant, but at the same time, we launched a completely new product. Naturally we are all very pleased.”

Mounting concerns about climate change and depleting natural resources have driven global demand for solutions based on sustainable development. At the same time, the pace of urbanisation, particularly in Asia, continues unabated, and city planners around the world are investing in environmentally-friendly solutions to provide a better living environment for their residents and future generations. These trends point to robust long-term growth opportunities for the global clean energy industry.

And clearly, Singapore’s efforts to become the global clean energy hub demonstrates its long-term vision which puts it on the right track and won for itself, the thumbs-up from industry giants like REC.

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