JTC is changing its approach to master planning and urban development with CleanTech Park – the first business park in Singapore to cater to green companies.
The 50-ha eco-business park located at Nanyang Avenue is considered as a suitable location for innovative firms that have adopted environmental sustainability. Joint developers the Economic Development Board and JTC hope the development will push the limits of sustainability by becoming a large-scale ”living laboratory” for demonstrating and testing clean technology.
CleanTech Park will create 20,000 “green-collar” jobs when completed in 2030. The park will be constructed in three phases at a cost of $52 million, not including buildings.
The park will serve as an icon for the application and development of green technologies. The company will push the envelope in a “practical and cost-effective way”, said Manohar Khiatani, CEO of JTC.
“As an infrastructural solutions provider, JTC has always placed priority on developing innovative and sustainable real estate solutions to meet the needs of our customers operating in resource-challenged Singapore,” he said.
Work on the project’s first phase is set to begin in July, beginning with infrastructure development in the park. Phase one will provide around 17-ha of business park land upon its completion.
JTC has recently unveiled the blueprint for the first innovative building in the park. CleanTech One, a $90 million building, will have 404,000-sq-ft of office space that can house up to 50 green businesses once completed in December 2011.
The building will boast state-of-the-art green features like sky gardens, rainwater harvesting, solar energy systems and sustainable construction.
The master plan for the park makes use of data that has been compiled and considers factors like rainfall, solar exposure, topography, vegetation density and prevailing wind.
Among the ground-breaking solutions that will be tested in the park is the sky trellis concept. Trellises will be built between adjacent buildings and covered with plants to improve “walkability” and provide shade for the area.
Non-structural elements like pavements, drains and roads will also use eco-concrete, rather than sand and natural aggregates.
The park is poised to become the first large scale project to light roads using LED street lamps, minimising light pollution and cutting energy consumption by 40 percent, said JTC.
Provisions to connect buildings with a “smart dashboard” system will be put in place to allow the comparison of water and energy use at a district-level. This will provide feedback to building owners and tenants for further improvement.
Another ground-breaking idea by JTC is decentralised district cooling, wherein excess air-conditioning capacity from a group of buildings will be used to power the air-conditioning of another building. To support the system, piping that will link chilled water from building to building will also be built.
Clean Tech One will also have its own green features, including an integrated hydrogen fuel cell plant that uses bio-fuels to produce hydrogen on site and drive fuel cells, to generate renewable energy.
The building will also be installed with a bio-digester to quickly decompose food waste, removing odour and leaving carbon dioxide and water as end-products.
CleanTech Park takes advantage of the interest showed by prospective tenants on real estate space with a “green” proposition.
“Companies are increasingly interested in commercial and research space that is eco-friendly,” said Beh Swan Gin, managing director of EDB. “CleanTech Park will offer these progressive investors an attractive option and foster the clustering of like-minded companies in one location.”
Environmental sustainability will become a “natural direction” for businesses in the future, said Mr. Khiatani of JTC. “CleanTech Park will be emblematic of how businesses can achieve both economic vibrancy and environmental sustainability, functioning in harmony with nature,” he added.
CleanTech has already attracted the interest of some tenants. Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has already signed up to become the park’s first anchor tenant and will help start research and development activity.