Shell brings leading experts and business leaders together to discuss Asia’s cleaner energy future
Mar 16, 2017
Powering Progress Together Forum marks the start of Make the Future Singapore, a four-day festival featuring bright energy ideas and solutions. The forum addresses how innovation, technology and collaboration play a vital role in Asia’s future.
Shell today brought experts from multiple fields on energy together at the first Powering Progress Together Forum in Singapore. Themed “Cleaner Energy Moves Asia”, the 4th Asian edition of the forum saw more than 100 stakeholders from government, business, academia and NGOs, together with Shell’s business partners and leaders, discuss, debate and catalyse cross-border collaborations to tackle the region’s future energy challenges.
According to Shell Scenarios, Asia's demand for energy could increase by 50% in the run-up to 2040 . To meet Asia’s future energy challenges head-on, the Powering Progress Together forum in Singapore focused on the Asian aspirations and dilemmas, and brought representatives from diverse sectors together to come up with innovative technical solutions for cleaner energy that is more affordable and accessible.
“Changes in energy use will need to happen in virtually every part of society. Governments, academics, consumers and companies like Shell will need to work together to meet this enormous challenge. With its willingness to collaborate and its track record for forward-thinking, Singapore sets a great example in this field,” said John Abbott, Downstream Director and Executive Committee member for Royal Dutch Shell, in his welcome address at the forum.
Kick-started by a lively discussion centred around “Asia’s Cleaner Energy Dilemma” moderated by Marc Carrel-Billiard, Global Senior Managing Director for Accenture Labs, experts from around the region discussed how Asia could balance its increasingly heavy energy needs with lower emissions while maintaining a reliable energy system, through exploring new business models, leveraging technology to push new boundaries, and developing new partnerships and collaboration. Panellists included Mark Gainsborough (Executive Vice President, New Energies, Royal Dutch Shell), Koh Kong Meng (General Manager & Managing Director, Southeast Asia & Korea, HP Inc), Visal Leng (President, Asia Pacific, GE Oil & Gas) and Dr. Alvin Yeo (Director, Industry Development Department, EMA).
The forum also featured an immersive experience where a local playback theatre troupe challenged delegates to think both critically and creatively of solutions to make a cleaner energy future for Asia. The theatrical performance was inspired by the pilot Imagine the Future Scenarios Competition, in which the winning student team from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University presented two contrasting scenarios of how people in Asia would live, work and play in 2050.
The first scenario, “Convergence”, was based on a more collaborative world – both on a community and international level. The scenario focused on life in urban cities, where a common smart energy grid would allow sharing of renewable energies between multiple cities in the same region. Communities benefit from the efficient public transport powered by automatic vehicles, smart utilities, while the cities work as one to transform waste into energy. In the “Divergence” scenario, advanced technological tools such as augmented and virtual reality result in the decentralisation of people’s lives, where everything from work to play can be done from the comfort of one’s home. Households in this world are economically incentivised to generate their own renewable energy and reduce, reuse and recycle, aided by new technologies.
A highlight of the forum was the Container of Possibilities: The Twenty Fifty, an interactive container exhibit featuring a modern Asian concept home of the future. Debuted at Make the Future Singapore, this exhibit featured technological innovations contributed by Shell and its business partners that demonstrated how energy could be produced and consumed in 2050. Inspired by the students’ ideas from the Imagine the Future Scenario Competition, the 20-foot shipping container showcases a home that is energy-efficient, technology-enabling and connected.
Some interesting innovations in the Container of Possibilities: The Twenty Fifty include:
- A New Energy Economy, where the future market is set to be a two-way trading platform between homeowners (consumers) and utility providers. Activated solar windows generates energy for homeowners, and this excess energy generated can be stored for later use or sold in the market.
- The Telepresence Robot™ a telepresence communication platform service that allows homeowners to monitor conditions in the house and create a virtual presence of themselves to feel close to loved ones
- A real-time Energy Alert powered by an Augmented Reality (AR) app and markers, which sends notifications to the homeowner’s mobile phone about the operating efficiency of his / her appliances and ensure reduced costs associated with breakdowns
Container of Possibilities: The Twenty Fifty also encouraged visitors to poll, and pen their views on what homes could look like 30 years from now. It will begin its Asia tour to other cities later this year.
In a closing speech, Goh Swee Chen, Shell Singapore Country Chair and VP City Solutions, New Energies, shared, “Shell has long recognised the need to reduce carbon emissions and to stem the problem of air pollution in many parts of Asia, but we also know that more energy is needed to provide a decent quality of life for people, not only in Asia, but across the world. That is why we have created platforms like the Powering Progress Together forum and the Make the Future Festivals. We are here to challenge existing assumptions and to find innovative ways to solve problems.”
Powering Progress Together Singapore is the opening event for Make the Future Singapore, a four-day festival that features bright energy ideas and solutions that address the global energy challenge. Make the Future is open to the public from March 16 -19, 2017 at Changi Exhibition Centre.
For more information on Make the Future Singapore and to register for free tickets to the event, please visit www.shell.com.sg/makethefuturesg
About Make the Future Singapore
Make the Future Singapore is a festival of ideas and innovations for Asia that supports bright energy ideas and provides a platform for innovation, collaboration and conversation about the global energy challenge. It is a four-day event that will take place at Changi Exhibition Centre in Singapore from March 16-19, 2017. Through virtual reality experiences and hands-on experiential zones, visitors will explore what is happening now and what the future of energy might look like, from renewable energies to natural gas or low-carbon technologies.
Royal Dutch Shell plc
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