Singapore will establish a 38.5-million- Singapore dollars (about 26.5 million U.S. dollars) center, which will be a national test-bedding and research and development infrastructure for sustainable energy solutions, a senior official announced here Monday.

    The center named the Singapore Initiatives in New Energy Technologies (SINERGY Center), which is established by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), governmental organization dedicated to charting the course for Singapore's Science and Technology.

    The center initial focus will be on distributed energy and microgrid systems and technologies, an area of great interest to the energy and power industry, and transform research and cost effective solutions to the market place, Lee Yi Shyan, Singapore's Minister of State for Trade and Industry, said at the UK-Singapore workshop on energy technology.

    In addition, the A*STAR will also develop new capabilities in Intelligent Energy Distribution Systems (IEDS) to provide cost-competitive and effective solutions to the energy and power sectors.

    The outcomes of the IEDS will complement the work at the new center.

    Eight million Singapore dollars (about 5.5 million U.S. dollars) have been awarded to 10 projects of the IEDS, including in the critical areas of information and communications security in energy systems, according to Lee.

    Singapore has been endeavoring to expand in the traditional oil and gas sectors and tap into opportunities in emerging sectors such as clean energy in recent years.

    Two weeks ago, Singapore unveiled its National Energy Policy Report that outlines a holistic national energy policy framework to support its continued economic growth.

    The strategies include promoting competitive markets, diversifying energy supplies and improving energy efficiency to ensure that its economy will grow in an environmentally sustainable manner.

    Singapore's target is to increase the value-added of the energy industry from 20 billion Singapore dollars currently to 34 billion Singapore dollars by 2015, and to triple the employment in the industry.