Singapore
RENEWABLE energy may be all the rage these days, but there is a lot more to it than spinning wind turbines and fancy-looking solar panels, said Gerald Tan, the founder and managing director of G8 Subsea.
The company bills itself on its website as Asia's leading offshore renewable energy developer and subsea construction specialist.
"One of our key strengths as a company is that we don't just sell the hardware that you can see, but rather we do the overall construction and have the knowledge on the connecting infrastructure," said the 46-year-old in an interview with The Business Times.
Founded in 2015, G8 is a technology company that predominantly constructs and develops offshore renewable energy projects such as floating solar panels and offshore wind turbine farms.
The firm also specialises in the construction and engineering of subsea power infrastructure that connect power from offshore wind and solar farms back to land.
The subsea cables are buried and protected under the seabed. In a nutshell, G8 puts large structures in the water that can generate renewable energy and connect it back to land.
Offshore structures have the "highest contribution" of renewable energy output, Tan pointed out.
"When we put a turbine offshore or install a floating solar in large water spaces, that's where we achieve the maximum capacity," he said.
Focusing its efforts
Offshore water bodies are where G8 focuses its efforts. "Our sea spaces, coastal areas and reservoir spaces - these are presently untapped and it represents an opportunity to generate much more renewable energy than we realise," he said.
"No two projects are alike because we are dealing with Mother Nature. We are going offshore and we are constructing things under the water, so it is very challenging."
Tan spent over a decade at Global Marine Systems, a UK-based specialist provider of installation, maintenance and repairs of submarine communications cables.
The company sent him to China to head the business there, and it was this overseas stint in the world's second-largest economy where he witnessed the growth and beginnings of offshore wind farms and renewables.
Tan later spent 2 years each at Singapore Technologies and Siemens; and having built up his knowledge and exposure in the industry, he felt confident to start his own company with a focus on Asia.
"Although (renewable energy) is new in Asia, it's fast developing in Europe. We learned a lot from past experiences and the dos and don'ts of marine construction, (in order) to build a successful offshore renewable energy plant and a successful subsea power infrastructure," Tan noted.
G8, which is headquartered in Singapore, started out with just 2 people but now has 20 employees on the payroll.
In its most recent project, its team worked with Singapore Power and Malaysian utility company Tenaga Nasional to import renewable energy into Singapore from Malaysia.
The project connects power transmission between both countries, Tan said.
G8 also has an operational office in South Korea, as well as representatives in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Tan noted that G8 was the first overseas company in South Korea to be engaged in offshore wind farm activities when it started operations there in 2017.
Korea Electric Power Corporation is one of its key overseas clients.
Tan now wants to expand G8's footprint in Africa, with plans to set up an office in that part of the world in the early part of 2022.
Growth trajectory
Pre-Covid, G8's growth was about 3 times year-on-year since the company's inception in 2015, said Tan.
Despite seeing the business take a hit in the last 2 years, he remains optimistic that growth levels will reach pre-pandemic levels with international borders gradually opening up and an increased awareness of the benefits of renewable energy.
He added that the company also has plans to be publicly listed in the future.
While the pandemic dampened G8's growth plans somewhat, Tan said the team made good use of the downtime in the area of research and development, and focused a large chunk of its efforts in Singapore.
One of the company's unique proprietary technology is its modular tractive buoyancy technology, which is an advanced construction system that enables the building of structures on water quickly.
"When we build something fast and stabilised, it costs much less to construct. It also lowers the risk."
The company is also working on another energy storage system with its technology partners.
Coupled with its current technology, this forms a strong value proposition for G8's customers, said Tan.
"We are approaching an era of energy transition from fossil fuels to green energy. It is important to note that this is for a very long term. It's not just for the next 10 or 20 years. This is the energy that our children and our future generations are going to use."
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