NDR 2026: S’pore to merge several outer islands to form new Western island
Ang Qing Straits Times Aug 23, 2026, 09:06 PM
SINGAPORE – Singapore intends to merge several southern islands to create a new “Western island” in coming decades for a new generation of industries, power generation infrastructure and defence needs.
Pulau Semakau, Pulau Bukom and Pulau Sudong are among islands that could be merged through planned land reclamation announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Aug 23 at the 2026 National Day Rally.
PM Wong said the new island follows the example of Jurong Island, a global energy and chemicals hub that was formed from the reclamation of several offshore islands.
That investment has delivered lasting benefits for Singapore, he added, citing Jurong Island’s role in creating jobs and anchoring important industries, making Singapore a critical node in global energy flows, and strengthening its energy security and resilience, most recently amid the disruptions in the Middle East.
Said PM Wong: “Jurong Island was the result of bold decisions, careful planning and sustained investment over many decades.
“Now it’s our turn to think just as boldly, and build for the next generation.”
He said that every piece of land matters in Singapore, where space is needed for homes, jobs, transport and infrastructure. At the same time, the Republic cherishes green spaces, biodiversity and places with heritage and history.
“Sometimes difficult choices and trade-offs have to be made.
“Where development is necessary, we study the impact carefully, make adjustments and minimise the disruption.”
Nearly half of Singapore is covered in greenery, PM Wong pointed out, adding that Singapore is continuing to expand its green spaces and strengthen native biodiversity.
He stressed that the Singapore way is to plan far ahead by creating new options for future generations, so that they will have room to grow, while preserving what is precious about the city-state.
He said: “We plan fifty, seventy, even one hundred years ahead. We plan with every Singaporean – born and not yet born – in mind.”
To create some of these new possibilities, the Government is looking to transform Singapore’s outer islands, said PM Wong.
He highlighted a cluster of islands south of Jurong Island, which includes Pulau Semakau that houses Singapore’s only offshore landfill, Pulau Bukom - where the nation’s first refinery still operates, and Pulau Sudong.
According to a video shown at the rally, the reclamation profile for the area could also absorb Pulau Hantu, Pulau Jong and Pulau Sebarok.
Over coming decades, Singapore intends to “merge several of these islands into one larger island”, just as the Republic did to create Jurong Island, said PM Wong.
He said: “This new island won’t just be for petrochemicals.
“It can support a new generation of industries, including advanced manufacturing facilities. It can accommodate new power generation infrastructure to meet Singapore’s future needs.”
He said there will be space for Singapore’s defence needs, noting that Pulau Sudong now has an airstrip that the Singapore Armed Forces uses during emergencies.
A new link will also be built to connect Jurong Island to the new western island.
These long-term plans are being studied carefully, said PM Wong.
Just as Jurong Island shaped Singapore’s economy for the last 50 years, the new Western island can help shape Singapore for the next 50 years and beyond, he added.
NDR 2026: Semakau, Bukom and Pulau Sudong may be merged into new island for industrial, power needs
The new island, modelled on Jurong Island's development, could house advanced manufacturing and future power infrastructure.
Koh Wan Ting Channel NewsAsia 23 Aug 2026 09:08PM
SINGAPORE: Several islands west of Singapore, including Semakau, Bukom and Pulau Sudong, may be merged into a larger island to support a new generation of industries, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Sunday (Aug 23).
The new island, located south of Jurong Island, could also accommodate power generation infrastructure to meet Singapore’s future needs, Mr Wong said at the 2026 National Day Rally.
“These are long-term plans. We are studying them carefully,” he added.
Mr Wong said the plan echoed the creation of Jurong Island, where several offshore islands were progressively joined through land reclamation to make way for Singapore’s petrochemical industry.
"Today, Jurong Island is a global energy and chemicals hub," Mr Wong said, adding that the investment had delivered "lasting benefits" to Singapore.
"It created many good jobs. It anchored important industries here. It made Singapore a critical node in global energy flows.
"All that has strengthened our energy security and resilience – something we have seen time and again, most recently amid the disruptions in the Middle East."
Semakau is home to Singapore's only landfill, while Bukom houses the country's first refinery. Pulau Sudong has an airstrip used by the Singapore Armed Forces during emergencies. These, together with a few smaller islands, could form the new landmass.
Mr Wong said the island would not be limited to petrochemicals, and could support a new generation of industries, including advanced manufacturing.
“Jurong Island shaped our economy for the last 50 years,” Mr Wong said. “This new western island can help shape Singapore for the next 50 years and beyond."
The plan comes as Singapore looks to expand its energy options amid land constraints and a lack of natural resources.
Singapore is exploring clean energy sources, including nuclear power, to strengthen its energy security against a more volatile global landscape. It has yet to decide on deploying nuclear power and will undergo an assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 2027 to gauge its readiness to make an informed decision on adopting nuclear energy.
Singapore has been building capabilities across 19 areas identified by the IAEA as necessary for a country to establish a nuclear power programme, including evaluating and developing suitable sites for nuclear installations with safety requirements in mind.
Western island reclamation will create space for industries, low-carbon energy sources: Analysts
Analysts said the new island would allow Singapore to design from scratch an integrated hub involving a range of low-carbon energy sources that can support Jurong Island.
Ang Qing Straits Times Aug 24, 2026, 09:35 PM
SINGAPORE - The reclamation of a new western island will create a space for industries and power-related infrastructure that can tap the sea, and benefit from proximity to Jurong Island and the need for greater distance from residential areas, analysts said.
At the National Day Rally on Aug 23, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had outlined plans to form a new island south of energy and chemicals hub Jurong Island in the coming decades for industry, energy and defence needs, by merging islands such as Pulau Semakau, Pulau Bukom and Pulau Sudong.
Analysts told The Straits Times that the new island would allow Singapore to design from scratch an integrated hub involving a range of low-carbon energy sources that can support Jurong Island, boosting the nation’s long-term energy security by creating space to accommodate technology that may become feasible only in the longer term.
Nuclear energy infrastructure is one of the possible options among a host of low-carbon energy sources that can be sited on the island, they said.
That said, they cautioned against seeing the deployment of nuclear energy as the aim of the reclamation, stressing that Singapore has yet to make a decision on the power source, which it is exploring as a low-carbon alternative, and noting the need for more detailed studies.
Matthew Chew, nuclear competency and strategy lead at engineering consultancy HY, said that the new island would give Singapore the long-term physical space to accommodate technologies and energy systems that may not yet be commercially mature, but could become critical over the next decades.
“Singapore could design the island as an integrated energy hub where gas, low-carbon fuels, electricity imports, storage, renewables and potentially nuclear eventually operate together,” he said.
Tan-Soo Jie Sheng, director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, noted that while western Singapore has a large industrial footprint, much of that land is already committed to existing uses.
“Hence, what Singapore needs is sufficiently large, contiguous sites that can accommodate the new industries and energy infrastructure it may need several decades from now.”
He added that offshore land also provides direct maritime access and space to build large-scale and difficult-to-site energy infrastructure from scratch, a common constraint for Singapore’s energy ambitions.
Said Tan-Soo: “These characteristics could make it particularly suitable for activities that are land- or energy-intensive, require port access, or benefit from greater physical buffers.
“Possibilities include next-generation energy and chemical industries, hydrogen- and ammonia-related activities, advanced manufacturing, and large-scale energy infrastructure.”
Sing Tien Foo, NUS Business School’s provost chair professor of real estate, said the offshore island will prepare Singapore for the next wave of industrialisation, for which it will need to build a sufficient land bank in advance to attract investment in these greener, high-value-add industries.
He said: “New industries that require massive infrastructure investment, are to be segregated from high-density residential housing estates, and will require intensive energy and water resources, are ideal on the island. By isolating these advanced and precision manufacturing risks, they could also protect against other types of human risks, including fire and pollution.”
Tan-Soo noted that, fundamentally, Singapore does not know what the most important industries will be in 2050 or 2070, just as planners of the past did not know the scale of today’s demand for data centres and digital infrastructure, and the new site would offer flexibility.
He added that offshore land also provides direct maritime access and the opportunity to build highly specialised infrastructure from scratch.
In addition, the new island potentially helps Singapore address a constraint common to several of these pathways by providing sufficient and suitable land for large-scale and difficult-to-site energy infrastructure.
Strategically, the move to form a second energy island beside Jurong will build resilience for Singapore’s energy system, said Marsh Asia’s energy and power leader, Benjamin Chang.
He said: “Singapore’s energy security strategy has always been about creating options before you need them.”
Chew said several factors could make the offshore industrial site a candidate for nuclear energy.
These include access to seawater that can reduce the distance needed to convey water to cool nuclear power plants, as well as giving the land-constrained city-state more flexibility without locking up a major parcel on the mainland, he said, citing how nuclear power can represent a commitment of land for potentially 60 years or more.
Analysts said that proximity to the Singapore Armed Forces could confer greater security, but there could be trade-offs.
“The colocation of SAF on the island could also enhance security and protect valuable manufacturing plants from potential intrusion by imposing strict controls on access from unrelated parties and by establishing military zones that reduce the risk of sabotage or drone incursions.
“This mirrors the existing model on Jurong Island, where strict access controls and security protocols protect high-value petrochemical and energy facilities. SAF proximity would reinforce the new island’s role as a secure, strategic node for Singapore’s future energy system,” said Sing.
Chu Jian, a professor at NTU and its president’s chair in civil engineering, pointed out that while the military runway on Pulau Sudong could make the future development much easier to plan, there could also be restrictions on construction activities, such as height controls.
Experts cautioned that use of the reclaimed island could mean navigating complex hurdles such as sea-level rise, emergency access and environmental impacts given its scale.
Said NUS’ Energy Studies Institute senior research fellow Kim Jeong Won: “Significant investment would be needed for land reclamation, transport links, utility networks and grid connections, potentially making offshore generation more expensive than developing existing sites.”
NDR 2026: New western island to give Singapore room for energy and new industries, say experts
Koh Wan Ting and Natasha Ganesan Channel NewsAsia 24 Aug 2026 05:44PM
SINGAPORE: Singapore's planned western island could one day house nuclear power facilities – if the government decides to go down that path – and energy-intensive industries such as semiconductor manufacturing and data centres, energy experts said on Monday (Aug 24).
An offshore location could address one of Singapore's biggest constraints in deploying nuclear power – the amount of land that would have to be set aside – while providing access to seawater for cooling and separation from the general population.
Singapore has yet to decide whether to deploy nuclear power, but it is taking steps to shore up its capabilities and expertise in this area. From 2027, the country will undergo an international assessment of its readiness to make an informed decision on nuclear energy.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced during the 2026 National Day Rally on Sunday that Singapore intends to merge several islands south of Jurong Island – which could include Semakau, Bukom and Pulau Sudong – into a larger western island over the coming decades.
He likened the process to the development of Jurong Island, where several offshore islands were progressively joined through land reclamation over more than a decade to create what is today a global energy and chemicals hub.
Besides supporting new industries such as advanced manufacturing, Mr Wong said the island could accommodate new power generation infrastructure to meet Singapore's future needs. He did not specify the types of energy that could be generated.
As part of its longer-term plans, the government is also studying the feasibility of building an undersea tunnel connecting Pulau Tekong to the mainland. More reclamation is planned for southern Tekong, with about 500ha to be available for future civilian use.
NUCLEAR A POSSIBILITY
Experts pointed to advances in nuclear technology that could make small modular reactors (SMRs) more feasible in land-scarce Singapore. Compared with conventional large reactors, some SMR designs could have smaller site and emergency planning requirements.
Professor Lawrence Loh, director of the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School, said an offshore location could make nuclear infrastructure easier to separate and secure from the general population.
"The only place in Singapore where it might be possibly acceptable would be an island, not on the main island of Singapore, but offshore," he told CNA.
Such separation could reassure the public given sensitivities around nuclear energy, while allowing access to the facility to be more tightly controlled, Prof Loh said.
Dr Alvin Chew, senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, said nuclear power would require large containment buildings, not just for the reactors but also for generation facilities such as turbines.
Supporting infrastructure would need a solid foundation, and electricity produced on the island would have to be transmitted via subsea cables to mainland Singapore, he said.
An offshore location could also offer ready access to seawater for cooling, which many power plants require.
Current light-water nuclear reactors similarly use large volumes of water for cooling, Dr Chew said, adding that nuclear plants also discharge large volumes of water into the sea during operations.
Dr Victor Nian, founding co-chairman of the Centre for Strategic Energy and Resources (CSER), said offshore development offered advantages including space, maritime access, cooling water and separation from densely populated areas. But he cautioned against assuming that an offshore facility would necessarily be safer.
"Safety still depends on the technology, engineering, regulation and specific site conditions," he said, adding that offshore development could mean higher infrastructure and marine engineering costs.
He raised the possibility of a floating offshore facility that could use advanced nuclear energy to generate low-carbon electricity, produce hydrogen and desalinate seawater.
"Given the long development horizon, I believe we should preserve these possibilities without assuming today which technologies will ultimately be deployed," Dr Nian said.
Dr Chew said one advantage of the western island is that it could provide land dedicated to energy infrastructure for a very long period.
Nuclear power plants are typically licensed to operate for 60 to 80 years, while decommissioning and land sanitisation could take another 10 to 20 years, meaning land used for nuclear energy could effectively be committed for up to a century.
"Hence, it is therefore more appropriate to reclaim an island dedicated for power generation rather than to commit and lock-in premium land on the main island," Dr Chew said.
NEARER-TERM ENERGY OPTIONS
Nuclear could remain a longer-term possibility, but other forms of power generation may be more immediately feasible on the new island.
Dr Kim Jeong Won, senior research fellow at the Energy Studies Institute (ESI), NUS, said hydrogen-ready natural gas plants could be among the most plausible near-term options, given that natural gas is expected to remain a key part of Singapore's energy mix for decades.
She said the authorities have already planned additional hydrogen-ready gas generation capacity to meet rising electricity demand, and the western island could provide space for such plants.
Ammonia-fired power generation could be another option, she said, pointing to an existing project on Jurong Island that combines low- or zero-carbon ammonia power generation with ammonia bunkering.
"If this pilot is successful, the western island might provide a much larger platform for this concept for the next step."
An offshore location could accommodate a comprehensive system including generators, large-capacity ammonia storage, pipelines and substations, and could offer safety buffer advantages compared with residential areas on mainland Singapore, Dr Kim said.
The eventual energy mix would depend on available land, competing uses, access to the sea, costs and future energy needs, she added.
JURONG ISLAND 2.0
Prof Loh described the proposed island as potentially a "Jurong Island 2.0", following a similar playbook with a greater focus on energy.
Rather than committing to a particular technology now, he said the priority should be to make the island "energy ready", given how fast technologies are evolving and the island's long development timeline.
Beyond power generation, experts said the new island could host energy-intensive industries that need large amounts of reliable power.
Prof Loh identified data centres as one possibility, as the growth of artificial intelligence drives demand for computing capacity and electricity.
Dr Nian named semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, chemicals and potentially digital infrastructure as obvious candidates. "These industries could benefit from reliable low-carbon power and shared energy, water and utility infrastructure," he said.
Co-locating such industries with power generators could reduce the cost of transmitting energy to major consumers. Given that Bukom might be part of the new island, conventional petrochemical and related industries could also remain part of the mix, Prof Loh said.
RSIS' Dr Chew said electricity generated on the island could also support activities on nearby Jurong Island, such as petroleum refining and hydrogen production.
Reliability, affordability, emissions, safety and energy security should ultimately determine the mix, Dr Nian said.
"Equally important is how the energy will be used and by whom," he added.
While the island would not solve Singapore's lack of natural energy resources, it could ease the physical constraint on its energy choices, Dr Nian said.
"I believe that is strategically important: the western island can preserve options for future Singapore, including nuclear if we eventually decide that it is needed," he said.
However, experts also cautioned about the potential environmental impact. ESI's Dr Kim said land reclamation and thermal discharge from power plants could disrupt marine ecosystems, while Prof Loh raised concerns about the impact of reclamation works on coral reefs around the western and southern islands.