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Mandala Club at night (Image: Mandala Club)
Singapore has been investing into more clean ways of generating electricity, such as solar energy, where the sunny island can make use of its most abundant natural resource. Businesses in the private sector have been following the government’s lead: Mandala Club, a social club in Singapore, recently announced that they will be installing photovoltaic panels on its rooftop.
A meander down history lane
This move is particularly notable as Mandala Club is located within a conserved building in Chinatown — a three story Art Deco building initially constructed in 1928, located at 31 Bukit Pasoh Road.
When Singapore was modernising in the 1990s, the conserved building was part of the Bukit Pasoh conservation area, which also includes Keong Saik Road and Neil Road. These districts were famous for a different type of nightlife back in the 1960s, and eventually became the more gentrified regions that we know them as today.
Mandala Club’s building actually won the URA Architectural Heritage Awards in 2006, back when the building was a boutique hotel.
31 Bukit Pasoh Road when it was New Majestic Hotel (Source: Terence Ong)
Somewhere old, something new
Mandala Club came to roost at 31 Bukit Pasoh road in 2021. Now, the social club is the first conserved building in Chinatown with approval from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to install solar panels.
By September 2024, Mandala Club will be partnering with Flo Energy, a green energy company licensed by the Energy Market Authority to install 102 square metres of solar panels.
“The climate crisis affects all of us, and we are heartened by Mandala Club’s efforts to make incremental, sustainable change by being the first conserved building in Chinatown to incorporate rooftop solar panels on their premises. We are excited to be part of this history and we hope to inspire future solar deployments on more conserved buildings,” said Matthijs Guichelaar, Chief Executive Officer of Flo Energy.
The extra mile
Beyond installing solar panels into their building, Mandala club has also started the Mandela Solar Collective. This collective aligns with Singapore’s larger goal to leverage our abundance of sun to reach two gigawatt-peak (GW-p) from solar energy by 2030. This is equivalent to powering 350,000 households a year.
Mandela Club claims that if all the conserved buildings in Singapore implement similar solar panelled rooftops, they could deliver 7% of the solar power needed for Singapore’s Green Plan in 2030.
Therefore, the Mandela Solar Collective aims to encourage local business owners to use renewable energy by spreading awareness of the benefits and challenges that come with it, and function as a platform where businesses can share best practices to incorporate such new forms of energy.
“At Mandala Club, we aspire to be stewards of the neighbourhood and environment which we call home, and being at the forefront of sustainability is of paramount importance, not only to the Club’s leadership but more importantly, to our members,” said Ben Jones, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mandala Group.
“This approval is testament to Mandala Club’s commitment to sustainability and our dedication to enriching the lives of our members and work in tandem with the community to make a positive impact on the world around us.”
The Mandela Solar Collective will begin in the third fiscal quarter of 2024, with a flagship event in September. Interested businesses can sign up here.
