2024 is coming to a close, so I would like to use the chance to reflect on what SFSS has done this dear to increase knowledge about floating structures as solutions to various pressing problems, practical tools, and what we have in mind for 2025. Our activities are, after all, the lifeblood of our society and what keeps us focused on our mission, which I add here again:
The mission of the Society is to facilitate the application of scientific principles and proven offshore technologies to the design, engineering and construction of floating space solutions to enhance the quality of human and marine life, address issues of land scarcity, harvest offshore green and conventional energy, increase food and water production, and overcome the problem of rising sea level due to global warming in ways that are eco-friendly and sustainable.
I became the new president of SFSS in March 2024, after I previously organized webinars for the society. A lot of work usually goes into organizing our annual flagship event, the World Conference on Floating Solutions. Hosting the event annually means both working with the local organising committee on the next event and selecting the host for the event thereafter. The latter includes the call for host, interviewing potential hosts and reviewing their applications, and creating an international scientific committee for the event. In spring, we chose Tytti Sirola and her team from Bluet as the host of the Fifth World Conference on Floating Solutions (1st to 3rd September 2025). Great progress has been made since then and both registration and abstract submission have opened.
Our SFSS-WCFS committee (CM Wang, Lim Soon Heng, and I) also worked with the International Scientific Committee (headed by CM) and Zhao Xiaolin’s local organising team on the Fourth World Conference on Floating Solutions at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which recently took place. More than 220 participants joined us, which is a new record!
We want to see as many SFSS members as possible at the world conferences, so all members who pay their membership subscription for 2025 will receive a discount of EUR 30 (about SGD 45) on their early bird registration fee.
In 2024, to bridge the time between our World Conferences, we hosted a webinar every other month, open to the public. I again want to thank our speakers, Rens Doornbusch (Roboat), Joerg Baumeister (Griffith University), Koen Olthuis (Waterstudio), Colin Yip (Woh Hup), and Bahador Sabet (Envocrete).
You can find the summaries of the webinars on our website, which in spring underwent a large-scale overhaul, and the videos on our youtube channel, which we created in summer.
In May, Raunak Brij S/O Rendera Singh was awarded our SFSS prize, donated to the Singapore Maritime Academy.
In July, we organised a site visit of the ACE sustainable fish farm near Pulau Ubin, including a tasting of very delicious fish. Many thanks to CEO Leow Ban Tat, his wife, and SFSS council members Ivan Stoytchev and Anil Thapar.
In September, NUS CORE and we co-hosted our symposium on floating solar PV systems, featuring four speakers—Wang Wenping (CIMC Raffles Offshore), Oktoviano Gandhi (SERIS), Riccardo Barbiellini (Bureau Veritas), and myself, moderated by SFSS council member Tay Zhi Yung (SIT), whom I thank for their contributions. At both the fish farm site visit and the floatovoltaics event, SFSS members received a discount.
In autumn, the proceedings of the Third WCFS were published, making the papers globally accessible in this way.
In early December, the WCFS 2024, our flagship event, took place, featuring two days of discussions, networking, and meeting new and old friends, followed by the technical tour on the third day. Our LinkedIn messages are still very fresh in our memory and I earlier thank the organisers, but I nevertheless also would like to thank our keynote speakers, special guests, volunteers, and all participants for making the Fourth WCFS an amazing event!
As we have intensified our social media outreach and increased the number of events, I also want to explicitly thank our social media administrator and website master, Wendalyna Lye, and our management expert, Sheryl Low, whom some of you met at the floatovoltaics event, for their very important contributions to our work! We could not have done it without you!
I also want to thank our Treasurer Larry Lim, currently busy with preparing the financial reports for this year.
Event planning for next year is ongoing and we will have several upcoming events in the next months.
On 20 February, we will restart our webinar series with an event hosting several floatovoltaics operators in Malaysia who will share their experiences. My thanks go to SFSS member Danny Ton for his help.
In February, we also plan to host a member night to connect old and new members.
A site visit of the floating solar PV systems at Tengeh reservoir will take place on 7 March and my thanks go to our 3rd Vice President and Secretary, Charles Lim.
In the first quarter of 2025, we will host an online symposium on sinking Asian cities like Jakarta and floating solutions as a response.
We will also discuss floating solutions at an in-person evening lecture in the NUS Cities lecture series.
Other projects we are working on include the Fifth WCFS in Finland. But in January, we will also release our call for hosts for the next event in 2026, which means that we will, once again, be working on two events at the same time. Moreover, our editorial subcommittee is working on the proceedings of the recent WCFS, which we hope to release later next year.
A new project is based on substantial feedback that we received regarding the lack of knowledge among regulators about floating structures, the lack of or insufficiency of regulations and standards, current design challenges, and upcoming opportunities in Singapore and globally. We are working on short reports and circulars that will help to solve many of these problems. More information will follow in the next months.
Maybe of interest to some of you: I very recently published an article on the broader reasons for often very limited social and political acceptance of floating residential structures, which is now freely accessible on Ocean and Coastal Management’s website:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569124004186
I end this message by sending you Season’s Greetings / wishing you a Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year 2025! Your support in the coming year would be very much appreciated and your participation in SFSS events—online, in Singapore, Finland, etc.—is very welcome!
Best wishes,
Stefan Huebner (SFSS President)