Singapore, November 16

Apple will open its first retail store in Singapore, which will also be Southeast Asia’s first to be powered solely by solar energy, officials said today. Solar energy developer Sunseap Group said in a statement that it will provide the store with renewable energy by harnessing its systems set up across 800 of the city’s rooftops from January next year.

The tech-giant, however, did not reveal store’s location in Singapore or the opening date, likely to be in 2016. It also did not confirm store would be run by solar energy, but directed media queries to Sunseap statement.

A Singapore government official also confirmed the venture. “Sunseap’s strategic partnership with Apple represents a new frontier in Singapore’s drive to utilise more cost-competitive renewable energy,” said Goh Chee Kiong, a top official at the government’s Economic Development Board.

All that Apple would say through a statement by Angela Ahrendts, a corporate official, is that it is ‘thrilled to begin hiring a team that will open our first Apple Store in Singapore’.

With the deal, Apple will be the first company in Singapore to run exclusively on renewable energy. Apple’s website lists 14 open positions for its Singapore retail store, ranging from store leaders, to business managers and technical assistants.

Ripples of an impending official announcement started in late October, when Pure Fitness informed it would close its four-storey Knightsbridge mall outlet in Orchard Road on December 15 ‘to make way for opening of Apple’s first store in 2016’.

Apple currently sells its products in physical stores of two authorised re-sellers and its online store.