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A Sensible Government Would Say No To Expensive Wind Farm

Jun 9th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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SCMP – Updated on Jun 09, 2009

There has been a mixed reaction to CLP Power’s proposed erection of 67 wind turbines 135 metres high off Sai Kung.

Greenpeace said it regarded the project as a milestone for Hong Kong, though added it was a bit late compared to what has been achieved in China and Europe (“Cautious welcome for wind farm”, June 4). But the proposed scheme should be assessed on its merits and whether it can practically augment existing power supplies. Having wind turbines for the sake of establishing a milestone or success in other places can hardly be a sensible reason for their installation.

While WWF Hong Kong was concerned that the proposed wind farm would be in the flight path of migrating birds and adversely affect marine life, the Association for Geoconservation feared the wind farm would kill off the proposed geopark, because of its visual impact. Some aspects of this proposal are very clear.

The mega wind farm might cost as much as HK$2.8 billion and supply only 0.7 per cent of the city’s electricity needs. Under the proposed electricity market reform, investment in renewable energy would be rewarded with a permitted return of up to 11 per cent, according to a report in the South China Morning Post in 2006 (“Wind farm may blow more than it’s worth”). So, if the wind farm is allowed to go ahead, consumers will have to foot the bill for CLP Power’s capital expenditure and that will mean a necessary rise in the electricity tariff.

The power output from the farm – of less than 1 per cent of the city’s electricity demand – could be offset by electricity saved by simply switching off lights, appliances and equipment when not in use. This can be easily done at no cost and is environmentally most sensible. This consideration alone will surely render the proposed 200-megawatt wind farm absolutely superfluous to the city’s power requirements. Clearly, CLP Power’s proposed wind farm was never considered to benefit the city or our environment to begin with, other than the permitted return. A sensible government would certainly say no to this project.

Alex Tam, Sai Kung

Copyright (c) 2009 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All right reserved

200MW Wind Farm off Sai Kung Viable, CLP Power Says

Jun 3rd, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Updated on Jun 03, 2009

An offshore wind farm at Sai Kung, capable of generating enough power for 80,000 households, was technically feasible and environmentally acceptable, CLP Power said yesterday.

The project, which the utility has been developing for three years, calls for 67 wind turbines 135 metres high near the Ninepin Islands, about 10km east of Clear Water Bay in Sai Kung. The turbines have been shifted 1km east in response to residents’ concerns about the visual impact.

“You won’t be able to see it clearly most of the time, especially in hazy weather as it is quite far away from land,” said Joseph Law Ka-chun, the project manager for CLP Power.

The farm would have a capacity of 200 megawatts – enough power for 80,000 households – avoid carbon emission, and help towards Hong Kong’s goal of getting 1 to 2 per cent of its energy from renewable sources in the next decade, the utility said.

CLP Power and its partner in the project, Wind Prospect, which designs and builds turbines, are today releasing their environmental impact assessment report, which they have submitted to the Environmental Protection Department for approval. The bureau still needs to review the business plan, and the project financing would then have to be arranged. Work would begin after 2011 and take three years.

But once completed, the wind farm, spread across 16 sq km, would be comparable to the world’s largest – 91 turbines with a 209MW capacity in the North Sea off the west coast of Denmark.

Hongkong Electric is also studying building a 100MW offshore wind farm adjacent to the CLP Power’s near Ninepin or south of Lamma Island. The utility said an estimate of the cost would only be available after detailed studies on the wind and the waves, which affect the size of the turbines. An earlier estimate by the utility, however, put the cost of a 100MW wind-farm development at about HK$3 billion.

Each CLP turbine would be set between 500 and 650 metres apart. The electricity would be transmitted via a 25km undersea cable that connected to CLP’s grid at Tseung Kwan O. If the wind was sufficiently strong and the technology worked, an alternative plan of installing 40 wind turbines of 5MW each would be considered.

The turbines would be coated only with non-reflective paint, and the air-traffic warning lights would point skywards, with the intensity carefully planned, CLP Power said. For security reasons, marine traffic in the area would be restricted to authorised vessels. But the utility has not ruled out some form of limited tourism at the site.

Mr Law said the construction method, similar to that used for offshore oil and gas drilling platforms, was endorsed by the Buildings Department after a pilot test last year.

It did not require dredging and avoided the negative impacts of conventional drilling and piling into the bedrock beneath a 30 metre layer of mud and sand.

No offshore wind farms had been built with this technology yet and the cost was similar to that of conventional piling.

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Reference: http://www.windprospect.com/wf_project?wf=5&c=offshore&p=technologies&pa=D

Electric Cars Not the Only Option for Cleaner Air

May 15th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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SCMP – May 15, 2009

I applaud the government’s leading role in introducing electric vehicles (EVs) as a solution to the problem of air pollution. We finally have an alternative to driving polluting vehicles. However, I am sceptical whether they will be an immediate, widespread success.

When it comes to cars, people are brand-conscious. They care more about how the vehicles look and what they cost than they do about the environmental impact. People also tend to switch cars every few years – an issue with EVs, which offer a limited choice of models, and are apparently more expensive than many standard cars. EVs are also a new technology. I imagine many people have worries about the maintenance of the cars, and anticipate a frustrating wait for spare parts.

Our government says it has fought hard to ensure it receives at least a small quota of EVs from the manufacturer every year. This suggests the success of the scheme may be limited. For this reason, the government should consider more viable alternatives, such as allowing drivers to use ethanol-blended fuels.

High ethanol blends achieve much the same mileage as petrol, but are almost pollution-free. No modifications to vehicles are required to use an E50 blend. For higher blends, car owners only need to make a slight adjustment to pistons.

People will not have to make a sacrifice on the look or cost of their vehicles.

David K. H. Lee, Kowloon

Second Pact To Push Electric-vehicle Use

Apr 23rd, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Fanny W. Y. Fung – Apr 23, 2009

The government will today sign a memorandum with a second Japanese car manufacturer to promote the use of electric vehicles in Hong Kong, as part of its clean-air initiatives in the budget.

The news was announced by Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah yesterday as he appealed to legislators to support the budget. “Not only can the extensive use of clean transportation improve roadside air quality, but it can also give rise to the birth of an electric- vehicle accessory industry,” he said.

Mr Yau would arrive in Tokyo tonight to meet representatives of three car companies, an Environment Bureau spokeswoman said.

One of the companies is Mitsubishi, with which the government signed a memorandum in February. Mr Yau would take a ride in an i MiEV car, a four-seater powered by a lithium-ion battery.

One will arrive in Hong Kong next month for government departments to test its performance.

The minister would sign a memorandum with another company tomorrow, with details yet to be announced, and meet a third company to discuss electric vehicles, the spokeswoman said.

Mr Yau said the moves would help develop an electric-car market in Hong Kong. The government would continue to discuss with the business sector provision of battery-charging facilities and other infrastructure.

He is to leave Japan on Sunday to visit the Canadian cities of Toronto and Ottawa, and Washington and Boston in the US for talks on other environment-related issues before ending his tour on May 1.

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah announced in his recent budget a five-year extension of the registration-tax waiver for electric vehicles, to March 2014.

A committee headed by Mr Tsang is to study problems relating to the introduction of the vehicles.

Clear The Air Says: One Of The Main Reasons Why The Local Air Is Dirty

Apr 19th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Clear the Air says:

one of the main reasons why the local air is dirty – look at the fuel mix numbers
In 1999 CLP burned 32.87% more ‘clean’ gas than it burned in 2008
In 2008 CLP burned 2.78 times more polluting PM2.5 coal than it burned in 1999
In 2008 CLP generated locally 38.71% more GWh than in 1999.
In 1999 CLP burned 62% more ‘clean’ gas than it burned in 2007
In 2007 CLP burned 3.25 times more polluting PM2.5 coal than it burned in 1999


Fuel consumed Terajoules 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2000 1999 1998
Oil 1,048 868 1,116 1,202 2,024 1,671 1,244 2,163 3,164
Coal 153,565 179,599 148,830 144,938 133,403 153,450 74,472 55,218 88,572
Gas 77,487 63,552 85,462 85,733 85,777 59,367 93,139 102,959 87,650
Total Terajoules Tj 232,100 244,019 235,408 231,873 221,204 214,488 168,855 160,340 179,386

HK May Use More Mainland Nuclear Energy To Meet Demand

Apr 18th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Apr 18, 2009

More nuclear energy from the mainland is an option to meet demand for new power-generation capacity in six years’ time, CLP Power (SEHK: 0002)’s managing director said yesterday.

Outlining the company’s road map for the next decade, Betty Yuen So Siu-mai said that if energy demand grew by 1 to 2 per cent a year, new generation units would be needed between 2015 and 2017.

She said one option being considered was to import more nuclear energy from the mainland, which has vowed to increase the proportion of nuclear-generated energy from 2 per cent to 5 per cent by 2020.

Since it takes up to eight years to plan and build a nuclear plant, Mrs Yuen said it was time to start engaging the public on the future energy road map, including an appropriate fuel mix.

CLP Power imports 31 per cent of its power from the Daya Bay nuclear plant in Shenzhen. This supply will be extended by 20 more years after 2014 under a cross-border agreement reached last August.

Mrs Yuen said building a nuclear plant was more expensive than a gas one but could eliminate the impact of fluctuations in the price of fossil fuel.

She said that gas would continue to play a dominant role, accounting for at least half of generation, compared with 28 per cent now. This will be done by retrofitting coal units to burn gas and the timely completion by 2013 of pipelines linking its Black Point Power Station with a proposed Shenzhen container terminal in Dachan Bay. This facility would receive natural gas imported from Turkmenistan in Central Asia and liquefied natural gas shipped from elsewhere. CLP would buy gas from the Shenzhen storage plant, supplementing its existing source from a gas reserve in Hainan, which would be drilled further to boost supply.

“We are racing with time since only four years are left for us to put in place all these infrastructures and commercial arrangements.”

Mrs Yuen said they had to take contingency measures in designing the pipelines as any breakage would put the city at risk of a blackout.

With increasing use of gas and nuclear fuel, Mrs Yuen said the role of coal would be diminished and mainly be used as a backup for emergencies. Coal accounted for 48 per cent of generation last year. Mrs Yuen said the proportion of coal could eventually be lowered to a quarter.

‘Smart’ Meters To Help 20,000 Firms Cut Power

Apr 13th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Apr 13, 2009

About 20,000 businesses that use large amounts of power, such as restaurants and hotels, will have their meters replaced with “smart” ones that will enable them to monitor their consumption online, Hongkong Electric (SEHK: 0006) has announced.

The data fed by the meter to a business’ computer network can help the business come up with ways to reduce energy bills by as much as a few per cent, the utility says. A hotel, for instance, could decide to run its laundry at night instead of during peak hours. “It will be a useful tool for our users to understand their power consumption patterns at different time intervals,” Hongkong Electric manager Ip Pak-nin said.

“The data will help them formulate energy conservation measures accordingly and gauge the success of these measures.”

Hongkong Electric installed the meters for about 4,000 commercial and industrial users in 2002, Mr Ip said. It would install 20,000 more for other users that consume about 20,000kW a month.

Smart meters take a snapshot of consumption levels every 30 minutes and transmit the data to the users’ computer network.

Businesses can check whether energy-saving measures are working by comparing levels against previous baselines.

They can also receive suggestions on how to reduce consumption through other adjustments.

“It will be a useful tool for our users to understand their power consumption patterns at different time intervals. The data will help them formulate energy conservation measures accordingly and gauge the success of these measures,” Mr Ip said.

Bills for heavy users are calculated differently from those for the public. They are charged not only for kilowatts consumed but also on the basis of their energy demands and when they are made, which is referred to as “maximum loading”.

Hongkong Electric said that if businesses could reduce maximum loading, they could potentially cut their power bills by a few per cent.

Currently, 1,800 top power users, or those accounts consuming no less than 25,000kW a month, pay a maximum demand fee on top of the charge for units used. The fee accounts for 10 to 20 per cent of a heavy user’s bill. Hongkong Electric has invested in the city’s distribution and transmission infrastructure. The smart meter replacement will start later this year and take about 10 years. Meters approaching the end of their life span would be given priority to avoid waste, Mr Ip said.

The smart meter has a life span of about 15 years, half of the mechanical meter, and is also three times more expensive for Hongkong Electric, although it saves the utility money as staff are not required to read the meter on a regular basis.

Mr Ip said they had no plan to introduce the smart meters to homes since their consumption was lower and the basic energy-saving measures, like the use of more efficient products, were sufficient to help them conserve power.

He said the utility would continue to provide advice to the public on how to conserve energy.

Under the new scheme of control agreed last year, the power firm will receive an extra combined total of 0.02 per cent of the rate of return for completing at least 50 energy audits, and achieving a saving of no less than three gigawatt hours a year.

Government To Help Firms Take Advantage Of Green Opportunities

Apr 8th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Apr 08, 2009

The government will organise seminars for local professionals in environmental services this month, to help them explore emerging markets locally and across the border, Environment Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah said.

Mr Yau said the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement had enabled such servicing companies to own and operate businesses on the mainland. That would increase their chances of tapping the growing demand for environmental services amid the economic transformation in Guangdong province.

“Hong Kong and Guangdong are strongly pushing forward energy efficiency and emission reduction,” he said. “There is great room for these environmental professionals to organise themselves to cater to this rising demand.”

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced plans last week to further explore business opportunities for the environment industry, among others, in the global financial crisis.

Mr Yau said some of the sector’s professionals might be ready to pursue their advantages; but others might need to adjust their operations, or join forces, to tap the opportunities.

The HK$450 million matching-fund scheme for energy and carbon audits and improvement works for local buildings, to be launched today, would be an opportunity for such firms to find business locally, he said. Across the border, Mr Yau said, the market was also growing gradually, after the introduction of the HK$93 million clean-production scheme. So far, 160 companies have participated in the programme. The scheme’s success has encouraged Guangdong provincial and local authorities to roll out similar incentive programmes, which would increase the demand for environmental services.

Mr Yau said green businesses were still taking shape in Hong Kong and across the border, and it was still difficult to know how big the market was. “It is like a blind man who tries to feel the size of an elephant … [he] can never tell how big the elephant is.”

Online Guide To Climate-friendly Goods Launched – New List Shows Appliances’ Footprints

Apr 2nd, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Apr 02, 2009

A green group has called on electrical appliance manufacturers to provide more low-carbon-emission products for the global market, after the publication of the first local guide on climate-friendly goods.

The online guide, launched by WWF Hong Kong yesterday, lists 300 models of nine popular electrical appliances that have low carbon footprints, are made under more than 50 brands and are available on the local market.

It offers information on annual energy consumption, efficiency, carbon emissions and price references for climate-conscious shoppers.

There are also tips on the wise use of appliances.

The information was collated from data obtained from manufacturers and energy labelling schemes in Hong Kong, the United States and Europe.

“All those models in the guides are low carbon emission, but we won’t tell people how to choose as we have given them the tool to make their own choices,” said William Yu Yuen-ping, the head of WWF’s climate programme.

The appliances covered include air conditioners, compact fluorescent lamps, refrigerators, televisions, water heaters, rice cookers, laptop computers, printers and game consoles.

Dr Yu said the first six types of appliance already accounted for 85 per cent of total household electricity consumption, which grew by 34 per cent between 1990 and 2005.

The guide would fill the gaps in Hong Kong’s energy efficiency labelling scheme, which has so far made labelling mandatory only on air conditioners, compact fluorescent lamps and refrigerators.

Consumers using the guides are advised to decide what their priorities are because they might have to compromise.

For instance, the most climate-friendly model will often not be the cheapest, while the one which offers the highest energy efficiency will not necessarily be the one which consumes the least energy.

Dr Yu said it was time for individuals to act and exert their influence on the market.

“If there are demands from the public, manufacturers will be motivated to produce more low-carbon appliances.

“Let’s get started in our daily lives instead of just relying on the politicians to do something for us,” Dr Yu said, citing the Copenhagen climate conference to be held later this year.

Wat Hong-keung from the Hong Kong and Kowloon Electric Appliances Trader Federation welcomed the guide, but said consumer awareness about energy efficiency had improved in recent years.

“Many of them pay great attention to energy efficiency in case they have two choices of similar quality and price,” he said.

“But they are normally motivated by saving money rather than saving the world.”

The guide can be seen online at www.climateers.org.

Introducing Natural Gas / Liquefied Petroleum Gas Buses And Heavy Duty Vehicles In Hong Kong – Feasibility Study

Mar 24th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Source – EMSD

The objectives of this study are to assess the technical feasibility of introducing natural gas (NG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) buses and heavy duty vehicles to Hong Kong with a view to improving air quality.

This study concludes that LPG/NG vehicles are not practicable for buses or heavy duty vehicles in Hong Kong because of the difficulties associated with developing the infrastructure for an entirely new fuel. Also, the resulting environmental benefits in reducing vehicle emissions and improving air quality are diminishing.

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