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CLP plans to build an offshore wind farm similar to the Scroby Sands wind farm in eastern England |
It is one of the great truisms of the business world that when some people take the lead, others will surely follow. And so it has proved over the past decade with the emergence of the renewable energy industry in Hong Kong.
It was in 2005 that the Hong Kong Government published its First Sustainable Development Strategy – setting a target of having one per cent to two per cent of Hong Kong’s total electricity supply met using renewable energy by 2012. There was an immediate reaction in the local business world, as people started to consider how they could become involved.
Winds of Change
One of the most visible of those companies has been Motorwave, which has tapped into ocean and wind power for alternative energy sources.
The company’s unique wave-and-wind turbines can be adapted for use in the home, in factories or in schools, according to Motorwave’s founder Lucien Gambarota.
“We are now fully integrated,’’ explains Mr Gambarota. “We design, we manufacture, we install and we maintain. So we are a fully integrated company.’’
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Wind Power: Motorwave’s
micro-wind turbines are
exported worldwide
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An Italian who trained as a chemist in France, Mr Gambarota came to the industry in a roundabout way. He moved to Hong Kong almost two decades ago to establish a toy business. But then things began to change.
“One day I noticed my electricity bill and just how much I had to pay,’’ he says. “So I started looking around for ways to change this, for a product that could reduce the costs – and was suitable for Hong Kong.’’
Mr Gambarota says that when he became really serious about this task, around 2005, major technological advances were being made. “There was a lot of publicity about this industry, and people’s views were changing,’’ he says. “But I don’t like to travel, so I had to make sure that everything we did was made right here in Hong Kong. For us it is about convenience, it is not about cost. In fact, we have found that for our projects, it is cheaper to manufacture what we do here in Hong Kong than it would be on the Chinese mainland.’’
Motorwave is now selling its micro-wind turbines all over the world – with the United States its biggest market. Its designs are also helping power a number of local education institutions, including the Hong Kong Sea School.
Here Comes the Sun
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Used oil collected from Hong Kong restaurants is helping fuel Dynamic Progress’ biodiesel business
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Other companies are also making use of the city’s increasing interest in the industry. The American chemical giant DuPont will, next month, unveil the solar power project it has been working on in collaboration with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks. Earlier this year, the multinational company officially launched its global thin-film photovoltaic business at the Science Park, with manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen. The initiative was the first major technology cooperation project under the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Innovation Circle.
When the project was first announced last year, Hong Kong’s then-Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Frederick Ma pointed to the future.
“The latest studies show that there is a growing global demand for the use of renewable energy, including solar energy,’’ he said. “This joint project will help meet this demand and bring about significant economic benefits to Hong Kong, as it will create new job opportunities and spur further technological developments in this field.’’
Plans on Track
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Food for Thought
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Steve Choi is the human face of the renewable energy business in Hong Kong. An accountant by trade, Mr Choi formed biodiesel company Dynamic Progress International with a group of people who, he says, “know a lot more about the science of what we do than me.’’
Its biodiesel plant in the New Territories now takes used cooking oil and turns it into alternative fuel that can even power diesel engines. Mr Choi says the company was initially researching ways to get into the renewable energy market, when the path became obvious.
“Hong Kong has a lot of restaurants,’’ he says. “And when cooking oil was reused, it was always being taken overseas. Over there, you don’t know what they are going to do with it. So we decided to use it to give something back to Hong Kong.’’
Dynamic Progress’ plant can take on up to 120 tonnes per day, but it is licensed to process up to 60,000 tonnes.
“Initially, people were very sceptical,’’ he says. “But the attitude around town is getting better. People are more open to these types of ideas, and support for them is growing.’’
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For Hong Kong-based power company CLP, developing alternative sources of energy has been part of company policy since 2004. CLP initially set a target to have five per cent of its equity-generating capacity come from renewable energy. That target was met by the end of 2007 – three years ahead of schedule.
One of CLP’s major renewable energy proposals is the setting up of a wind farm on Ninepin Island, off Hong Kong’s southern coast.
“As part of CLP’s commitment to sustainability, CLP has been working with a UK wind-farm developer, Wind Prospect, to explore the feasibility of developing an offshore wind farm (up to 200MW) in the southeastern waters of Hong Kong since 2006,’’ says Joseph Law, Project Manager – Hong Kong Renewable Energy of CLP Power HK Ltd.
“The project study is in support of the HKSAR Government’s one to two per cent renewable energy target, and in response to the community’s demand for renewable development.’’
An Environmental Impact Assessment has been completed, and the project was granted an environmental permit in August. “The project is still in its feasibility study stage,” says Mr Law. “We will continue to exchange views and opinions with the public. The next phase of the project is the installation of a wind mast at the proposed site, followed by the collection of on-site wind and wave data.
For CLP, it’s a promising beginning. For Hong Kong, it’s another path along the way to a green future.
Related links
CLP
DuPont Apollo
Dynamic Progress International
Motorwave
