Hong Kong aims to slash its carbon emissions to 50 percent of its 2005 levels by 2035. This target includes ending coal use for daily electricity generation, promoting electric vehicles, and achieving zero landfill use, all as part of the city’s broader plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Industry leaders said on Friday that the government should streamline approval procedures, allow more pilot projects, and offer more financial support, all of which would accelerate investment and help reduce costs. The InnoTech Forum was hosted by InvestHK, the government department tasked with promoting foreign investment in the city.
Senior executives from across the energy supply chain in Hong Kong have called for more support to accelerate the development of the city’s hydrogen ecosystem.
“If the government can come up with a code of practice and standards applicable to hydrogen projects in Hong Kong in the future, it will make it easier for companies that want to invest in the sector,” said Norman Cheng, business development director at Veolia Hong Kong. A clear road map of where hydrogen development is going “would also enhance the confidence of investors”, he added.
Veolia, a global company involved in the management of water, waste and energy resources, has joined with gas distributor Hong Kong and China Gas (Towngas) to develop Hong Kong’s first green hydrogen project at the South East New Territories Landfill Extension in Tseung Kwan O. It will capture and turn landfill gas into hydrogen to supply energy while preventing emission of the highly potent greenhouse gas.
A slow approval process is one of the “pain points” for companies interested in deploying hydrogen demonstration projects in Hong Kong, said Shao Ruizhe, assistant president with China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong).
“We hope that as hydrogen energy technology matures in the future, the approval time can be shortened,” he said, adding that approval for a project the company is involved in took about a year.
His company has partnered with Hong Kong Nation-Synergy International Hydrogen Power Technology and Sinopec (Hong Kong) on a pilot project to generate electricity from hydrogen and supply it to a construction-site office at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in Lok Ma Chau.
Hong Kong Nation-Synergy is part of Zhejiang province-based Sino-Synergy Hydrogen Energy Technology (Jiaxing), which makes fuel-cell engines. Sinopec (Hong Kong), part of China’s largest petroleum fuel producer China Petroleum & Chemical, runs a network of petrol stations in the city and is building the city’s first hydrogen refuelling station.
The Hong Kong government should set up more hydrogen demonstration projects, said Cynthia Zhu Zheyu, CEO of Sinosynergy International, which oversees Sino-Synergy’s Hong Kong and overseas business.
At least 14 pilot projects by 10 firms have won government approval to demonstrate hydrogen's effectiveness and safety in various contexts.
Setting up more projects would boost the confidence of the city’s hydrogen stakeholders and allow the industry to achieve the scale it needs to drive down costs, she said, adding that more government funding is also needed.
“We are very fortunate to see that the Chief Executive’s policy address this week has increased the new energy fund for the transport sector from HK$200 million [US$26 million] to HK$750 million,” she said. However, the amount is still “too little” compared with what is needed for development, she added.
“We hope the government can inject more funds into this field,” she said.
Hong Kong has a distinct advantage of being close to the mainland, where many companies have developed a wide range of cost-competitive green technologies that Hong Kong firms can adopt to scale up hydrogen production and use, said Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan.
However, he said the scale and speed of hydrogen development in Hong Kong will depend on the cost-reduction trajectories of other forms of green energy. So the government needs to proceed cautiously on policies.
“The costs of other green and low-carbon technologies are also falling, which means it is uncertain which green energy will be more cost-competitive,” he said.
Hong Kong Total Energy Consumption.
Total energy consumption per capita was 1.6 toe in 2022. Per capita electricity consumption is about 6.1 MWh. Total energy consumption decreased by 6% in 2022 to 11.7 Mtoe, after remaining stable in 2021 and declining by 8.5% in 2020. Previously, it had been fluctuating around 14 Mtoe since 2007. Gas covers 33% of the country's total energy consumption, coal 31%, oil 26%, and electricity 9% (2022). Coal had the largest share of total energy consumption until 2019 (44% in 2019) and has been increasing since 2000 (from 31%). Zeljko Serdar, CCRES
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