SECTION
3 NATURAL RESOURCES CAPITAL STOCK
3.6 |
Minerals,
Aggregates and Energy |
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3.6.2.8 |
Even
with effective implementation of energy
efficiency and energy saving initiatives
it is expected that in the long run Hong
Kong will require additional power generation
capacity. Constraints on the provision of
new power generation facilities in Hong
Kong are likely to include air quality controls
(see Paragraph 5.4.4.7 - Assimilative Capacity
of Air) and difficulties in identifying
new sites due to competing land uses and
environmental constraints (see Paragraphs
3.2.2.1 - 3.2.2.7 - Land Use and Land Supply).
The land supply constraint is expected to
be the more severe of the two, since air
quality issues are of less concern for the
cleaner fuels and technologies proposed
for Hong Kong's new power stations than
they would be for stations using older and
less efficient technologies. A case for
maintaining at least a proportion of local
electrical power generation within Hong
Kong can be made based on security of supply
considerations.
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3.6.2.9 |
An alternative to providing additional generation
capacity within Hong Kong is to purchase
electricity from generators in the Mainland.
It should be cheaper to generate electricity
in the Mainland due to lower costs there,
but this would need to be balanced against
concerns about the potential for detrimental
effects on regional air quality that may
result from a proliferation of coal-fired
power plants in Guangdong Province operating
to lower emission standards than would be
required of plants in Hong Kong. Hong Kong
would need to work with the relevant parties
in Mainland China to develop ways to avoid
this problem, to encourage implementation
of cleaner technologies in the Mainland,
and diminish these problems of sourcing
additional electricity for Hong Kong from
the Mainland. Sufficient transmission network
capacity would be required between the Mainland
and Hong Kong and within Hong Kong, but
this should not present any major obstacles
in the medium to long-term.
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3.6.2.10 |
Alternative
power generation technologies could also shape
the future of Hong Kong's energy supply. Alternative
energy sources such as solar, wind, and landfill
gas do not have really large scale potential
in Hong Kong, but could play a niche role
in future. Waste-to-energy - which is technically
energy recovery rather than renewable energy
per se and is being considered primarily for
its ability to reduce the volume of waste
requiring landfill disposal - could play a
small but not insignificant role in electricity
generation. An announcement was made in the
1999 Policy Address to consult the community
on the development of waste-to-energy incinerators
which meet the highest environmental and health
standards. Fuel cells are the other alternative
electricity generation technology of interest.
They are currently in the early commercialisation
phase, but are not expected to be cost-competitive
in the near to medium term. This technology
is very efficient: around 50% of the fuel
can be converted to electricity and up to
90% of the energy in the fuel can be captured
if steam as well as electricity is used. The
technology is modular and could be installed
adjacent to the point of end use as distributed
on-grid generation. It is possible to envisage
fuel cell stacks connected to the reticulated
gas network on the input side and the electricity
network on the output side, installed in the
basements of Hong Kong buildings and providing
the electricity and heat requirements (for
domestic hot water, restaurant kitchens and
laundries and a small amount of relatively
low cost residential heating for the few cold
weeks of the year). |
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3.6.2.11 |
Fuel
cells also have potential applications in
the transport sector in powering electric
vehicles. Serious research and development
is currently underway in this area, but full
commercialisation is still a number of years
away. A nearer-term technology in the transport
sector is hybrid petrol-electric and hybrid
diesel-electric vehicles. These vehicles have
a conventional engine, which runs steadily
to generate electricity for electric motors
driving the wheels. A small amount of battery
storage is used to ensure that there is always
enough electrical energy to meet the instantaneous
demand. There are already two vehicles of
this type on the market in Japan and the United
States, made by Toyota and Honda. They use
approximately half the fuel for a given distance
as a similar size conventional car. |
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