Success of Hong Kong’s renewable energy plan depends on ‘salesmanship’ of power companies, experts say
Costs of newly proposed ‘feed-in tariff’ scheme to be offset by businesses buying renewable energy certificates
The effectiveness of Hong Kong’s newly proposed scheme to spur investment in renewable energy installations will hinge on how well the city’s two power companies are able to sell the renewable energy credits to fund them, experts said on Wednesday.
According to the Environment Bureau’s plan, households and business that install renewable energy facilities such as rooftop solar or wind systems may soon be able to apply to sell their excess supply to the city’s power grid at up to five times the current retail price.
The idea behind this “feed-in tariff” is to shorten the payback period of the investment and entice more residents and companies to make such purchases, increasing the share of clean energy in the city’s primarily fossil fuel-based power generation.
More than a hundred other places around the world have such mechanisms in place, including mainland China, Taiwan and Macau.
The bureau said the two utilities firms would be able to offset the costs – and thus the pressure on users – by selling “renewable energy certificates” (RECs) to businesses that wanted to lower their emissions or improve their corporate social responsibility.