Campaign aims to cut energy loss
A CAMPAIGN to promote more efficient use of electricity will start this month, aimed at reducing the estimated $4.9 billion in energy wasted each year.
The Secretary for Economic Services, Mrs Anson Chan Fang On-sang, said yesterday the campaign would provide information on good management practices to reduce needless energy loss.
Commercial buildings, where lights and air-conditioners are often left on in empty rooms, will be targeted first with a set of advisory notes issued to managers.
Advice for residential buildings will be ready by the end of the year.
The Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee, which is drafting the advisory notes, said they would cover such ideas as turning off lights, air-conditioners, printers and computer monitors when not needed, and closing blinds and curtains in summer to keep out heat.
Mrs Chan said they also agreed to set design standards on how much heat a building should let in, as a first step towards legislation on building energy codes.
Mrs Chan was speaking at the Symposium on Perspectives of Supply and Use of Fuels in Hongkong, which was also told that the territory tended to keep buildings five degrees colder than cities with similar climates, representing a huge energy load.
Wasted electricity not only adds to fuel costs but contributes to global warming and local air pollution because of the extra output required from power stations.
The symposium heard that emissions from power stations account for 42 per cent of particulates and 72 per cent of nitrogen, both of which are harmful to health, although there were measures to control the pollutants.
The situation was more difficult with the other main contributor to air pollution, motor vehicles.
Mrs Chan said the Government was considering reducing reliance on diesel vehicles and examining the feasibility of introducing electric vehicles.
Smaller diesel vehicles would probably be switched to petrol use, for which there is the technology to control most emissions.
But Mr Martin Marriott of Shell International said diesel was more environmentally friendly than petrol if engines were properly maintained and used clean fuel.
Mr David Tan of the Shell Eastern Petroleum Company in Singapore said demand for diesel was growing in the region and might not be able to be met.
A paper on landfill gas was presented at the symposium, which pointed out that $150 million to $480 million a year could be earned by converting for energy use the gas produced by decaying waste.
