Hong Kong entrepreneurs can play a key role in restoring the city's blue skies by powering their 80,000 factories in Guangdong partly with their own wind turbines, according to a British-based renewable energy firm, Wind Prospect. The proposal came as Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen called on factories to consider installing scrubbers in their back-up generators. The Productivity Council was assessing the effectiveness of using the devices in generators running on heavy oil or low-grade fuel. They could cut emissions by at least 50 per cent, he said. Mr Tsang also said at the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce's 'Business for Clean Air' conference yesterday that Hong Kong had no right to complain about pollution on the mainland if it was being created by the city's own manufacturing sector. Apart from such cleanup devices as scrubbers, Wind Prospect general manager Alex Tancock said factory owners could also install a wind turbine to reduce reliance on diesel and coal-fired electricity. The company, which is developing a 150MW offshore wind farm near Sai Kung with power supplier CLP Holdings, has found that some high-lying and coastal areas in Guangdong were suitable for micro-projects with a 2 megawatt wind turbine. 'There is too much talk about the pollution problem; what needs to happen is a start,' Mr Tancock told the conference. 'Companies erecting their own wind turbines are proving to be cost-effective in Britain, and I don't see why it is not viable here.' Wind Prospect said it had offered Guangdong factories free feasibility studies on wind turbines at their sites as an incentive to promote sustainable energy. He said small to medium-sized enterprises would need government financial incentives to invest in wind turbines. He estimated a 2MW wind turbine would cost HK$20 million-HK$25 million.
