When environmentalist John Rempel asked a supplier of photovoltaic (PV) panels to install them at his Discovery Bay home, the reply surprised him. 'I was advised by the seller not to install solar panels,' he recalled. The reason given was that they were not cost-effective, with payback taking 20 years or more.
Instead, he was advised to install a solar powered thermal water heater, a system that could pay for itself in less than three years.
Ironically, his supplier Alan Li, director of Red Sun Energy Saving Equipment, continues to give this advice despite being in the business of selling solar panels.
He explained that until the government offered subsidies for installation of small-scale renewable energy systems, as was common in Europe and North America (with up to 30 per cent subsidies in some countries), it just did not make sense. He said no one was pushing the government to do so.
Homeowners in Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Greece can also sell their excess solar generated energy to the power grid to help pay for their systems.
'It won't happen here because CLP [Power] won't buy this little power from the homeowner's power system,' Mr Li said. The capacity of most small renewable energy systems is less than 200kW of electricity, according to CLP.
Although cost is the major stumbling block to increasing PV usage - a clean, quiet, low maintenance and limitless power source - industry experts say lack of knowledge about solar power's potential is another reason for its lack of popularity in sunny Hong Kong.