Off the Grid

Sarah Wong abandoned her Kowloon apartment and bought a three-storey townhouse in Yuen Long two years ago. It had everything she hoped for—more room, fresher air, and was located in a spacious neighborhood, unlike her previous home in Jordan. Shortly after moving in she heard her new neighbors talking about their solar-powered water heating system, and she then decided to make her home environmentally friendly as well.

She knew very little about solar energy other than it would save her money while helping save the planet in some way. Like most people, Wong assumed turning her home green wouldn’t be a major problem and that she’d get lots of support. She’d seen and heard the Hong Kong government advocate renewable energy in its ad campaigns so was shocked when she realized how difficult it was to actually go green.

“I was searching for information on installing solar panels on my rooftop and suggestions for which company to hire for the job,” Wong says. “All I found was information telling me I had to notify the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) if I wanted to install a solar panel.” When she called EMSD, she was told she also had to inform the Water Supplies Department, Lands Department and Buildings Department. In other words, she would have to file her application to four different government departments. Wong says, “They might be promoting a green lifestyle, but the government certainly isn’t making it easy to have one.”

In the end, Wong was so determined to be green that she simply hired a company to install the solar panels and ignored all the complex paperwork. Her home may not be government approved, but at least it’s eco-friendly.

Hong Kong, as we explored earlier, lags behind when it comes to adopting alternative energy. Domestically, the movement wasn’t picking up until around a decade ago. Today, a lot of village houses in the New Territories have solar-powered water heating systems. The houses are easy to spot—just look for a collection of solar panels attached to a rooftop water heater. Alan Li, who founded Red Sun Solar Energy in Yuen Long six years ago, sees a growing trend of townhouse owners abandoning traditional water heating systems (electricity or towngas) and adopting solar-powered ones. “Both developers and individual property owners who are building new townhouses are looking to install solar-energy systems,” he says.

The reason is simple—cost. There are usually six bathrooms in one townhouse; and to install a traditional water heating system in each bathroom costs $2,600, which means a total cost of over $15,000. Meanwhile a solar-powered system, which provides hot water to all taps in the house, costs around $17,000. Given the choice, more and more people are choosing to pay a little extra upfront for the solar-powered system because they will save money on bills in the long run.

But not every property developer has that insight—have you heard of any blue-chip developers building an estate in Tuen Mun with solar panels? But one company with an eco-vision was boutique property developer KF Development, who back in 2005 decided to renovate a five-storey tong lau on Lyndhurst Terrace in Central and turn it into a serviced apartment block. “We were looking for added value,” says its director Amil Khan, “and the idea of eco living came up.”