Don’t ‘waste’ renewable energy potential of Hong Kong school rooftops, Greenpeace says
- Officials claim city can only draw up to 4 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable sources between now and 2030
- Green group counters that if just half of 19 schools were fitted with photovoltaic solar panels, 751 three-person households could be served locally
Hong Kong environmental officials are overlooking the immense potential of school rooftops in their quest to develop more renewable energy generation in the city, a green group has asserted.
The Environment Bureau previously estimated that with limited space and the currently available technology, Hong Kong would at most only be able to draw up to 4 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable sources between now and 2030 – up from less than 1 per cent now.
But Greenpeace East Asia said officials were not looking hard enough.
With the help of Baptist University’s Asian Energy Studies Centre, the environmental group surveyed 22 different primary and secondary schools across the city between January and August.
Having obtained rooftop floor area data for 19 of them, researchers computed that 2.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity could be generated per year, if just half of their rooftops were fitted with photovoltaic (PV) solar panels.