Many people related renewable energies to the available roof area or wall area on private buildings while forgetting the civil structure’s safety and capacity. Have we considered installing mini wind turbines on bridges and highway structures and solar panels on miles and miles of acoustic panels along our highway? The chemistry between creativity and renewable energies is yet to be seen in our city. Recently, Civic Exchange, a Hong Kong based public policy think tank, and WWF Hong Kong organised an Energy Forum 20 on the subject of: Renewables and Electricity Market Reform. The speakers gave an overview of renewable energy source from a global perspective then gradually zoomed into the local perspective, providing much of the insights of the industry to the audience. One of the speakers, Prof Johnny Chan, Dean of School of Energy and Environment of the City University of Hong Kong, put forward the idea about distributed generation as an alternative to central plant and illustrated this with micro wind turbines and mini tidal and wave power generation devices supported by micro-grid. It was also pointed out that renewable energies are available – we just have not been innovative enough or willing to put in the investment! At The Baroque on Lamma, we are developing an integrated sustainability strategy based on the principle of distributed generation. Mini-wind turbines, solar panels and PV panels are to be installed at the breakwater, roads, bridges, shelters and overhanging eaves of the buildings. Tidal and wave energy are another renewable energy sources that are being explored at our breakwater. In addition, other energy sources such as biodiesel from waste kitchen oil and fast growing invasive plants, energy from incineration of non-recyclable waste and non-organic waste as well as wasted oil from yachts are also proposed. While we might not be totally self-sufficient, we are reducing reliance on general grid supply to a minimum. If you would like to know more about the presentation of Prof. Johnny Chan, please visit here: |
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