As we have solar panels on our rooftop here in Discovery Bay, I’d like to comment on "Solar power needs a bigger push” (19 January). [Which quotes the many more houses in Australia that have Rooftop Solar]
First: CLP pays us for the solar electricity we feed into its grid (the “Feed-in-Tariff”), currently over five times what we pay CLP for the electricity we consume. That is, there is a subsidy paid by the taxpayers.* Clearly there is nothing “free” in solar, least of all to the HK taxpayer. Yet a subsidy must remain to make it viable for consumers to install PV panels. [ADDED: if no subsidy, I calculate a rooftop solar array in HK will not break-even until 2055. Not viable].
Second: Hong Kong is a vertical city, whereas Australia is a largely horizontal one. We have many more high-rise buildings than Australia. That means fewer rooftops per capita on which to put solar panels.
Therefore solar power at scale has to be on our “brownfield” sites. These are nowhere near enough to lead us to “net zero”.
The fundamental problem with solar — apart from night and day — is that it is “energy-dilute”. Nuclear power, by contrast, is very “energy-dense”. Thus California’s Ivanpah solar farm needs 450 times more land than the nearby Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to generate the same amount of electricity. We get 25% of our electricity from the Daya Bay Nuclear Power station. Imagine land 450 times greater in area, for the equivalent solar electricity!
So why do we so rarely discuss nuclear power for Hong Kong?
There are four nuclear stations in Guangdong from which we could take power. We haven’t done so because of objections of groups like Greenpeace.
Their objections are outdated and plain wrong. All the data show that nuclear power is the cleanest, the safest and also among the cheapest forms of power. Yet here we are still frittering around with solar, an unlikely “net zero” saviour.
Why is not a single green group in Hong Kong pressing for the increased use of nuclear power?
They worry about a “climate emergency” but deny nuclear power — like being worried about Covid but being anti-vaxxers.
I call on all of us concerned with climate change in Hong Kong to learn the science. To call for acceptance of more nuclear power in Hong Kong. It’s time to stand up to Greenpeace.
For the sake of our climate and our children.
Pf
*The subsidy varies, from ten times to around two times that price of electricity, depending on many factors)
