My Lamma Forums

[Lamma-Gung]

With all the recent publicity about CLP's planned windturnine farm off Sai Kung just having received the Environmental Impact Assessment OK, what's happening to HK Electric's planned wind farm 4 km Southwest of Lamma?
I've asked them for an update:

"Regarding the progress of our proposed offshore wind farm project, work on preparation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report is nearly completed with the target of submitting it to the Government later in the year.

Meanwhile, we are planning to install an offshore Wind Monitoring Mast at about 4km Southwest of Lamma Island for collection of wind data. Application for ground investigation of soil sampling works for the proposed Wind Monitoring Mast has been submitted to the District Lands Office and will be subject to their approval."

[Mississippi Groover]

Greens laud Lamma wind farm plan as breath of fresh air

The Standard

[Alan]

MIght as well paste it here for the record:

[Lamma-Gung]

SCMP Story today, based on the press briefing in the HK Electric Centre on HK Island. I was invited and attended, too. Lamma-zine story with more details and photos out later today, but this SCMP story covers the basic facts nicely.

HK Electric has promised to answer questions from Lammaites directly. So far, they've consulted only the usual "stakeholders" like Rural Committee, District Councillors and fishermen so far. Please post your questions in this forum or email me and I'll forward the questions.

Plus HK Electric's press release:
EIA Study Affirms Southwest Lamma Offshore Wind Farm [5 February 2010]

Marine wind farm planned off Lamma

HK$3b project will use up to 35 giant turbines

Ng Kang-chung - Feb 06, 2010

As many as 35 giant turbines, each as tall as a 27-storey building with blades as long as the wing of a Boeing jetliner, will be dotted across the sea southwest off Lamma five years from now if a HK$3 billion plan by Hongkong Electric (SEHK: 0006) to use wind energy to produce power comes to fruition.

The proposed project, with a capacity of about 100 megawatts, could produce enough electricity a year to power 50,000 households.

This would account for about 1per cent to 2 per cent of the company's annual electricity output.

The project, scheduled to be completed in 2015, calls for 28 to 35 wind turbines, each capable of producing 2.3MW to 3.5MW, to be installed in a 600-hectare sea area about four kilometres southwest of Lamma.

Hongkong Electric, in outlining the plan yesterday, said using wind power could supplant the use of 62,000 tonnes of coal a year, thus reducing carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 150,000, 520, and 240 tonnes respectively.

The Hongkong Electric plan comes about six months after CLP won approval of its environmental impact assessment report on an offshore wind farm project.

The proposed CLP wind farm, said to be the biggest in Asia, would be located about nine kilometres east of Clearwater Bay peninsula and five kilometres east of South Ninepin Island. The HK$6.7 billion CLP project involves 67 turbines, with a total capacity of 200MW.

Following government approval of the report, CLP has begun the second stage of a feasibility study, which may take one or two years.

Both wind-farm projects by the two power companies were in response to a government target, set in 2005, of generating 1 per cent to 2 per cent of Hong Kong's electricity from renewable sources by 2012. Hongkong Electric general manager Frank Lau Fuk-hoi said the company's consultant had studied eight potential sites.

The Lamma site was preferred partly because it was close to the company's power base on the island which could provide logistics support during construction stage. "Wind turbines can first be assembled at the power station before being delivered to the site for installation, offering extra convenience and reducing project costs," Lau said.

He declined to speculate about whether the company needed to raise power prices because of the development but said it could mean a decrease in coal costs. "And bear in mind, wind is free of charge," he said. According to the company's environmental impact assessment, which will be the focus of a month-long public consultation from Monday, the project would not greatly harm the marine ecology and the site was not within a bird habitat.

Lau said measures would be taken to minimise possible adverse effects, including restricting the speed of construction ships, and avoiding foundation work during peak marine mammal activity times.

Edwin Lau Che-feng, director of Friends of the Earth, said: "I am not saying it is a bad thing but I am not sure if it is a good environmental investment. Some HK$3 billion is to be used but that will only generate some 2 per cent of the company's total electricity output."

Greenpeace senior campaigner Gloria Chang Wan-ki called on the government to do more. She said: "We cannot cope with climate change by developing one or two wind farms. The government should show its determination and lay out a clear policy direction."

At present, Hongkong Electric operates a small wind turbine in Tai Ling, Lamma.

[Lamma-Gung]

Just got the entire wind farm presentation from HK Electric, with lots of facts, photos and charts, for those of you who want to know more details, uploaded here: PDF file

[foreign body]

if their target is for the wind farm to generate 2% of the energy they produce, then i think it's a joke, and might only be useful as a PR exercise, a bit like the Tai Ling turbine on Lamma. Building these turbines generates pollution and it has a serious impact on marine life, not to speak of the visual impact.

Reducing overall energy consumption by encouraging energy saving measures would be a better way to deal with the pollution caused by burning coal. But of course, this would be anathema to HK Electric shareholders.
They'd rather build a wind farm and have people keep their aircon on all day and all night, never turn off their computers and keep the TV on as background noise.

[gareth]

[Alan]

[foreign body]

i am not a luddite,
but i totally agree with what Edwin Lau Che-feng, director of Friends of the Earth, said: " I am not sure if it is a good environmental investment. Some HK$3 billion is to be used but that will only generate some 2 per cent of the company's total electricity output."

Just imagine how many homes you could insulate with that money, how many roof gardens you can build, just to name two energy saving measures.
In HK very few homes have double-glazing, or even decent glazing.
You could save 2% of any household energy consumption just by paying energy efficiency 'ambassadors', people who visit your home, assess your energy consumption patterns and make recommendations that can result in a much cheaper electricity bill. Such programmes exist in Europe, and low-income families even receive subsidies to insulate their homes.

Besides, electricity is too cheap in HK, hence the common sight of shops with huge air con units blasting cold air into the street.

That money can also be used to fund environmental education programmes in schools. Once a child understands the implications of her/his family's wasteful consumption patterns, s/he can demand change. It happened with smoking, children started lecturing their parents and made them feel guilty for smoking in front of them.
The same can happen with wasteful habits.

[gareth]

You're engaging in the fallacy of assuming the two are mutually exclusive, as though installation of double glazing must be inversely proportional to amount of wind turbines. By all means push for energy saving measures, but opposing a move from coal to wind power seems ludicrous for someone who runs a blog calling itself "sustainable hong kong".

[foreign body]

Gareth,
i'd love to see HKE move from coal to wind and solar...but it's not going to happen unless somebody forces them to...but i wouldn't hold my breath, our toothless government can't even pass a law to ban idling engines.

HKE will most probably add wind turbines to generate MORE electricity, not less....and will burn just as much coal as they do now.

[gareth]

[Lamma-Gung]

The Environmental Impact Assessment study has just been made public. It makes for some very interesting reading.

Click here for the Executive Summary, and here's the full study document.

Comments and feedback can be submitted here till the end of the "Inspection Period", today - March 9.

[higgsboson]

Gareth wrote

[Lamma-Gung]

RTHK Radio 3 discussion about wind farm

The first construction will be going up soon, an 80-metre tall Offshore Wind Monitoring Mast, application on the public noticeboard opposite HSBC.

[Graham]

We should be very concerned about this, particularly the comment that Lamma residents might welcome it - it's the sort of hippieist bollocks we've all had to get used to.

Most governments with the money and resources to set up windfarms long ago realized that their failure to provide a viable green energy source was one of the great turn-of-the-century environmental diappointments - look at the experience of Denmark if you want an example. When the wind doesn't blow, the power station required as back-up will have to find extra capacity to keep them idling, and when it does, you can bet no one has done any research into how a farm will affect off-shore winds and what impact that will have on the island.

For crying out loud let's skip this environmental cul-de-sac and go solar. It has problems too, but at least it won't telly-tubbie the horizon.

[Lamma-Gung]

"Teletubby the Horizon" sounds like a great headline!

Something like this?


I look forward personally to this windfarm, it'll look pretty good from Lamma, IMHO, especially from all the beaches and all along the Family Trail, It'll surely become one more local tourist attraction, attracting even more weekend visitors clogging up Main Street and the Family Trail. Yippee!

That sea area is now full with fishermen's trawlers. They're the only group so far who's seriously unhappy about these windfarm plans. Going on a little fast hike to Sok Kwu Wan today to shoot some current pictures from the same angles as the HK Electric Artist Impressions above.

There was an informative story in RECHARGE NEWS, especially the part about comparing it to CLP's double-size, $7 billion windfarm plans which already got their EIA approved some time back:
http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/wind/article205971.ece

Has anybody looked at the EIA study yet? The feedback period will only last till March 9.

[foreign body]

well, after reading more carefully, i discovered that it will generate only 1.6% of HKE output, less than the 2% figure quoted by the SCMP.

This, combined with a population decline in the future, makes the construction of this wind farm pretty questionable.
As i said, there are alternatives that make more sense from an environmental perspective.

[草民]

Hello there,

As a resident who lives near the beaches I'll be very concerned about 1) noise during the construction (they've been doing some kind of work at Tai Wan To beach and for days I could hear frequent shouting of orders from a loudspeaker, it was very annoying. I know the windfarm is quite a ways away but still, noise would be my concern); 2) possible pollution of our beaches? Would the sand and whatever that get stirred up during the construction floats our way and make our beaches poor in the next years?

And, a friend of mine is a researcher of offshore windfarm in Europe. Here's what she says, for your information,

"That is great news ! Offshore windfarms generally have to comply to a lot of legislation- such as not placing them in proximity of migratory lines or habitats of cetarians. and it is not in any windpower company's interest to impact fauna and flaure - such news would very rapidly destroy their business. So far, those built are associated more with positive effects such as artificial reefs and sanctuaries for many species as trawler boats and longliners generally cannot enter in their waters.

As for their cost-effectiveness: there is increasing evidence that they are as cheap or even cheaper than nuclear power if you take into account the price of "démantèlement in french" the removing of the power plant. and that is without taking into the external costs of nuclear waste disposal. But that you can read much more about in various documents. Here you go:

DEA. (2006). Offshore windfarms and the environment. Danish experiences from Horns Rev and Nysted. Danish Energy Authority, 1-41.
http://www.bluewaterwind.com/pdfs/havvindm_korr_16nov_UK.pdf

http://193.88.185.141/Graphics/Publikationer/Havvindmoeller/Offshore_wind_farms_nov06/html/chapter01.htm
table of contents

You can get a lot of information from the european windpower association as well:
http://www.ewea.org/

and a special document on offshore:
http://www.ewea.org/fileadmin/ewea_documents/documents/publications/reports/Offshore_Report_2009.pdf

why offshore rather than onshore:
http://www.vestas.com/en/wind-power-solutions/offshore/why-offshore.aspx"

[gargoyle]

There was an interesting article about the planned wind farms in Sunday's SCMP.

Anybody got access to the online version?