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The View
OpinionComment
Colleen K. Howe
Colleen K. Howe

Carbon neutral by 2050: how Hong Kong could be a leader in green hydrogen

  • Given hydrogen’s versatility and energy density, the economic case for its deployment is becoming more convincing
  • Stakeholders in Asia need to work together across sectors and borders to build a hydrogen ecosystem

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CLP Holdings’ Castle Peak Power Station towers over Lung Kwu Tan, a beach in Tuen Mun. As Hong Kong goes carbon neutral, CLP is looking to deploy hydrogen in its power plants. Photo: Fung Chang
Colleen K. Howe
Hong Kong announced late last year that it would join the growing ranks of the cities, countries and companies aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050. With power generation contributing to almost two-thirds of the city’s carbon emissions, all eyes are on the electricity sector.
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But Hong Kong has little space for renewable energy, and while natural gas releases around half as much carbon emissions as coal when burned, it is still far from zero. Last month, local electricity generator CLP Holdings floated a possible solution: replacing natural gas with hydrogen in its power plants.

That could potentially make Hong Kong an early deployer of hydrogen, with CLP’s power plants gradually upgraded to 100 per cent hydrogen-fired electricity generation by around 2030.

The time is ripe. After a few false starts, the business world is now more optimistic about hydrogen. The fuel has the potential to cut emissions in hard-to-decarbonise sectors like transport, chemicals, heating and power storage – a growing imperative as investors increasingly scrutinise companies’ ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance.

Given hydrogen’s versatility and energy density, the economic case is becoming more convincing, too. South Korea’s SK Group gave a US$1.5 billion vote of confidence this year through its investment in US fuel cell company Plug Power, one of the world’s biggest hydrogen investments to date.

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