As Hong Kong aims to become carbon neutral by 2050, the city’s two power utilities – CLP Power and HK Electric – are adapting, changing and overhauling operations to meet the goal.
By installing desulphurisation and denitrification equipment at its coal power plants, using cleaner-burning coal and introducing natural gas into its fuel supply, CLP has cut emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and respiratory particulates by over 90 per cent since 1990. These pollutants are major contributors to acid rain and lung diseases.
In Hong Kong, the coal-to-gas fuel transition and the introduction of zero-carbon nuclear power through imports from mainland China has gone well in the past 25 years. However, the deployment of renewable energy is yet to take off owing to limited domestic resources and high costs. Still, the transition has resulted in a 22 per cent decline in greenhouse-gas emissions from electricity generation per unit of electricity delivered between 1997 and 2020, according to the Environmental Protection Department (EPD).
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment installation at natural gas power plants and the burning of zero-emission hydrogen are being piloted internationally. CLP is working with equipment supplier GE to prepare its gas power plants for the introduction of hydrogen as a supplementary, and eventually, alternative, fuel source.
Peer HK Electric plans to phase out coal-fired generation by the early 2030s, which will allow the company to cut its absolute carbon emissions by more than half by 2035 from the level in 2005.
The company, which used only coal until 1997, now uses coal and natural gas equally in its fuel mix. It has planned a large offshore wind farm that could account for 4 per cent of its total output by 2027 when it is commissioned, and is also studying the use of green hydrogen to abate its carbon emission.
/Passle/60211dc9e5416a0c14bc63d4/SearchServiceImages/2026-06-17-14-50-34-363-6a32b43a4a5ad1a81065995f.jpg)
/Passle/60211dc9e5416a0c14bc63d4/SearchServiceImages/2026-06-17-13-06-06-531-6a329bbe4a5ad1a810653a68.jpg)
