Do you know that Hong Kong‘s electricity consumption per capita is
higher than that of China?
Not just a bit higher, but almost double the usage!
That is pretty shocking (no pun intended) when you consider the
difference in their land sizes and population sizes.
Even though Hong Kong is a modern metropolitan city, such a high
consumption rate still seems a bit off the chart. The government explains that
is because Hong Kong has many trade and industrial activities. Lots of buildings
in Hong Kong require lightings and conditioning 24/7. Not to mention
infrastructures like water supply, drainage and railway also need to consume a
really high amount of energy… Alright, that figure makes sense now.
But how do we deal with the energy usage? Over 50% of Hong Kong
electricity comes from burning coal, and this, while cheap, is obviously not a
good thing because of the pollution it causes and it not being renewable. That
is why we try to seek other energy sources, especially renewable energy like
solar, wind and even energy from waste.
The question is: are these alternatives plausible?
Utilizing solar energy requires building lots of solar panels, while
wind energy requires turbines, and both of these require land, which is what
Hong Kong severely lacks. And some critics also argue that it is difficult to
cut the reliance on coal seeing how our economic trend goes.
If only we had some kind of perpetual
motion machines…
…Yeah,
yeah, it won’t work. Laws of
thermodynamics, right? *sigh*
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