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Hong Kong utility CLP banks on Australian hydrogen sourcing experience to power decarbonisation in city

  • Company is closely monitoring the hydrogen sector’s development both in China and overseas, chief operating officer tells Post
  • EnergyAustralia, a unit of CLP’s, struck a deal with New South Wales on May 4 to build the 300 megawatts hydrogen and natural gas-fired Tallawarra B plant

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EA’s Tallawarra power station in Wollongong, New South Wales. Photo: Handout
Eric Ng
Hong Kong utility CLP Holdings is building Australia’s first net zero carbon emissions power plant partly fuelled by hydrogen.
CLP will participate in various trials, which will help it gain knowledge and experience in hydrogen sourcing. The company, the larger of Hong Kong’s two power utilities, is preparing to eventually phase out fossil fuels to help the city reach its net zero emissions goal by 2050.

“New gas-fired generation being developed by CLP [in Hong Kong] will be technically capable of transitioning to the use of green hydrogen in the future, when supply is commercially available in significant volumes on an everyday basis,” David Smales, CLP’s chief operating officer, told the Post. “We are monitoring the hydrogen sector’s development both in China and overseas closely, and will evaluate the opportunity to use green hydrogen as a zero carbon fuel to support future generation in Hong Kong,” he added. Fossil fuel use at power plants accounts for about 70 per cent of the city’s carbon emissions currently.

The Hong Kong government set a target in November last year to become carbon-neutral by 2050. And while both the city’s utilities, CLP and HK Electric, have made significant progress on decarbonisation by replacing coal with natural gas as fuel, natural gas is just half as carbon intensive as coal. This means natural gas can only be a transition fuel. Both companies will eventually have to adopt zero-carbon fuels, such as hydrogen, for their power plants, besides developing renewable energy and nuclear energy projects.

Hydrogen can be mixed with natural gas in CLP’s existing power plants. Eventually, when hydrogen becomes the dominant fuel source, these facilities will need some retrofitting.

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