Energy is fresh on the mind for Hong Kong Sustainability
Power of the sun transforming Hong Kong sustainability
Renewable energy and Hong Kong Sustainability
A new requirement is changing the aesthetics of the region’s built environment: the drive for renewable energy and for Hong Kong Sustainability.
Since Hong Kong was established, its architects have designed structures to please the eye and fulfil a function, from slender skyscrapers that maximise limited land area to shady colonnades in older buildings.
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Javier Perea, Principal of architecture firm 10 Design, says, “Incorporating renewable energy impacts the way we design a building, right from the beginning. It changes the way we approach facades, colour, reflectivity and shape.
Adopting renewable energy
Beauty and energy go together.”
According to Tony Lam, decarbonisation lead at engineering firm Erbas, there are several drivers for adopting renewable energy in buildings.
Photo HKUST, Hong Kong Sustainability
A major one is the government incentive for renewable energy, such as photovoltaic installations (commonly known as solar panels) and wind power systems.
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Hong Kong introduced a feed-in tariff scheme in May 2018, wherein buildings that produce renewable energy with a total generation capacity of up to one megawatt can sell the resulting electricity back to the grid.
Hong Kong feed-in tariff
The scheme is growing in popularity: since its commencement, 19,100 applications have been completed and successfully connected to the grid by power company CLP.
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Marcus Leung-Shea, Acting Director of Sustainability at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology points out, “The Hong Kong government’s feed-in tariff program is one of the most generous in the world; to not examine that would leave a lot of money on the table.”
Integral part of decarbonisation
For commercial projects such as office or retail spaces, the tenant may require higher sustainability performance from the building core in the form of a Green Star or LEED certification rating.
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Individual property developers also set goals for renewable energy generation.
Renewable clean-energy sources
The trend is even more evident in the context of the development of the Greater Bay Area. Dan Narita, Associate Director of architecture firm 10 Design, says, “We are seeing the impact of China’s five-year decarbonisation objectives, heavily driven by the government.
Patrick Ho, Head of Sustainable Development at Swire Properties, says, “Renewable energy is an integral part of our decarbonisation efforts across our portfolios. Our goal is to generate four to six per cent of our building energy from renewable or clean-energy sources at selected new office developments by 2025.”
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Also, technologies are becoming increasingly affordable.” International incentives play a role, with many renewable energy farms in China being funded by the European Union.
The increasing interest in renewable energy means that architects are designing with new principles in mind. Leung-Shea says that at HKUST, the first phase of installing solar panels was to cover all existing buildings.
Green energy solution
However, he points out, “If you’re doing it afterwards, it’s already too late. So, for Phase Two, we have done architects’ rendering and concepts for aesthetically pleasing canopies and how to use photovoltaics to do placemaking, turning a relatively under-utilised space into a green energy solution and community area.”
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Melody Wong, a Senior Sustainability Consultant at engineering firm Arup, highlights the importance of early planning.
“To incorporate the renewable energy installation into projects, it is crucial that we coordinate closely with the various design and engineering disciplines during the early design phase. This collaborative approach is essential to striking the right balance between the aesthetic, structural, electrical and mechanical aspects of the building.”
Practical considerations also affect design. According to Lizette McNeill, Managing Partner for Facades at IXO decarbonisation engineers, incorporating electrical components into facades is more complicated.
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Fire protection, electrical and mechanical systems, and wiring must be considered. “You need more access to discreet areas of the facade when dealing with wiring and circuitry. For ongoing maintenance, you need hinged access panels.”
There is reason for optimism. Today, photovoltaic cladding can be used on facade systems, offering greater choice to architects and designers.
Planning for Hong Kong sustainability
These include an attractive finish as well as different colours and finishings – matte or polished – and can, therefore, be used to fit the building facade design.
Even windows are being reconsidered: a new photovoltaic glass material looks like ordinary glass but can generate electricity.
Several of Hong Kong’s most prominent buildings now utilise renewable energy’s aesthetic and practical potential.
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Airside in Kai Tak boasts Hong Kong’s first and largest office-building monocrystalline photovoltaic farm.
incorporates solar panels into an attractive pedestrian walkway. Photo Nan Fung Group.
Hong Kong Sustainability
It also has a walkable photovoltaic array of approximately 1,350 square metres, where the solar panels are incorporated into an attractive pedestrian walkway.
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Tony Lam, who was involved in the project, commented, “People can walk over the PV module, so we provide more protection against weather.”
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Arup estimates that the power generated at Airside is equivalent to the monthly average electricity consumption of 700 residential flats.
The CIC Zero Carbon Building in Kowloon Bay lives up to its name with photovoltaic panels that supply around fifty-seven per cent of the facility’s total energy demand.
Monocrystalline photovoltaic farm
According to Tony Ip Green Architects, these include a colourful Air Improvement Photovoltaic (AIPV) canopy built outside the eco-cafe, a first in Hong Kong and only the second such installation in Asia. AIPVs are specialised panels that generate solar power, provide solar shading and purify the air.
Swire Properties’ projects also marry renewable energy with the aesthetics of a green roof.
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The two newest triple Grade-A office towers at Taikoo Place include a dual-level green roof fitted with an integrated solar photovoltaics system and a waste-to-energy biodiesel tri-generation system – the first commercial application in Hong Kong to supply heating, cooling and electricity.
Two Taikoo Place is also equipped with a wind turbine, and the building’s expected overall renewable energy generation should approximately be equivalent to six per cent of the landlord’s overall energy usage.
alongside solar PV panels and a biodiesel waste-to-energy tri-generation system. Photo Swire Properties, Hong Kong Sustainability
Photovoltaics make it possible to experiment with colour in a new way. At HKUST, Leung-Shea says of the solar panels on the latest staff housing renovations, “They will have a gradient colour change across in the front, and you’re definitely going to know that’s not a normal building.
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We don’t want it to look like we just slapped black panels on the front. It was designed by one of our professors, who is an architect.”
This trend applies not only to new buildings. At the historic Hong Kong Repertory Theatre Education Hub, Tony Ip Architects incorporated an AIPV skylight, enhancing the influx of natural daylight into the space, reducing the need for artificial lighting and promoting energy efficiency.
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Canopies are another area ripe for further exploration.
At a Melbourne project McNeill is involved in, the building services room is covered with a photovoltaic canopy system, hiding the unattractive equipment and showcasing the canopy in an integrated, aesthetic arrangement.
Looking beyond Hong Kong’s borders, massive Greater Bay Area projects show the vast potential of incorporating renewables in experimental designs.
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One prominent example is Huafa Snow World in Shenzhen, whose winning design was created by international architecture firm 10 Design.
Snow World is anchored by an 80,000-square-metre indoor ski resort, the largest in the world, with a 450-metre-long indoor ski slope.
Sixteen thousand five hundred photovoltaic panels on the ski slope’s 42,000-square-metre roof power the entire building and surrounding complex, with ten per cent remaining to sell back into the grid in Shenzhen.
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Javier Perea says, “An indoor ski slope would be considered literally the most unsustainable project. But we shaped the roof to make sure the photovoltaic production is as optimal as possible.
Snow World is a double-skinned facade with a rainscreen system. The way we shaped the roof, people would think it’s an architect’s idea to make it look good. But it’s functional, too.”
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While renewable energy has enormous potential, leveraging it is not always straightforward. Tony Lam points out, “In Hong Kong, there are a lot of high-density high rises, where the roof space is relatively limited compared to the total floor area.
In a thirty-storey building, rooftop photovoltaics can supply around one per cent of the total energy use of a commercial building.
In Melbourne, I worked on a campus building where the roof photovoltaics can supply about ten to fifteen per cent of the building’s energy needs.”
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Additionally, in Hong Kong, there is significant shading from surrounding buildings, so vertical photovoltaic installations face challenges. Additionally, high density makes reflection a key concern: if panels are not installed correctly, residents will experience unpleasant glare at certain hours of the day and times of the year.
Meanwhile, renewable energy from other sources, such as wind, poses its own challenges. Wind turbines on buildings can make the building move, which residents will not tolerate.
Meanwhile, as Tony Lam points out, “If the wind is too low or unstable, it will not generate electricity. But if the wind speed is too high, like in a typhoon, it cannot generate anything.
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So the period of time the wind can generate electricity in Hong Kong is very limited.” These challenges can be overcome.
For a wind installation at the Mount Pavilia project in Clearwater Bay, Lam designed a plinth that avoided vibration for wind generation, which was undamaged during a recent typhoon.
Financing can also be a challenge. HKUST addressed the issue by inviting contractors to pay for the installations and then share the feed-in tariff revenue. In this way, the university did not have to front the capital while still benefiting from the full reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
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However, for its planned walkway, the university aims to use lightweight, flexible panels with a lower yield, meaning that a good return on investment will be more difficult to achieve.
Visible and invisible elements of Hong Kong sustainability
Renewable energy installations are not the only sustainability consideration affecting building design.
Marion Baeli, Principal of 10 Design’s Sustainability Transformation, says, “There are the visible and invisible elements of sustainability in a building. In the twentieth century, we forgot how to respond to the environment. But we’re moving into a post-oil world now.”
Shea-Leung asks, “What would we want people to do next? Now we’re exploring wonky and weird ways to get renewables on campus.”
At the HKUST Smart Campus Living Lab, a groundbreaking micro algae carbon capture project uses half a dozen tall, thin tanks – two metres high and just thirty centimetres deep – which may be used to provide shading or add a colourful green element to structures.
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As solar panel technology evolves, panels are becoming more and more visually appealing. New technologies, such as artificial suns, graphene, or deep-sea water cooling, will come, but these are not yet mainstream.
Hong Kong sustainability minded elements incorporated into buildings
McNeill predicts that Hong Kong will see more energy-focused elements incorporated into refurbished buildings, such as those in Wan Chai, which are currently twenty to forty years old and ripe for redevelopment.
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This may include sunshades to target the urban heat island effect, more greening, natural solutions to create the sponge impact for flood prevention, and water catchment on facades.
Today’s buildings have already come a long way from the coal-fired past. As technologies evolve, energy is moving from an unattractive necessity to an opportunity to create monuments of the future.
Text Geneviève Hilton, Photos as credited
