Hong kong offshore wind farm

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The Hong Kong Offshore Wind Farm is a 201MW wind farm under development in Hong Kong by Wind Prospect and CLP. A full scale feasibility study on the proposed offshore wind study at a site in Hong Kong's South Eastern Waters identified by an earlier pre-feasibility exercise began in 2005. The target date for completion of this feasibility study is 2008.

Location

Selection of the site is one of the most important factors in the development of the wind farm project - both to ensure its success as a platform for generating clean electricity and to strike a balance between economic, technical and environmental consideration.

This development took into account key planning, social, technical, physical and environmental criteria which could have an impact on the siting of the wind farm. These included:

 Physical Location: Mean wind speed, water depth, seabed characteristics, sub-surface geology, coastal processes, seascape and landscape assessment.  
 Biological Environment: Protected areas, habitat type and character, marine park and marine life (benthos, fish, bird, mammals, etc.).  
 Human Environment: Electrical infrastructure, economic development opportunities, tourism / leisure, archaeology, navigation (shipping lanes, fairways, anchorage areas), fisheries, dumping grounds, port facilities, civil and military aviation industry, radar facilities.  
 Performance: Turbine spacing, array alignment, turbine selection and infrastructure optimization.

South Eastern Waters

Through detailed study of different constraints, Hong Kong's South Eastern Waters were chosen as the most suitable site. Not only does this area avoid most potentially sensitive issues, but based on data from the Hong Kong Observatory, it is anticipated to be among the best wind resource offshore sites in Hong Kong. Wind resource is very important as the amount of clean electricity produced by the proposed wind study will depend on its wind resource characteristics, such as wind speed, wind variation and wind direction.