Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department issued a renewed license for the Black Point Power Station at the end of December 2007.
"The renewed licence under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance will come into effect tomorrow (January 1) and remain valid until the end of 2009," said an EPD spokesman in an issued press release. "Having regard to the need to keep the emissions to the minimum and the current level of natural gas supply, the emission caps of the Black Point Power Station will be maintained at the current levels. As natural gas for power generation emits significantly less air pollutants than coal-fired units, it is the Government's policy to encourage the use of natural gas in place of coal to reduce emissions. For this purpose, we have provided in the licensing conditions for an increase in the use of natural gas at the Black Point Power Station whenever this is become feasible."
The spokesman also said when there is an increase in electricity generation due to increase in the use of natural gas at the Black Point Power Station, the increase in emissions at the station has to be offset by a corresponding reduction at the Castle Peak Power Station by a ratio ranged between 5.6 to 58 times, depending on the particular different pollutants.
Hong Kong has also tightened the emissions cap for the Castle Peak Power Station in early 2007, effectively bringing down the emission of air pollutants from the power plants. To improve air quality, Hong Kong reached a consensus with the Guangdong Provincial Government in April 2002, to reduce, on a best endeavor basis, the emission of four major air pollutants — sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds — by 40%, 20%, 55% and 55% respectively in the region by 2010, using 1997 as the base year.
To achieve the reduction targets, Hong Kong says it has implemented a series of measures to improve air quality, including the tightening of fuel and vehicle emission standards, requiring the retrofitting of emission control device to trap the particulate emission from diesel vehicles, strengthening vehicle emission inspections and enforcement against smoky vehicles, incentivizing early replacement of old diesel commercial vehicles with vehicles that comply with Euro IV standard, encouraging the use of environment-friendly vehicles through tax concession, limiting the emissions of volatile organic compounds from paints, printing inks and consumer products, requiring the installation of vapour recovery systems in petrol filling station and tightening the emission control on power stations.
