The Standard just posted this Govt. notice today, re: upcoming seabed investigation works. It's basically drilling small holes into the seabed in each of the locations of the 35 planned windturbines, 3.5 km off southwest Lamma, checking the suitability of the locations for these large windturbines with about 3 times the capacity of Lamma Winds. See maps above.

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Government press release issued today:

The Government proposes to allow the Hongkong Electric Company, Limited to carry out offshore ground investigation works involving borehole drilling and soil sampling at the sea-bed of 35 locations situated about 3.5 kilometres southwest of Lamma Island. The works are part of the feasibility study on utilising wind energy for power generation at the proposed offshore wind farm site southwest of Lamma Island.

The proposed works are to investigate the soil conditions of the site to help finalise the suitable foundation design and layout for the development of the proposed offshore wind farm. The area of sea-bed affected at each location is approximately 0.5 square metres and the total area affected is approximately 17.5 square metres.

The proposed works are scheduled to commence in the fourth quarter of 2013 and complete by 2014. The extent of the area affected is stated in a notice published in the Government Gazette today (July 12).

The notice, together with its related plan, is posted on notice boards near the site. The plan can also be seen and purchased on order at the Survey and Mapping Office of the Lands Department, 23/F, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong. It can be viewed at the Islands District Office, 20/F, Harbour Building, 38 Pier Road, Central, Hong Kong, and on the Lands Department's website (www.landsd.gov.hk) under Government Notices.

Any person who considers that he or she has an interest, right or easement in or over the foreshore and sea-bed involved may submit a written objection to the Director of Lands, 20/F, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong, by September 12.

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

Thanks, Marc Antony.

Here's the link to more project details, press release from Feb and an artist's impression of how it'll look like from the Family Trail, 3.5 km offshore.

Plus the Wind Farm main website, of course:

http://www.hkelectric.com/OffshoreWindFarm/

Development of an Offshore Wind Farm

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Quite a few people have been wondering why Lamma Winds doesn't seem to be spinning these last few weeks even though the wind conditions seem fine.

I've asked HK Electric and got this reply from the tour guide of our Power Station tour on Aug 7 (still a few places available):

"The wind turbine was not in normal operation intermittently recently due to malfunction of some component parts in the unit.
We have looked into the case and expect to fix the problem by early August."

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SCMP
Lai See
01-10-13
Typhoon Usagi's message for Hong Kong's wind farms

One of the effects of Typhoon Usagi, which received little attention, was its impact on the Honghaiwan wind farm in Shanwei, eastern Guangdong, about 130 kilometres northeast of Hong Kong. The onshore wind farm comprises 25 imported Vestas V47 600KW turbines. The website Windpower Intelligence reports that eight of the turbines were blown down by the typhoon, while the blades of another eight turbines were blown off, and the blades of the remaining turbines are being examined to see if they can operate normally.

Our picture is from CCTV2's website, which reported that 70 per cent of the wind farm had been knocked out. Windpower Intelligence reports that one of the managers says the typhoon has led to 100 million yuan in losses for the wind farm. This is the second time the wind farm has suffered typhoon damage. The farm was hit in 2003 with damage to 13 out of 25 turbines, causing losses of 10 million yuan.

The recent damage may have caused some unease within the government and possibly within Hongkong Electric and CLP, the two companies planning wind farms in Hong Kong waters. CLP, Hong Kong's largest power company, plans to build what will be one of the biggest offshore wind farms in the world off Sai Kung - generating 200 megawatts a year - at a cost of almost HK$7 billion. Hongkong Electric is to build a HK$3 billion wind farm between Lamma Island and Cheung Chau that would generate 100MW of power - enough for 50,000 households.

Since Shanwei is fairly close to Hong Kong, it is frequently used as a reference for winds in Hong Kong. "This is another indication of how ill-advised these Hong Kong wind projects are," Ng Young, the chairman of Hong Kong's Association for Geoconservation, told Lai See.

The companies are still involved in testing work, and construction has yet to begin. At best the two wind farms might produce about 1.5 per cent of Hong Kong's total electricity production, and reduce its output of carbon dioxide by about 2 per cent. This miniscule contribution comes at a cost of HK$10 billion. Regardless of how useless these wind farms are, the government can point to them as its contribution to reducing Hong Kong's carbon footprint and take its place in the world's effort to limit the production of carbon dioxide, and thereby global warming, or so they would have us believe. As for the power companies, the farms are a wonderful opportunity for them to increase their net assets at a time when returns from the scheme of control, which governs them, have been reduced from 13.5 per cent to 15 per cent under the previous scheme, which ended in 2009, to 9.99 per cent under the current scheme. But they will get 11 per cent on their wind farm assets since they are a form of renewable energy. Meanwhile, the public picks up the bill in the form of higher electricity prices. Higher fuel costs are inevitable, but better to spend this on efficient clean energy like gas.

Ng says the wind farms are unsightly and kill birds, and are an unreliable source of energy. He makes the point that the Shanwei wind farm operates at an average of 17 per cent to 18 per cent efficiency: "The government is silly to support this project - building this white elephant just for the sake of appearing to do something green, when in fact it is damaging the environment, and costing the community a lot of money in terms of higher fuel bills and higher costs to business. The only beneficiaries are the power companies."