Fintech RE in Hong Kong: Opportunities and Challenges for Green Finance and Decentralised Energy by Laurence Delina | Thought Leadership Briefs | Publications | HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies

Fintech RE in Hong Kong: Opportunities and Challenges for Green Finance and Decentralised Energy

HKUST IEMS Thought Leadership Brief No. 83

Laurence L. Delina

Financial instruments must be designed to attract investors and support renewable energy (RE) systems to sustain micro-scale distributed systems. Fintech RE presents an opportunity to bridge actors in the energy transition, finance, and digital industries, but challenges exist, particularly related to blockchain’s contribution to emissions. Fintech RE offers an opportunity to integrate RE generation units and storage in a small-scale distributed system, using peer-to-peer energy trading platforms in the digital environment. Challenges for Fintech RE in Hong Kong include its small market size, the existing monopoly situation in the electricity sector, and policymakers’ conservative mentality. Using interconnecting markets to boost Hong Kong’s Fintech RE in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area could accelerate the regional energy transition and create new opportunities for start-ups, jobs, and large-scale decarbonisation impacts.