Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- CLP Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong’s biggest electricity supplier, said about 10 percent of its generation now comes from cleaner forms of energy, including nuclear power.

The utility, which also runs power plants in mainland China, Australia, India, Vietnam and Taiwan, wants 20 percent of its capacity to be generated without the use of fossil fuels by 2020, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Brandler said in an interview on Bloomberg TV today.

“We know that we are going to have to operate in a de- carbonized environment in the coming years, whatever happens at Copenhagen later this year,” he said, referring to the United Nations conference on climate change to be held in December.

CLP won government approval in August to build what may be Asia’s biggest offshore wind farm off eastern Hong Kong. The project may cost HK$7 billion ($903 million) and produce 1 percent of the territory’s electricity, the company said.

CLP set a target two years ago of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by about 75 percent by 2050. One percent of the company’s electricity was produced by non-carbon emitting power plants three years ago.

Brandler confirmed CLP is looking at investments in solar power and geothermal technology in India, Thailand and Australia.

“We are looking at other technologies,” he said. “Solar is an emerging technology, but its costs are too high. It’s a technology for the future,” he said.

The utility’s shares have fallen 1 percent in Hong Kong trading this year compared with a 53 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng index, in line with other listed electricity producers such as Hongkong Electric Holdings Ltd.

Revenue in the first nine months fell 12 percent because of government curbs in Hong Kong on the company’s return on investment.

Under a government agreement introduced in October last year that links the profit of power companies in Hong Kong to efforts to cut pollution, the rate of return on fixed-asset spending by CLP was reduced to 9.99 percent from 13.5 percent to 15 percent.

The utility is expanding overseas to counter slowing growth in Hong Kong, where it got about 56 percent of its revenue last year, according to the company’s annual report.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Duce in Hong Kong at jduce1@bloomberg.net; Bernard Lo in Hong Kong at blo2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 9, 2009 00:13 EST