Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to CLP's 2021 annual results briefing from Hong Kong. The briefing will be delivered today by CLP Holdings CEO, Mr. Richard Lancaster, and CFO, Mr. Nicolas Tissot. My name is Angus Guthrie. I am Director of Investor Relations at CLP, and I will be your host for today. We lodged our 2021 annual results announcement with the Hong Kong Exchange around midday today and have subsequently posted it on our website, along with a copy of the analyst presentation we will use here. The disclaimer is at the front of the pack, and I urge you to read it. I would also like to mention that this event is being recorded and will be posted on our website as an archive later today. We will follow our usual practice and firstly hear from Richard and Nicolas as they deliver the presentation materials.
This will be followed by a Q&A session. In light of the current health concerns, we have adopted a different practice today, and we are conducting this session by Zoom. All participants will have the opportunity to ask questions, and you may either register a written question through the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen or queue for a live question via the Raise Your Hand icon. Preference for live questions will be given to the research analysts covering CLP. We will endeavor to cover most questions during the session and will reply afterwards to any that we have not addressed in the meeting. With that format explained, may I now hand over to Richard to commence the presentation. Please go ahead, Richard.
Thanks, Angus, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our presentation of the 2021 annual results. 2021 has been a year of effort, commitment, and progress at CLP in one of the most challenging times we've experienced. The energy crisis in Europe, power crunch in China, volatile commodity prices, the lingering pandemic, and the accelerating energy transition have emphasized the need for resilience, planning, and action. We've tackled this transition on several fronts. In September, we published our updated Climate Vision 2050 with a new commitment to achieving net zero emissions across our business by 2050. With these guiding principles, we've progressed important energy projects which either directly reduce emissions or will facilitate the development of lower emissions energy systems. All of our businesses have responded to the challenge with resilience and determination.
Our core business in Hong Kong ended the year in a position of strength with solid growth of 5% in earnings and future opportunities for expansion. However, market exposures in Australia and our coal-fired projects in Mainland China have impacted our financial performance. Despite this, the ability to maintain the integrity of our operations and our strong financial position gives us confidence in maintaining consistent and dependable dividend payments in line with 2020. We remain optimistic about the region's economic outlook, the strength of our position in our home market of Hong Kong, and our long-term commitment to Mainland China. Together with a clear line of sight provided by Climate Vision 2050 and our blueprint to become a utility of the future, we're confident of the path ahead. Safety is always our first priority.
In 2021, we reported a reduction in our injury rates compared with 2020, and we'll continue with efforts in this area. Our focus on operational excellence continues to provide a highly reliable power supply to the residents of Hong Kong. We continue to see growth in our customer accounts in Hong Kong, while intense competition in Australia saw a slight reduction in our accounts there. Operationally, output from our generators was 6% higher than last year, mainly from Hong Kong and the Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station. We continue to increase our generation capacity, while the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of our operations was stable compared with 2020. Financially, solid performance and growth in Hong Kong was more than offset by lower earnings from EnergyAustralia and Mainland China.
This resulted in a reduction in operating earnings of 18% to HKD 9.5 billion, or HKD 3.77 per share. The board has kept the fourth interim dividend constant at HKD 1.21 per share, and this brings the total dividend for 2021 to HKD 3.10 per share, the same as 2020. Based on the year-end closing share price, this provides the yield to investors of around 4%. I'll now hand over to Nicolas to take you through the financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Richard, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. During 2021, revenue increased to nearly HKD 84 billion, while recurring EBITDA decreased modestly by 3.5% to around HKD 24.5 billion. However, higher depreciation and amortization in Hong Kong and EnergyAustralia resulted in a 10% decrease in ACOI or EBIT before fair value adjustments. Our core Hong Kong earnings base was solid while volatility weighed on Australia and China, as I will further detail later in this presentation. Capital investment across the group was over HKD 14 billion, mainly driven by the decarbonization investments across the portfolio in Hong Kong, Australia, Mainland China, and India. I will discuss our operating and total earnings on the next slide. At the operating earnings level, we see a robust contribution from Hong Kong and from our nuclear assets in Mainland China.
This is outweighed by severe decreases in the contribution from thermal assets in other regions, driven by higher coal costs in Mainland China and Taiwan and low wholesale prices in Australia. It is worth noting that around HKD 640 million after tax, or roughly 1/3 of the decline for EnergyAustralia, relates to non-cash changes in the fair value of energy hedging contracts. As a result, group operating earnings went down by almost 18%. Total earnings for the year reduced to HKD 8.5 billion after items affecting comparability, including mainly in Australia, the settlement of the Iona litigation and expenses for the river diversion solution at the Yallourn coal mine, and in India, an impairment provision for Jhajjar. In total, items affecting comparability resulted in a net charge of over HKD 1 billion for 2021, with total earnings down 26%.
I will now turn to our business performance at the ACOI level. At the ACOI level, we benefited from positive foreign exchange movements during 2021, mostly related to the appreciation of the Australian dollar and the Chinese renminbi. Excluding these forex benefits, ACOI was down 11.6%. All further variances I will mention in this presentation will be excluding forex. As illustrated in this chart, the performance in Hong Kong was strong. Earnings from EnergyAustralia were significantly lower, and high coal prices impacted Mainland China and Taiwan. India was stable. You will also notice a positive variance in other earnings, largely driven by the net fair value gain on our innovation investments. Over the years, we have built a portfolio of strategic investments to access and deploy the latest energy technologies from around the globe into our business.
This year, they bring a net gain of over HKD 160 million in other earnings. I will now take you through the performance and outlook of each of the business units in turn. In Hong Kong, the business continues to be robust. ACOI was up by 4.7% to HKD 12.4 billion, reflecting progress in major projects despite the impact of COVID-19. Electricity sales were up in all customer segments and increased by 4.1%, driven by improved economic activity and record temperatures in March, May and September. Capital expenditure was HKD 11.2 billion, 26% higher than 2020, as we continue to focus on investments aimed at delivering a safe, reliable, smarter and greener power system.
We made good progress on our major decarbonization projects as construction continued on our second new gas combined cycle unit and the offshore LNG terminal. During 2021, additional projects were approved by the Hong Kong government to meet evolving electricity demand requirements. This has added over HKD 3 billion to the current development plan CapEx and will require an average of over HKD 12 billion to be spent in each of the remaining two years of the plan. We are already working on requirements for the next development plan for 2024 - 2028, which will continue to focus on growth projects, infrastructure, and our decarbonization pathway. A steep rise in international fuel prices and the increased use of gas has driven up fuel costs, leading to an increase in electricity tariffs for 2022, despite our long-term diversified supply base.
We expect to see continuing pressure on tariffs from volatile international fuel prices and supply chain disruptions going forward. In Mainland China, our nuclear assets delivered strong financial performance. However, with coal-based assets losing money, we recorded ACOI of HKD 2.2 billion at 23% reduction. Nuclear assets earnings increased double digits driven by Yangjiang record generation, while output from Daya Bay was stable. We have seen smooth operations for renewables, while lower water resources and a divestment accounting loss on two wind projects resulted in a modest reduction in contribution. Unfortunately, significantly higher coal prices, especially during the second half, brought our thermal assets to a HKD 575 million loss. As we enter 2022, we have seen coal prices reduce somewhat.
We are confident that the higher tariff allowed for coal-fired projects and the initiation of coal pricing mechanisms will help relieve margin pressure on our thermal assets. The operation of the nuclear portfolio is expected to remain stable. However, more output from Yangjiang will be subject to market sales mechanisms, which may place pressure on margins. With the creation of a national carbon market in July 2021, we conducted a number of trading transactions, and we will continue to actively participate in the market as it grows in the future. In EnergyAustralia, we have seen a severe impact on earnings from higher gas supply costs and lower realized electricity prices. This has resulted in a 79% decline in ACOI. Despite continuing intense competition, our customer business gross margin improved. Higher earnings were also due to lower bad debt and cost efficiencies across our operations.
In the energy business, we forward hedge our generation progressively for up to three years ahead of time. Therefore, as anticipated, we are seeing in our 2021 margins the impact of the decline in forward prices in 2019, 2020, and early 2021. In addition, our generation business has been impacted by the recontracting of long-term gas purchasing agreements at higher prices we announced last year, the loss of generation due to the temporary suspension of mine operations at Yallourn in June and the accelerated depreciation costs resulting from the planned earlier closure of Yallourn announced last March. Looking ahead, in the customer segment, we will continue to focus on service excellence, customer support, and a range of new products and services.
However, in the short to medium term, we expect to see a continuation of intense competition in energy retailing and continuing pressure on retail margins. In the energy segment, wholesale margins are expected to remain tight for some time, with continuing high gas supply costs and low realized wholesale electricity prices. Forward contracts for wholesale electricity prices have started to rise in recent months, providing more confidence in the long-term outlook. Yet this will take time to impact our results due to our progressive forward hedging practice. EnergyAustralia will continue to move ahead with its energy transition projects, including the Tallawarra B net zero emissions power plant, the Wooreen battery, and the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project. The energy transition in Australia will be capital intensive, and we will proactively explore ways to optimize our capital structure, including forming partnerships where appropriate.
In India, Apraava Energy's ACOI was slightly up. This reflected higher wind generation and the contribution from new solar projects, as well as earnings from the recent acquisition of our second transmission asset. At Jhajjar, we achieved record utilization rates, but earnings were impacted by a lower PPA tariff rate and higher O&M costs from a major maintenance scheduled in 2021. Under our new Apraava Energy brand, we plan to accelerate growth in non-carbon opportunities and target to double the scale of the portfolio over the next three to four years with investments in renewable energy and transmission assets. Construction of Sidhpur Wind Farm is ongoing and is expected to go into operation in the second half of this year. Operationally, our assets in Southeast Asia and Taiwan continue to perform reliably. However, financially, ACOI was down by 55% because of the escalation of coal prices at Ho-Ping.
With the usual one-year lagging adjustment formula in our tariff, this will only be compensated by a higher tariff this year. Even so, the ongoing high coal prices will continue to put pressure on margins. We also remind investors that a significant step down in PPA tariffs for our Lopburi Solar Project in Thailand started from December 2021. This will result in lower contribution from Lopburi in the future. Turning to the group's cash flow. In 2021, our recurring EBITDAF remained robust. However, cash conversion to free cash flow was impacted by more significant movements in working capital and non-cash items. These include higher subsidy receivables in China and higher cash margin deposits as a result of increasing forward prices in late 2021 in Australia.
After these movements, our free cash flow is 16% lower than last year, driven by lower contributions from Australia and in line with the contribution in operating earnings. During the year, we invested HKD 10.3 billion to improve networks and reduce carbon emissions in Hong Kong and bringing visibility on our future cash flow generation. Another HKD 2 billion were invested in various projects and acquisitions in Australia, Mainland China, and India, as we also decarbonize the rest of our portfolio. Dividend payments were HKD 7.8 billion, very similar to the prior year. Our financial position remains strong. Our net debt to total capital ratio remain healthy. We have significant undrawn debt facilities, solid cash in hand level, and strong credit ratings. Net debt has increased to HKD 50 billion.
This is mainly due to the significantly higher capital investments, higher working capital and associated requirements, and the one-off payment to settle the Iona litigation in Australia. At 28.1%, our net debt to capital ratio remains in the range of 25%-30% seen in the past five years. During the year, we announced our financing by successfully issuing several loans and bonds at very competitive spreads to support our operations and growth. Our blended average interest rate for 2021 was about half a percentage point lower than 2020. As a result, we are well-placed in the rising interest rates environment with an extended debt maturity profile, a majority of fixed rate debt and diversified sources of funding. We are therefore in a good position to address our commitments to shareholders and bondholders while continuing to have the ability to fund our investment plans.
Turning to our dividend, I'm sure this chart is familiar to most of you, and we are proud to add one more year of dependable dividend to that track record. As previously mentioned by Richard, the board has decided to hold the fourth interim dividend constant at HKD 1.21 per share. This brings the total dividend for 2021 to HKD 3.10, the same as 2020. Over the years, we have maintained consistent and reliable ordinary dividends with steady growth when supported by our earnings, and this year's dividends continue this practice. We are confident in the ability to sustain the dividend based on the integrity of our operations, our solid sustained cash flow generation and financial solidity. I will now hand over to Richard to discuss the strategic outlook of the business.
Thank you, Nicolas. As mentioned in my opening slide, this year we updated our Climate Vision 2050 targets and commitments, and achieving these milestones is the first of the four strategic priorities that drive us forward. The second, and inherently linked with Climate Vision 2050, is the growth and decarbonization of our portfolio. In Hong Kong, we're fully aligned with the government's climate action plan, and in other regions, we're investing in zero carbon, fast response generation, energy storage and network systems to help accelerate the decarbonization of the electricity grid. Third is our increasing participation in the Greater Bay Area. Our Hong Kong business is ideally placed to leverage our expertise and capabilities across retail, generation and smart energy services into this dynamic and growing market. Fourth is our goal to be a world-class digital customer-centric utility of the future.
We're at the forefront of the energy transition, and we will adapt the way that we operate and organize ourselves to ensure that we have the capabilities to deliver on our strategy. In last September, we unveiled our updated Climate Vision 2050 with a commitment to achieving net zero emissions across our business by 2050. We also brought forward the date of the complete phase out of our coal-fired generation assets to 2040, a decade earlier than we had previously pledged. We've set new targets for 2030 and further strengthened our 2040 targets, and these targets align with the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. CLP remains deeply committed to strengthening these targets at least every five years and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The world's biggest challenge, decarbonizing electricity, is also our biggest opportunity.
Around 70% of our earnings already come from non-carbon emitting activities. The more successful we are with decarbonizing our portfolio and deepening innovation in technology, the more opportunities we'll create for our customers and the better place we will be to grow in the future. In pursuit of these objectives, we're progressively decarbonizing business operations across our portfolio. Our large scale gas projects in Hong Kong are a key step in our decarbonization strategy. Looking further ahead, we've signed an agreement with General Electric to develop a roadmap for transitioning gas-fired power generation facilities to hydrogen. We're also planning the development of an offshore wind farm in the southeastern waters of Hong Kong. If appropriate agreements can be reached, it may also be possible to undertake development in adjacent waters, increasing the capacity of the project.
In Mainland China, we completed our first grid parity wind project, the Qian'an III Project in Jilin Province, with an accompanying battery storage facility. We've also committed to two new wind projects, Bobai in Guangxi Province and Xundian II in Yunnan Province. In India, our entry into the transmission sector allows Apraava Energy to access new opportunities in both renewables and electricity transmission across the country. In Australia, we've progressed our investments in several fast response generation and energy storage projects. We're also offering industry and customers a range of sustainable and commercially viable energy solutions that will help decarbonization, such as electric vehicle charging, technology-enabled smart energy solutions, and carbon credits for emissions that can't easily be reduced.
In addition, we're developing strong partnerships to help us on this journey, and this includes working closely with governments so that we can undertake the energy transition in a coordinated, reliable, and cost-effective manner. It will increasingly include working with strong commercial partners to deliver the energy solutions that will be required. The growth opportunities in our core business in Hong Kong and across the Greater Bay Area are significant as the whole region develops and electrifies towards net zero. In Hong Kong, in addition to our low carbon investments, the government has announced a number of large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the Northern Metropolis Development Strategy and the Lantau Tomorrow Vision. CLP will work with the authorities to plan for and deploy the energy infrastructure needed to support these developments, as well as the government's own climate action plan.
As well as pursuing new grid parity renewable energy projects in Mainland China, we'll also explore investment opportunities in two main business models in the Greater Bay Area, which includes Hong Kong. These are energy infrastructure and energy as a service. Energy infrastructure will be a primary focus and includes district cooling projects, multi-building cooling, data centers, and energy supply. Areas that we are exploring for energy as a service include energy solutions for electric vehicle charging, energy management for buildings, rooftop solar, and battery storage. We recognize that entering these competitive markets will involve finding the right partners and investing in the local innovation ecosystem.
By leveraging on our established presence in the region, our reputation for service excellence in Hong Kong, our network of strong partnerships, and the track record that our CLPe Solutions and our Hong Kong and China businesses have built over the years, we believe we're well-placed to capture these opportunities in our regional market. Our journey to become the utility of the future is underpinned by world-class technology, new energy developments, customer-centric solutions, and an agile workforce. We've made substantial progress on investing in developing world-class technologies that empower customers to connect with energy efficiency and enhance their user experience. This has been enabled by our innovation platform, which includes investments to date of over HKD 400 million in our ventures portfolio and has seen a return of HKD 160 million this year.
While sales of digital energy solutions through our Smart Energy Connect business have nearly doubled in 2021. We're harnessing the power of digitalization and technology to change the way that we interact with customers. For instance, using internally developed demand response capabilities, we've been able to reduce energy demand by over 70 MW during one of the most crucial high-demand period summer days in Hong Kong. We continue to provide knowledge and expertise to new energy developments such as smarter grids, firming technologies, and green fuels, which can help customers and industries transition to low or zero emission options. Lastly, the foundation of our transformation journey is building an agile and innovative workforce. In the coming years, we'll put significant resources into strengthening our organizational capability to respond to changing customer needs, to drive breakthrough improvements, and to execute a pipeline of clean energy projects.
Investing in our workforce, their health, safety, and well-being is what will define CLP as a utility of the future. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, and we'll be now open to take your questions.
Thank you, Richard. As Richard's mentioned, we will now be open to commencing the Q&A session. May I remind participants that you may either register a written question through the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen or queue a live question through the Raise Your Hand icon just as indicated in this slide that's been brought up. Preference will be given to live questions from the analysts, as I mentioned before. That's a good place to start. The first question is from an analyst. It comes from Pierre Lau of Citi. I believe your line will be opened, Pierre, so please proceed and ask your question.
Hi. Thank you, Richard, Nick and Angus. Good afternoon. I have two questions about your Australian business. Recently, there's an announcement or comment on Bloomberg talking about that your company plans to dispose of your EnergyAustralia. Do you have any information regarding that plan? The second question is also about your Australian business. In your result announcement, you said that, because of the energy transitions, there will be a significant capital investment in Australia for major infrastructure project. Could you give us any idea regarding how much money are you expected? And in view of the relatively low profitability of the Australian business, would you solely rely on EnergyAustralia funding itself?
Are you going to fund some of these CapEx from your Hong Kong side, I mean, either from headquarters or Hong Kong business? Thank you.
Well, thank you very much for the two questions, Pierre. I'll make a comment on your first question. Interestingly, the two questions are somewhat interrelated, but I'll ask Nicolas to come in and just talk about the size of investments that are gonna be needed in EnergyAustralia. If you have been following what I have said at our webcasts over the past few years, we do see Australia as an important part of our portfolio. We are recognizing that the energy transition is capital intensive, will require quite substantial investments. If you look at across our portfolio, we do see opportunities to invest right across our Hong Kong business, the Greater Bay Area, as well as in India and Australia.
To some extent, to try and meet all these investment requirements on our own is going to stretch us beyond our capabilities. We have said over the years that we would like to find partners to work with, and that would include partnerships in our businesses, such as we've done with CDPQ coming in to join us in our India business. I won't make any comments on any speculation or rumors, but our long-term view has remained consistent. I'll ask Nicolas to perhaps describe the scale of investments that we are considering for EnergyAustralia.
Our focus there, your comment, Pierre, that in investments and some of the legacy investments that we have have not returned on their cost of capital. What we are looking for for the future is investments that will support the energy transition. As EnergyAustralia is a substantial player in the national electricity market, we do see a role for EnergyAustralia providing investments in the fast response capabilities that will allow more renewables to be absorbed into the system. We see those as being significantly more profitable than some of the current investments. Perhaps, Nicolas, you would like to comment just in terms of the scale of investment there.
Sure, Richard. Good afternoon, Pierre. Thank you for your question. I obviously have no comment on rumors either. Talking about the size of investments, I would say my first comment is we have already started the journey of decarbonization in Australia, and we have already started investing in significant projects to deliver a lower carbon emission EnergyAustralia. I have mentioned projects like Tallawarra B, an open cycle with net zero emission over its lifetime, we have started to build. I have mentioned also the Wooreen Battery, which is somehow in relation with our early closure of Yallourn. I have mentioned the Kidston Pumped Storage project.
We are already in a phase of investment that gives you a good idea of the size of our investment. I will not commit on a specific number, but you see that we are talking about projects which represent probably hundreds of millions of Australian dollars individually. We are talking about important projects. Regarding the funding, I want to mention that this is not our plan to fund most of that investment from Hong Kong because we have a lot of headroom to fund the journey starting with choosing asset-light projects, and that's what we are doing, for example, with the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro project, which is a long-term contract, actually, without us investing directly.
We are starting this journey with EnergyAustralia not indebted at all, so we have some headroom in terms of leverage of EnergyAustralia. EnergyAustralia will be able to raise funds at its level. Lastly, as already mentioned and confirmed by Richard in his answer, we have potentially options to partner with other investors or other companies in the sector in order to help fund our participation to energy transition in Australia. Thank you, Pierre.
We do have a question on the line from Evan Li. This is a written question, so I'll read it out. CLP has previously mentioned that decarbonization of the power portfolio could be expensive. In terms of countries, which regions would you put more focus on for future investment? Where is CLP's leverage coming from, given solar and wind are both competitive sectors, as you have mentioned? Thank you for the question, Evan, and Richard, initially to you.
Thank you, Evan. I think it would be helpful just to look at the different nature of our businesses. In Hong Kong, we are the majority electricity supplier. We supply around 75% of Hong Kong's electricity.
In order for Hong Kong to decarbonize, clearly, CLP needs to play a very important part and the achieving net zero as early as possible. Without that, Hong Kong would not be able to meet its climate targets. In Australia, we supply a little over 20% of the national electricity market, and again, we have both a retail and a generation portfolio there. Helping our customers decarbonize means that we have to make sure that we are providing carbon-free electricity in the volumes that will be needed. Now, conversely, our businesses in India and China, we are predominantly in the generation and in India, also in transmission.
Investments there will be helping the broad and national contribution to decarbonization. We don't have the same retail obligations that we do in Hong Kong and in Australia. Making sure that we achieve net zero in Hong Kong and for our business in EnergyAustralia are absolutely vitally important. It's a different challenge for us in China and India, where in China we have already made a significant transition towards nuclear power and renewable energy and will continue to grow our portfolio of wind and solar projects. In India, we have made quite a substantial shift with the closure of our Paguthan gas-fired plant. We're really down to one fossil fuel plant in India and growing our portfolio there.
That really suggests that we should be focusing our efforts and focusing our investment on the core markets where we have that retail obligation in Hong Kong and for EnergyAustralia. When we're looking at growing our renewable energy portfolio outside, if we can contribute to that and we may not need to contribute on our own as is the case in India. We're making a contribution by developing more renewable energy and the transmission systems that brings the renewable power to the load centers. Those are areas where we can contribute to the national effort. Our focus really comes down to Hong Kong, the Greater Bay and EnergyAustralia.
As we've just outlined, achieving that growth and achieving that level of investments may see us stretching beyond our capabilities. Finding partners to work with on this transition will also be quite important.
Okay. We've got another question on the line from Stephen, from JP Morgan. I'll just read that out again. Would you consider to dispose coal-fired assets in Mainland China to accelerate decarbonization? And do we have the capacity and capacity targets for renewable portfolio growth in China or India? Again, Richard, please.
Thank you for the question, Stephen. Yes, in the mainland, we have a collection of legacy coal-fired projects that date back to the 1990s, which are now reaching the end of their life. We are a minority investor. We don't necessarily have operational control of those projects. As they are reaching the end of their life, we are working with our partners there to see how best to see those plants retire and see them go through their roles in the energy transition. We are replacing that capacity as well by building new renewable energy projects, both wind and solar, and also transmission. We don't set specific targets for growth, but we do have an ambition with our India business, for example.
Our goal is to shrink down the size of our investment in Apraava Energy, but double the size of it. We'll be reinvesting the capital that was returned as part of the sale proceeds from 2019. Our ambition would be to grow that business alongside a partner. The focus for that business will be wind projects as we are currently developing new solar projects as well, and also construction of new transmission lines. In Mainland China, we're looking more broadly at our investments. A particular area of focus for us will be in the Greater Bay Area.
We do see opportunities there, beyond construction of renewable energy projects and getting involved and working with customers, with industry and with some of our existing customers in Hong Kong, for example, that have operations throughout the Greater Bay Area, to help them better manage their own carbon footprint. We see a more broader spectrum of opportunities for us in the Greater Bay Area.
Just to supplement a second on that part, I would say that we really try to adapt the way we invest in zero emission assets according to the market. I mean, in a market like Australia, for example, we are happy to contract renewable capacities because we feel we are not necessarily the one with the best work to do the investments directly. We are happy to go for an asset-light strategy. In China now, the landscape has clarified quite a lot because of the introduction of grid parity projects, and we are happy to participate to that as long as we can get the type of hurdle rates we are looking for in the Mainland.
In India, we are also diversifying our investments towards transmission. Again, we have no plan to sort of subsidize our investment in India from Hong Kong. We rely on the balance sheet of Apraava to do that, and they have now a well-established practice of funding projects locally. And we have, as you know, also a well-established partnership. As Richard mentioned, we are also happy to encourage the investments in some of our geographies by partnering. We have a diversity of situations, but I think the common denominator is we want to invest in the energy transition across our portfolio.
Thank you, Nicolas and Richard, both for the detailed answers there. We've got a fourth question, which is actually a little bit of a nuance on what has already been covered in relation to India, but I will read it out nonetheless. Theresa from Morgan Stanley says, "Many thanks for the presentation. In the announcement, you mentioned that you aim to double the size of the Indian energy portfolio over the next two or three years driven by greenfield renewable energy investments and acquisitions. Could you please elaborate on this? What other projects in the pipeline? Thank you." As I say, I think we sort of covered quite a bit of that, but maybe just a little bit more color if you'd care to.
Certainly. Thanks for the question, Theresa. As I outlined, our focus in India is to grow our portfolio by investing in zero carbon assets, which will be wind projects, solar projects and also transmission projects. The rationale for doubling the size of our business is that we have basically sold down around 40%. We will continue to reinvest the proceeds of that sale and hope to have a smaller share of a much bigger business and one that really has the scale that's needed. Our focus will be on both greenfield projects and also acquisitions. We have a track record of building greenfield projects in India.
With our partnership with CDPQ, we're also bringing in M&A capability into our partnership. We think that's a good combination to give us a reach into a good portfolio of development projects with both greenfield development and M&A at our option. We're currently developing our largest wind farm, the Sidhpur Project. We are looking actively at both greenfield and also acquisition of transmission projects. Now that we have the completion of the KMTL transmission business, that gives us a good platform to grow from. Also looking at solar projects as well.
Okay, thank you. We do have another
I would just add that the, I mean, these investments, I mean, in principle should be, for the most part, self-funded, based on the balance sheet, and the agreed partnership with CDPQ. So most of it is self-funded, as we demonstrated, since the start of the CDPQ partnership in India.
Okay. Thank you, Nicolas. We do have another question that's come in from Evan Li from HSBC. Thank you again for the comments. Decarbonization of Hong Kong assets seems to be more difficult than other regions. Gas replacing coal may not be your final solution. Would carbon credits be part of this? And then on Australia, would you have a target on when profitability returns, should recover? Two parts to that question on decarbonization and then on the recovery of profitability in Australia.
Thank you, Evan. I'll deal with your first question on decarbonization, and I might ask Nicolas to comment on the outlook for the EnergyAustralia business. Let's start with decarbonization. It's a very good question. On the one hand, we have fewer choices in Hong Kong than many other parts of the world, just because land is so scarce and because of our unique geopolitical situation. So options that other places may have are not necessarily available to us. One thing that we have been able to do in Hong Kong quite successfully is work closely with the Hong Kong government to come up with a plan for Hong Kong's decarbonization.
The government's climate action plan involves initially decarbonization of the electricity sector and then using carbon-free electricity to power other sectors of the economy. That in some respects is a little bit easier in Hong Kong because we don't have a large industrial base. If we can decarbonize electricity, transport and waste, then the bulk of Hong Kong's carbon emissions can be dealt with. Having a plan is vitally important. Now, as part of that plan, three legs to a stool, if you like, that we can use to decarbonize the electricity sector. One is recognizing that already around a quarter of Hong Kong's electricity is imported from the Daya Bay nuclear project, so that is already carbon-free.
We have the technology, we have the partnerships, and we have the ability to work with the mainland to bring more nuclear power into Hong Kong if needed. Secondly, while renewable energy is quite challenging in Hong Kong, we do have opportunities to develop offshore wind, and this is a technology that we have established is environmentally acceptable, technically acceptable, and in today's world, we think is now economically viable as well. Offshore wind can form part of Hong Kong's decarbonized energy portfolio. As I outlined in my talk, this is not just limiting ourselves to the boundary of Hong Kong, but looking for the scale that we can achieve by moving outside of Hong Kong's waters.
Looking at this as a regional solution means that we could potentially have around 10% of our power coming from offshore wind. Now, the investments that we're making in natural gas, you're absolutely right, is a stepping stone for us. We see that as being a transition from coal to natural gas and ultimately to hydrogen, which will be a carbon-free energy source. We're working with our equipment suppliers, we're working with our natural gas suppliers to develop a timetable for our natural gas plant at Black Point to be converted from natural gas to hydrogen. These form part of a coordinated plan. They are existing technologies and they are already well within our capabilities to see them through.
In many respects, while Hong Kong has its peculiar challenges, we also have some opportunities that I believe will help us achieve net zero by 2050. Nicolas, would you like to make some comments on the outlook for EnergyAustralia, please?
Yeah, sure. So just to confirm regarding the outlook for EnergyAustralia, in the short term we still see significant pressure on margins, and this is going to be a continuation of the pressure coming from high gas costs based on the recontracting we did about a year ago at higher prices. We see also potentially pressure on the coal supply side. The second factor is intense competition continuing in the retail business and together with price caps.
Last but not least, with the hedging policy we apply to our generation business and our electricity sales, we know pretty well that we will still suffer from the low price regime we had in the last few years, which will translate into lower realized prices for our energy business. Short term, clearly, the outlook is a cautious one. Having said that, we believe there is value in the energy transition in Australia, and we are investing to be well positioned in that transition, and we expect it to be profitable.
You have seen the impacts, a few years ago, of the early retirement of a coal power plant like Hazelwood. You see the announcements which are happening right now in Australia. You have seen also the pretty significant pickup in electricity prices we have seen in the market recently. Almost, I mean, almost doubled in some parts of Australia. We believe that there's gonna be a cycle supporting the energy transition because there's a need for investment and investors are not investing for low returns.
We believe that the market will somehow normalize and the early signs of this are, I think, happening right now. In the longer run, we are confident in the business plan we see for EnergyAustralia returning to higher profitability.
Nicolas, Richard, we're getting close towards the end, but there's a similar question that probably just has a slightly different nuance from Rob Koh of Morgan Stanley. Perhaps if we could address that quickly, and then there is at least one further after that. Rob's question, and I might read it out as it came. Good afternoon. Thank you for reiterating you see Australia as a good place to invest. We appreciate it. Can we please ask if you have changed your thinking on coal plant closures in Australia in the context of Origin bringing forward a closure that's of the Eraring plant and AGL also potentially bringing forward closures? Does that make Australia a more attractive place to invest? From Rob Koh, Morgan Stanley. So maybe just a quick further clarification on that.
Well, thank you for your comments, Rob, and I've always had a soft spot for Australia for obvious reasons. In terms of its investment potential, there is definitely a case that we see for investing to support the energy transition because Australia has been heavily reliant on coal for electricity generation. These plants will need to close. As Nicolas has just outlined, it is much better that they are done in a planned way so that the system is maintaining its reliability and we don't see shocks in prices. In order to close a coal plant, there does need to be replacement capacity. It's not just a matter of building lots and lots of wind farms or solar farms.
You need to make sure that there is sufficient storage capacity. There's fast response capacity to keep the system reliable under all sorts of weather conditions. There is a case there for investment in that fast storage capacity. That requires a level of complexity in operation. It requires a degree of risk management in order to ensure that customers see good stable electricity supply at reasonable prices throughout that energy transition. Our view is that there is a good case for investment in Australia. As part of the energy transition, yes, these plants will need to close.
It is much better that they're closed in a planned way, that we know that there are no unexpected early closures, that they're done in a logical and sequential manner. That can only be good for customers and for the industry generally.
Thank you, Richard. Two very quick last questions, if I could. From Lorraine from Morningstar says, following on the India comments, "What is the anticipated return on invested capital that management targets for the potential greenfield and transmission projects in India?" There was an earlier question that came in about the recent international situation with potential international sanctions around Russia, et cetera, and maybe we could just make a very brief comment on that. Those two, please.
Well, perhaps I'll just make a comment on the sanctions in Russia. Nicolas, you may like to just make a comment about the hurdle rates on our investments. In terms of direct impact, there's very little, and it's quite rare that we do need to purchase anything from Russia. Over the years, it's been very minimal requirement to source fuel or anything else from Russia. Directly it would have minimal impact on us. However, periods of uncertainty do create volatility, particularly in fuel prices. We do have and we are in a period of volatile fuel prices. This may see volatility extending for some time.
However, this is volatility that's already there in an inherently volatile market. I would say that the impact overall would be it's within our risk management approach to be able to manage that volatility in fuel prices. Nicolas, comment on the hurdle rates.
Yes, sure. Sure, Richard. Basically, across the portfolio, we apply hurdle rates based on market data and applying the usual capital asset pricing model. We have specific targets. In India, specifically, we have an agreement with our partner on the hurdle rate for obvious competitive reasons, because we are, as we said before, we are actively participating to a number of processes right now, whether greenfield or acquisitions. Therefore, we cannot comment specifically on the level of these hurdle rates, but I can confirm they are double-digit and they are really providing us visibility on the overall return we target for the group.
They are aligned with the overall returns we want to deliver for the group and for our shareholders. They are aligned with our partner who has also similar targets. I take advantage of having the floor just to comment on because I see from the chat that Rob was also asking about the potential role of carbon credits as part of our decarbonization journey in Australia. I just want to comment that this can play a role in the transition, and that's what we are doing with our Tallawarra B project, which is going to be carbon neutral, starting with offsets and then continuing with burning green hydrogen instead of gas.
It's not part of the final solution, I would say, to answer directly, your question, but it can be a transition solution. Thank you.
Look, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, but I'm afraid we are now out of time, and I think we have also addressed all the questions that have come in. Ladies and gentlemen, having addressed all the questions, I would now like to conclude the briefing. My team and I will continue to be available through the afternoon and early evening to take further questions from you should there be any others required. An archive of this briefing will also be available in a few hours' time. Thank you, Nicolas and Richard for your presentation and answering the questions. Thank you, everybody for your attendance. I will now close the briefing.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
Thank you all.