My blog

Tag: green energy

  • UK Climate Leadership: Government’s Opportunity to Lead on the International Stage in 2024

    Dinesh Dhamija presents the opportunities presented for the new UK Government to take a climate leadership role on the international stage.

     

    Marking a sharp deviation from the climate scepticism of the outgoing UK Conservative government, which disavowed environmental action, the new Labour administration has released ambitious green targets, with its eye on global leadership.

    This week the energy secretary Ed Miliband announced a £1.5 billion auction of renewable energy projects, sufficient to power 11 million homes, including 90 new solar farms with a capacity of 3.3GW and 20 new onshore windfarms. To attract bidders, the government had to face down opposition from local communities, who had hobbled the Conservatives’ renewable energy plans. Three major new solar farms have already gained approval, all of them in the east of England, in Lincolnshire, Rutland, and the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire borders.

    These projects are an initial step towards the tripling of UK solar power promised by the government, alongside its pledge to double onshore and quadruple offshore wind generating capacity. At the same time, solar-based generation across the UK is rising rapidly: it reached 2 terawatt hours per month for the first time in June 2024 and produced around 25 per cent more electricity this summer than in the same period of 2023. Rather than pandering to the oil lobby or appeasing NIMBYs, the Starmer administration hopes to show global leadership on climate action. Ed Miliband will attend Cop29 in Azerbaijan later this year, then host a 2025 conference with the International Energy Agency.

    Energy activists such as Harjeet Singh of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative have urged the government to act decisively by announcing a new ‘nationally determined contribution [NDC]’ – the official term for an emissions reduction plan. “The UK has a critical opportunity to set the bar for climate leadership and equity by announcing a robust NDC,” he said.

    Climate experts point out that, with the United States in the throes of an election, and France and Germany both in political limbo, the UK can step up and demonstrate leadership. “It would be good to see the UK including its fossil fuels phase-out commitment within its NDC,” added Singh. “This would show the way for others to follow.”

    Energy secretary Ed Miliband has already visited Brazil, current president of the G20 group of developed nations and host of Cop30 in 2025. These initiatives are important for the future of renewable energy and the fight against climate change. I’m pleased to see the Labour government grasping the nettle early in its tenure, while it enjoys a large parliamentary majority and can ignore sniping from the sidelines.

    It’s too early to claim any kind of breakthrough or tipping point from this government, but it’s good to see evidence of its direction of travel towards a greater climate leadership role. Long may it continue.

     

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/

     

  • Hard Truths About Fossil Fuels: Dinesh Dhamija’s Call to Action

    Dinesh Dhamija calls for urgent action at the upcoming UN Summit of the Future to address the devastating impact of fossil fuels on the planet.

     

    When the world’s political and business leaders gather in New York next month for the UN-sponsored Summit of the Future, they will have to confront an elephant in the room.

    Despite record temperatures around the world, with at least 10 countries registering 50 degrees centigrade, rampant wildfires and a mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef,  the Summit’s pre-announced ‘climate pact’ makes no mention of fossil fuels. This omission brought a scathing response from 77 world leaders and Nobel prize-winners: “The extraction and burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of the climate crisis, fuelling extreme weather, fires, lethal heat, droughts and flooding that are threatening lives and livelihoods around the planet,” they wrote in a letter to the event organisers.

    “Yet this isn’t the end of the carnage – the extraction and burning of fossil fuels undermine all 17 [United Nations] Sustainable Development Goals, including jeopardising public health, fuelling conflict, exacerbating social inequalities and threatening biodiverse ecosystems worldwide.” There is a wilful blindness to the harms of fossil fuels, caused by the mutual dependence of some politicians and big oil and gas companies, and abetted by electorates who are understandably reluctant to pay now for to benefit future generations (even if those beneficiaries include their own grandchildren).

    At a time when international cooperation is at a low ebb, with geopolitical tensions and insularity replacing the globalisation of recent years, the world needs a new rationale for multinationalism. What better than something which threatens all of us, and for which there are already proven solutions: renewable energy in the form of solar, wind and new areas such as tidal power generation.

    “We call on the UN to ensure that the Pact for the Future includes robust commitments to manage and finance a fast and fair global transition away from coal, oil and gas extraction in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit agreed to by nations in the Paris Agreement,” added the signatories. “If the Summit of the Future does not address the threat of fossil fuels, it will not be worthy of its name, risking undermining a once-in-a-century opportunity to restore trust in the power of international cooperation.” As the consequences of fossil fuel use grow increasingly hazardous to human life, while the remedies are increasingly affordable and accessible, we’re surely approaching a tipping point.

    Until then, it’s crucial that voices such as these 77 objectors are heard, heeded and amplified.

     

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/

  • Solar Cell Breakthrough

    Dinesh Dhamija

     

    In the 70 years since the invention of the silicon photovoltaic cell, its efficiency has risen enormously, and its cost plummeted.

    But now, with the arrival of a revolutionary new technology, solar energy is poised to become dramatically more efficient and cheaper. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are made from materials such as calcium titanium oxide which share a crystal lattice formation. What’s amazing is how they can be manufactured at low cost, with up to 45 per cent efficiency, compared with silicon cells which are expensive and only hit around 26 per cent efficiency.

    In scientific language, PSCs have a greater variable energy bandgap than silicon PV cells. In other words, they absorb more of the sun’s energy. Perovskite itself was named in 1839 after Lev Perovski, a Russian mineralogist. Yet it was only in 1999 that Japanese researchers first used the material for solar cells. In 2010, a spin-off from Oxford University Physics, Oxford PV, sought to commercialise the technology. “We have raised power conversion efficiency from around 6 per cent to 27 per cent,” said Dr Shuaifeng Hu at Oxford University Physics. “We believe that, over time, this approach could enable the photovoltaic devices to achieve far greater efficiencies, exceeding 45 per cent.”

    Besides cost and efficiency, PSCs are just one micron thick, almost 150 times thinner than a silicon wafer. This means that they can be coated onto buildings, clothes, cars, plastics or almost any surface, which would help to make solar energy by far the most popular and accessible form of renewable energy. It would also reduce the need for solar farms and panels, making solar energy an integral part of our lives.

    Next year, Oxford PV plans to produce silicon-perovskite tandem cells for high-value industries such as aerospace, followed in 2026 by products for the residential housing market, then for utilities in 2027. But first, the company – along with other PSC manufacturers – has to overcome degradation from moisture, oxygen and heat: PSCs are more sensitive than silicon panels, and to ensure that any lead used in their manufacture does not pollute the environment (or else find a way to make them lead-free).

    These are exciting times for solar energy pioneers. When you read about breakthroughs such as this, with the potential to double the power of the technology, slash its cost and potentially apply it to every building in the world, you realise what extraordinary progress could be made in just a few years.

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/

     

  • Oil-rich nations see the (sun)light in 2024

    Dinesh Dhamija

     

    For decades, oil-rich Middle Eastern nations have ignored the bounties from solar energy all around them in favour of extracting oil and gas from beneath their soil and seas. Yet as the reality of climate change and the tremendous advances in renewable energy technology take hold, the region is gearing up to become a powerhouse in a whole new way.

    Dubai’s $14 billion Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum Solar Park is already operating, with a further phase in progress, including a 262m-tall tower in the desert. The emirate has pledged a further $30 billion to fund a climate investment fund, alongside its existing Masdar renewable energy investment fund.

    In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, ACWA Power is among the world’s most important power developers in emerging markets, competing with huge infrastructure developers from Europe, the United States and Australia. It has invested more than $94 billion in projects across the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, many of them in solar, wind and hydrogen technologies.

    Last year’s COP28 climate conference, held in Dubai, highlighted the dual role of Middle Eastern power players: they are in no hurry to decarbonise their economies, but leaders such as UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman have long spoken of their aim to decouple their economies from oil and gas. After all, one day it will run out, and demand is already falling.

    By contrast, demand for renewable energy is increasing exponentially. Prospective solar-generated electricity in Gulf Cooperation Council countries will more than quadruple from 30 TWh this year to 130 TWh in 2030, according to the latest projections, while gas-generated electricity will level off and oil-based generation will fall by a half.

    When you consider the extraordinary transformation of Dubai from a fishing village to a megapolis in a couple of generations, attracting millions of visitors each year, along with the determination of the region’s leaders to pioneer new societies and urban communities, it’s tempting to believe that the region can become a hotbed of renewable energy production. For all their faults, I prefer the enterprise and ambition of Middle Eastern states to the lethargy and corruption of oil-rich nations like Nigeria or Venezuela, which have fallen prey to resource curse.

    The sooner the world – especially those countries like Saudi Arabia with almost nine hours of sunshine per day, all year round – recognizes that solar is the key solution to their energy needs, the sooner we will have a cleaner, more secure and less climate-threatened future.

     

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Since then, he has created the largest solar PV and hydrogen businesses in Romania. Dinesh’s latest book is The Indian Century – buy it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1738441407/