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Tag: solar power

  • 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/

  • 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/

     

  • Labour’s Ambitious Green Policies

    Labour’s Ambitious Green Policies: Navigating Challenges for a Sustainable Future, Dinesh Dhamija

     

    When Sir Keir Starmer took office as Britain’s new Prime Minister on 5 July, there was a sense of relief among many people in the renewable energy sector that the Conservative government, which had begun to make a virtue of its opposition to green measures, was gone.

    Instead of delaying the deadline for the phase out of petrol and diesel cars, Labour is keen to re-establish it. Rather than pandering to the oil and gas lobby, Labour will allow more onshore wind energy development. Overall, the incoming government aims to double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind energy as it pursues its goal of net zero carbon power generation by 2030.

    The trouble is that the undercurrent of opposition to many green policies, which the Tories identified and tried to harness, has not gone away. Reform, which won 14 per cent of the popular vote (4 million votes), promised to do away with subsidies for renewables and instead ‘drill down’ to harness Britain’s remaining reserves of coal, oil, gas and shale. This appeals to the same instincts that Reform appeals to more generally, opposing immigration, reducing imports and fostering nationalism.

     

    Labour’s task is to foster nationalism of a different kind, persuading the nation that its future prosperity lies in clean energy rather than in the extractive industries of the past. There is a deeply regressive feel to this debate: in the 1980s, it was the right wing of British politics under Margaret Thatcher that sought to move the country on from its dependence on coal mining, while Labour fought to maintain it. Today, the right-wing Reform party is trying to re-introduce this dirty, polluting, climate-change-inducing (but still cheap) energy source, against the flow of history.

    Labour will face other obstacles to its green agenda, including from green activists themselves, who decry the miles of pylons that must be erected to transmit clean power around the country and from anti-immigration parties like Reform, who oppose bringing in overseas labour to help build the necessary infrastructure. Then there is the cost of the plans, which Labour kept quiet about during the campaign, fearing that any specifics would be held against them by the Conservatives, accusing them of planning tax rises.

    This is all the business of politics, making unpopular choices for the long term good of the economy and the nation. It remains to be seen whether this government has the courage to act on these instincts and face down its detractors, knowing that with every year the potential for climate catastrophe comes ever closer.

    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/

     

  • Dinesh Dhamija: Massive Renewable Deal and Battery Boost

    Dinesh Dhamija

     

    There were two standout news stories this week to cheer the clean energy sector.

    First, Microsoft’s commitment to power its data centres with renewable electricity in a $10 billion deal. This will add 10.5 gigawatts of generating capacity, the equivalent of powering 1.8 million homes, and is eight times bigger than the next-largest corporate renewable electricity deal, between mining company Rio Tinto and an Australian solar company.

    Microsoft needs the extra power because it’s forging ahead with new data centres to service AI and cloud computing customers, part of an upsurge in energy demand in the United States, soon to be repeated in Europe.

    “The nationwide [United States] forecast of electricity demand shot up from 2.6 per cent to 4.7 per cent over the next five years,” reported Grid Strategies in a recent report. It predicts that more than $150 billion will be invested in data centres up until 2028, alongside more than 200 major manufacturing facilities.

    In 2023, corporate deals for a record 46 gigawatts of new solar and wind capacity were announced, as companies like Amazon and Microsoft sought to reduce their carbon footprints.

    All this activity and development is positive news, but the context is important. There’s such a huge growth in demand for energy that some believe more coal, oil and gas sources may also be needed, negating any positive impact on climate change. “Gas is the only cost-efficient energy generation capable of providing the type of 24/7 reliable power required by the big technology companies to power the AI boom,” said one energy investor. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power is highlighted by fossil fuel lobbyists as a central problem.

    Renewable energy champions argue that, by contrast, AI can help solve the reliability issue for wind and solar power, through its predictive abilities. In a second clean energy breakthrough, the G7 this week announced a renewable energy storage target: a six-fold increase in capacity by 2030 using batteries, hydrogen and water.

    The International Energy Agency foresees batteries making up 90 per cent of new storage capacity, with hydroelectric power accounting for a smaller share. Batteries have enjoyed a dramatic uptake in demand over recent years, as their costs have fallen by 90 per cent since 2009. Batteries added 42 gigawatts to global electricity supplies in 2023. We will doubtless hear more self-serving predictions from the hydrocarbon industry about how renewable energy cannot power the economies of the future, so it’s important to pay attention to developments like these: massive renewable energy projects and game-changing storage solutions.

    We’re in the middle of an energy transition, with incremental progress taking place all around us, whatever the fossil fuel lobby might say.

    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/

     

  • India Seeks Energy Independence by 2047

    Dinesh Dhamija

    To coincide with the centenary of its independence from Britain in 2047, India’s leadership has announced a new ambition: energy independence.

    The ruling BJP – widely expected to win the current general election – pledged that independence will be achieved “through a mix of electric mobility, network of charging stations, renewable energy production and improving energy efficiency,” while reducing petroleum imports.

    This ambitious target builds on the drive towards renewable energy generation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi established from the earliest days of his administration, starting in 2013 (and even before, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat).

    As I outline in my book The Indian Century, Modi’s embrace of solar energy has been transformative for India, harnessing a source of power that the country has in greater abundance than almost anywhere else on earth. Here’s a brief excerpt:

    “Added together, the total solar energy which pours down upon India from its annual 300 cloudless sunny days is 5,000 trillion (5 quadrillion) kWh, or around 7 kWh per square meter per day. Capturing just a tiny fraction of this solar energy could meet all of India’s energy needs. In fact, a year’s worth of Indian sun would produce more energy than the country’s entire fossil fuel reserves.”

    To bring this potential energy boon to fruition will take years of infrastructure development, investing in a nationwide smart grid, support for the transition to EV manufacturing and a national charger network, further subsidies for rooftop solar systems (such as the scheme launched in February this year) and encouragement for the large-scale wind farms, solar parks and ‘Green Energy Corridor project’ that are already in development. The BJP has also promised to invest in green hydrogen production, which as a green hydrogen businessman is music to my ears.

    Politically, energy independence is a smart move. A resurgent India will have more credibility on the global stage if it is not in hock to Russia for discounted fuel when many other nations are boycotting the country.

    Environmentally, it makes complete sense to decarbonize wherever possible, allowing the government to demonstrate to its own people that climate change and clean air is a priority. Extreme heat and pollution are already threatening to make parts of India uninhabitable.

    The benefits of renewable power will become ever more obvious, as economies of scale, technologies advance and infrastructure connections improve. The BJP has promised that 10 million Indian households will receive up to 300 units of free electricity per month, under a new solar scheme, to improve the standard of living for the country’s poorest. If India can deliver independence from poverty for its people by 2047, that would be an even greater achievement.

     

    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/

     

     

  • Dinesh Dhamija: Sunny Side Up

    Dinesh Dhamija

     

    Ten million Indian households stand to benefit from a new solar power project, announced this week.

    ‘PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana’ – which translates as ‘The PM’s Sun House: Free Electricity Scheme’ – will offer 300 units of electricity per month to households who install solar panels on their rooftops.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged Rs 750 billion ($9 billion) to fund the plan, with subsidies going directly to people’s bank accounts. A National Online Portal will administer the scheme, as part of a drive to switch India from hydrocarbons to renewable power.

    Besides the environmental benefits, this move promises to reduce household power bills, increase their income and generate employment. These are all laudable ambitions and very much in line with Modi’s thinking over many years. He was an early pioneer of solar investment when Chief Minister in Gujarat, attracted millions of dollars to new facilities.

    As Prime Minister, he has continued to push for businesses and individuals to opt for solar energy where possible, with novel developments including lakes covered with solar panels, taking advantage of natural cooling properties, and sports stadiums powered by panels on their exteriors. The other great motivator for solar energy is security: both in supply and in geopolitical terms. While India imports 70% of its energy needs, the more that the country can be self-reliant, the better.

    As a leader of the Global South movement, India’s move towards energy independence is a great example. Indeed, as one of the hottest and sunniest countries in the world, it could eventually become an exporter of solar energy, rather than an importer of hydrocarbons. In the medium term, the government has set a target of 500GW of energy generation to come from non-carbon sources, including 450GW from wind and solar, by 2030. Just as the country is massively upgrading its roads, rail, ports and airports, a similar effort is underway to boost its energy infrastructure.

    I would argue that this is just as important, if not more so. You can’t grow an economy if you’re lacking power. And there remain plenty of regions of India where power cuts are a regular part of life. As India’s solar energy proponents might say: “the future’s sunny”.

     

    Dinesh Dhamija is a solar energy entrepreneur, with a major project in Romania. He founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers.com, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Dinesh’s latest book, The Indian Century, has just been published.

     

  • Opinion: Why Solar Power is the Answer

    Dinesh Dhamija

    The world is hotter than ever. Climate-related disasters occur with terrifying regularity.

    “Fossil fuel emissions are already causing climate chaos which is devastating lives and livelihoods,” said UN secretary general António Guterres this week, ahead of the COP28 climate change summit in Dubai that starts on 30 November.

    And what do the world’s leading economies do? They ‘double down’ on fossil fuel production, cowed by the oil and gas lobbies and by short-term political expedience.

    The US, Saudi Arabia and Russia will produce twice as much fossil fuel by 2030 as the UN says is required to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

    These nations, and many others, complain that there is no viable alternative to fossil fuels and that cutting them out would lead to ‘energy chaos’.

    I don’t agree.

    Against this backdrop of superpower intransigence and looming catastrophe, India is quietly building a community of nations dedicated to solving the climate problem rather than pretending it doesn’t exist.

    The International Solar Alliance was created in 2015 by India and France to promote investment in and access to solar energy. It now has 116 signatories and 95 full members – Chile joined in early November – and is headquartered in New Delhi.

    For all kinds of reasons, I think that the world needs to get behind solar energy. It’s clean, free, reliable and widely available, not only to corporations but to small businesses and individuals, in most regions of the world.

    Narendra Modi made solar a central part of India’s energy strategy, developing ambitious schemes as chief minister of Gujarat and then accelerating progress as Prime Minister. India is now the world’s 5th-largest solar energy producer with 62 GW of installed capacity and a force for solar adoption throughout the developing world.

    Solar fits Modi’s vision of empowering individuals and communities: you can install solar panels on your roof, whereas you can’t drill for oil or gas. It takes away countries’ reliance upon expensive and politically-fraught energy imports. In the same way, Modi’s digital finance initiatives have given millions of Indian citizens access to life-changing opportunities.

    In my own modest way, I’ve tried to contribute to the growth of solar energy, developing a project in Romania which will produce enough electricity to serve a town of 250,000 people. See https://www.romania-insider.com/dinesh-dhamija-solar-park-project-romania-2023 Through this, I’ve seen how solar can transform the energy equation, producing both green electricity and hydrogen, which also has enormous potential to reduce CO2 emissions.

     

    Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. His latest book, The Indian Century, will be published in the Autumn.