A piece in the Evening Standard last week spoke of a “great green deceit” and warned that renewable energy can’t replace oil and gas.
The real deceit is to wilfully ignore the science.
Last year’s UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was memorably described as a “code red for humanity”.
There was a glimmer of hope among the gloom. Scientists said that if we acted fast, catastrophe could be avoided.
That means transitioning our energy system from dirty fossil fuels to clean renewable energy.
Is it challenging? Absolutely. But just because a problem is challenging doesn’t mean we should give up.
Short-term thinking that claims renewables can’t replace oil and gas is why we’re in a global climate crisis in the first place.
And that thinking is wrong.
Beyond the outdated arguments, there is good news: more clean power is being generated every year.
Only this week (Tues Dec 6), the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that renewables will surpass coal to become the largest source of electricity generation by early 2025.
That’s good news for the environment. It’s also good news for those worried about the cost of living crisis and energy security - pretty much everyone.
Renewable energy is cheaper than oil and gas and we’re not dependent on other countries for it.
Cynics bandy around phrases like “the cost of Net Zero.”
But what about the cost of Not Zero?
That could be as much as $178 trillion over the next 50 years, according to the Deloitte Centre for Sustainable Progress – which is estimated to be tens of trillions of pounds more than the cost of going green.
I’ve got first-hand experience of the clean energy transition.
I run Naked Energy, a solar thermal business making innovative products that convert the sun’s power into heat or into both electricity and heat.
Heating and cooling of residential and commercial buildings are the largest energy end-use, accounting for roughly half of global energy demand. Of that, 90% is met by burning of fossil fuels.
Solar thermal is low cost and has a small environmental footprint thanks in part to its recyclability.
It’s boom time in the sector. The number of homes globally with solar thermal systems is going to almost quintuple from 250 million now to 1.2 billion in 2050, according to the IEA.
We’ve fitted our solar collectors onto the roofs of leisure centres and swimming pools in England, helping them keep their costs down and stay open this winter as gas prices soar.
There are plenty more global examples of solar power playing its part in the energy transition.
A community in chilly Alberta, Canada, is using solar thermal and a borehole thermal storage system to have its heat and hot water delivered without using any fossil fuels.
In industry, US drinks giant Pepsico has sourced 100% of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources in the past two years.
The energy transition provides a huge opportunity for a UK jobs boom as much-needed green roles are generated - as an example, we make a large proportion of our solar collectors in Braintree, Essex.
Businesses are also working to close the skills gap among renewable energy hardware installers to ensure the nation has the infrastructure to meet future demand for green energy.
Ah, crow the naysayers: what about when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow?
Battery storage has advanced beyond all recognition in the last 30 years - as demonstrated by the ranges now achieved by electric cars.
The technology will develop and will play a key role in solving renewable energy’s intermittency issue.
Global renewable power capacity is now expected to grow by 2400 GW in the five years to 2027, showing how important this issue is for global government.
They need to give financial support by means of tax relief, grants or other subsidies, and cut red tape to ensure renewable projects get permits in weeks rather than months or years.
The energy transition is a huge undertaking. There is no one silver bullet to solve it - but it is worth every bit of effort we have.
Christophe Williams is the co-founder and CEO of Naked Energy
