tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/solar-panels-5447/articlesSolar panels – The Conversation2024-03-12T12:30:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164232024-03-12T12:30:14Z2024-03-12T12:30:14ZSolar power occupies a lot of space – here’s how to make it more ecologically beneficial to the land it sits on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580757/original/file-20240308-22-g0m361.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3019%2C1783&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Solar panels shade grassland at Jack's Solar Garden, an agrovoltaic farm in Longmont, Colo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Sturchio</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As societies look for ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change, large-scale solar power is playing a central role. Climate scientists view it as the tool with <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/">the greatest potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2030</a>. In the U.S., the Department of Energy predicts that solar will <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61424">account for nearly 60%</a> of all new utility-scale electricity-generating capacity installed in 2024. </p>
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<p>But ideal locations for solar development often overlap with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47803-3">croplands or grasslands used for livestock grazing</a>. Typically, large-scale solar arrays are designed to maximize energy generation, without much consideration for the ecosystems in which they are placed. </p>
<p>For example, grading land and removing vegetation can <a href="https://www.popsci.com/environment/solar-farm-construction-epa-water-violations/">cause erosion and send runoff into waterways</a>. Solar developers have been fined for such environmental violations in <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/05/10/u-s-court-orders-developer-to-pay-135-5-million-in-100-mw-solar-property-damage-case/">Georgia</a>, <a href="https://www.gazettenet.com/Developer-to-pay-$1-14-million-for-wetlands-stormwater-violations-38651958#">Massachusetts</a>, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/settlements-resolve-clean-water-act-violations-four-solar-farm-construction-sites-alabama">Alabama, Idaho and Illinois</a>. </p>
<p>There also are concerns about how large solar installations affect <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/11/climate/climate-change-wildlife-solar.html">animal movement patterns</a>. In the western U.S., removing native vegetation to make room for solar farms can threaten endangered animals and insects that rely on these plants as food and habitat. Native plant communities take a long time to reestablish themselves in these water-limited areas after they are disturbed.</p>
<p>I am <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Oyns6e8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">an ecologist</a> and a member of a research team led by <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=e5RTvRMAAAAJ&hl=en">Alan Knapp</a> at Colorado State University. We investigate how solar development affects grassland ecosystem health – in particular, how plants’ growth and water use patterns and response to light change once solar panels are installed overhead. Through this work, we hope to inform a more sustainable future for solar energy. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A row of solar photovoltaic panels with bushy tomato plants in front of them" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580762/original/file-20240308-20-ka23d0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">This agrivoltaic solar array uses the space between rows of panels to grow tomatoes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Sturchio</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Two land uses are better than one</h2>
<p>A growing alternative to using land solely for solar power generation is called agrivoltaics. As its name suggests, this strategy combines agriculture and solar power on the same piece of land. Agrivoltaic projects can take place on croplands, grazing lands and habitat for agriculturally important pollinators. This dual-use approach to solar development <a href="https://science.osti.gov/-/media/sbir/pdf/Market-Research/SETO---Agrivoltaics-August-2022-Public.pdf">has become popular worldwide</a></p>
<p>The <a href="https://openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE/Agrivoltaics_Map">vast majority</a> of agrivoltaic projects in the U.S. are on lands managed for livestock grazing and pollinator habitat. These sites are ideal for solar power colocation because, unlike croplands, they do not require irrigation or the use of large machinery. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">One version of agrivoltaics is combining solar arrays and livestock grazing.</span></figcaption>
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<p>However, these lands rely on rainfall to support plant growth, and the presence of solar panels affects how water reaches the soil. Most agrivoltaic arrays use sun-tracking programs that maximize energy production by tilting panels to follow the sun across the sky. As this happens, the panels create distinct micro-environments that are quite different from natural conditions. </p>
<p>For example, in Colorado, most precipitation occurs in the afternoon, when solar panels are tilted west toward the sun. As a result, most rainfall on agrivoltaic sites is concentrated at the panels’ western edges where it drops to the ground. This redistribution can multiply rainfall at panel edges by up to a factor of four, while restricting rainfall in other patches. </p>
<p>Another factor is that solar panels introduce shade on grasslands that are adapted to high light conditions. Because the arrays are optimized to intercept sunlight, much less light reaches plants beneath the panels.</p>
<h2>The ecology behind ecovoltaics</h2>
<p>So far, our work shows that the distinct micro-environments created by solar arrays produce similarly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4334">varied patterns of plant growth</a>. This finding is encouraging: It means that the environmental variation created by solar panels passively tracking the sun is enough to make plants respond differently. These micro-environments could potentially support a mosaic of plant communities that benefit from different conditions.</p>
<p>In some cases, mixed conditions like these, with varying levels of light and water, can be a good thing. A well-tested concept in restoration ecology – the science of restoring damaged ecosystems – is that environments with more variety support more diverse mixes of plants and animals.</p>
<p>In a 2023 paper, we outlined a concept that calls for an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02174-x">ecologically informed approach to solar development</a>. This approach, called ecovoltaics, requires giving equal priority to energy production and <a href="https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/ecosystem-services">ecosystem services</a>. </p>
<p>An ecovoltaic approach allows land managers to use solar to their advantage. Designing and managing solar arrays in ways that are rooted in fundamental ecological concepts can produce more synergies between ecosystems and solar energy.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram showing ways to space rows of solar panels, alter their angles or adjust height to achieve various ecological outcomes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580834/original/file-20240310-26-auaqrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ecovoltaic systems can be configured in different ways to achieve specific ecological goals, such as reducing water loss from soil or creating shady zones for grazing livestock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Sturchio</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Land managers could use ecovoltaic approaches to improve degraded lands by designing solar arrays to enhance natural processes. For example, since the edges of solar panels redistribute and concentrate rainfall, making the soil beneath them wetter, they could aid in seedling establishment in those spots. </p>
<p>In arid regions, arrays could be designed to promote this effect and improve restoration. If water is scarce, arrays could be designed to reduce the amount of exposed ground, which in turn would reduce the amount of water lost to the atmosphere through evaporation. </p>
<h2>Doing solar differently</h2>
<p>Many factors influence land management decisions. The land’s history, access to water, soil types, vegetation and topography all play a role. Ecovoltaics adds another factor: balancing energy production per unit area with the ecological effects of a particular solar array. </p>
<p>An ecovoltaic approach to solar power requires fundamentally rethinking how solar development decisions are made. Today, access to electricity transmission lines limits where solar power can be deployed in many areas. If transmission lines and substations are too far away, or undersized, solar power is unlikely to be developed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/30/fact-sheetbiden-harris-administration-announces-historic-investment-to-bolster-nations-electric-grid-infrastructure-cut-energy-costs-for-families-and-create-good-paying-jobs/">New transmission projects</a> that ease this geographic constraint could provide more options. With greater flexibility in choosing sites, developers could shift away from highly sensitive natural ecosystems and install solar arrays on abandoned, water-limited or otherwise degraded lands instead. Ecovoltaics could be a solution for stabilizing the economy of communities where productive land has been <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-top-colorado-farming-region-is-running-out-of-water-must-retire-land-to-avoid-well-shutdown/ar-BB1jgzFe">retired to conserve resources</a></p>
<p>Solar power is scaling up to levels that make it central to a clean energy transition. My colleagues and I believe that solar development should proceed in a way that reflects ecological thinking. In our view, an ecovoltaic approach to solar can produce positive ecological outcomes and make solar energy even more sustainable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Sturchio receives funding from the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.</span></em></p>Solar development isn’t always good for the land, but pairing it with agriculture can produce multiple benefits.Matthew Sturchio, PhD Student in Plant and Ecosystem Ecology, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219902024-02-15T23:34:53Z2024-02-15T23:34:53ZAs the world heats up, solar panels will degrade faster – especially in hot, humid areas. What can we do?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575742/original/file-20240214-30-q84wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C107%2C5928%2C3880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/broken-burned-through-solar-panel-caught-1390358633">Tijnlp/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To reach the goal of 82% renewable energy in Australia’s grid by 2030, we’ll need to build a <a href="https://aemo.com.au/-/media/files/stakeholder_consultation/consultations/nem-consultations/2023/draft-2024-isp-consultation/draft-2024-isp---overview.pdf?la=en">lot more solar</a>. </p>
<p>But even as we accelerate the rate at which we install solar on our rooftops and in grid-scale farms, the world keeps getting hotter and extreme weather arrives more often. </p>
<p>Solar panels have to be outside, exposed to all weather. They’re built to endure heat, snow, rain and wind. But they have limits. Climate change will mean many panels can degrade faster. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3788">new research</a> examines which areas of Australia will have the worst conditions for solar degradation out to 2059 – and what it will do to the cost of energy. We found solar in Australia’s hot, humid north will degrade fastest, while solar in the arid interior and more moderate climates down south will fare better. </p>
<h2>What makes solar panels degrade?</h2>
<p>When you’re looking to install solar on your rooftop, the warranty will likely be a factor in your eventual choice. Most solar manufacturers offer a 25-30 year warranty, where they guarantee power output will drop by less than 20% over that time. </p>
<p>The reason the power output drops at all is that solar panels slowly degrade over time. But different climates, different materials and different manufacturing techniques can lead to faster or slower degradation. </p>
<p>At present, the dominant solar technology is silicon. Silicon modules degrade due to stress from the environment, voltage changes and mechanical stresses, as silicon wafers are quite stiff and brittle. Environmentally, humidity, ultraviolet radiation and temperature are the main causes of damage. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-will-affect-solar-power-and-grid-stability-across-australia-heres-how-213876">Climate change will affect solar power and grid stability across Australia – here's how</a>
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<p>Hotter, more humid conditions can accelerate degradation in several ways. The map below combines four types of degradation we predict will worsen under climate change. These are: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>delamination: heat and humidity can cause the bonds holding the different layers of the cell together to lose adhesion</p></li>
<li><p>discoloured encapsulant: intense sunlight and extra moisture can damage or discolour the encapsulant, the polymer used to adhere layers within the solar cell together</p></li>
<li><p>ribbon corrosion: if it’s more humid more often, it increases the chances moisture can accumulate and begin corroding the internal ribbon connections of the cell</p></li>
<li><p>internal circuit failure: solar cells experience regular temperature fluctuations, daily and seasonally. These temperature changes can over time cause circuits to fail. A hotter world will add extra stress to internal circuits, leading to a higher chance of failure. </p></li>
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<h2>What will climate change do?</h2>
<p>Our results predict degradation rates will increase across Australia out to 2059 under both <a href="https://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/changing-climate/future-climate-scenarios/greenhouse-gas-scenarios/">high and low emissions scenarios</a> laid out by the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change. </p>
<p>Under a high emissions scenario, solar would degrade twice as fast as it would under a lower emission scenario due to the extra heat. Solar farms would be able to produce less power and might have to replace panels due to failure more often. On average, this would mean losing about 8.5% of output due solely to extra degradation by 2059. Under a high emissions scenario, this would mean energy could cost 10-12% more. </p>
<p>But the effects wouldn’t be felt equally. Our results show solar built across the hot and humid north of Australia will degrade at especially high rates in the future compared to the arid centre, where conditions are hot but dry. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="solar farm in desert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575743/original/file-20240214-28-4vh3lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Solar in hot, dry conditions will fare better than hot and humid areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/solar-power-station-australia-1041363820">Adwo/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>What should we do?</h2>
<p>Heat is the main way solar panels degrade and break in Australia. As the world heats up, it will go from annoyance to very real problem. </p>
<p>At present, very few solar developers are taking climate change into account when they buy their panels. They should, especially those operating in humid areas. They can be more careful while selecting a new solar farm location to ensure their modules have lower chances of failure due to degradation. </p>
<p>To fix the problem, we’ll need to incorporate new ways of cooling panels and improve the materials used. We also need to improve manufacturing processes and materials so we can stop moisture from accumulating inside the panels.</p>
<p>These issues can be fixed. The first step is to understand there is a problem. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sunlight-that-powers-solar-panels-also-damages-them-gallium-doping-is-providing-a-solution-164935">The sunlight that powers solar panels also damages them. 'Gallium doping' is providing a solution</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shukla Poddar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We’re going to build a lot more solar as we race to clean up the grid. But as the world heats up, solar will degrade faster in hot, humid areas. We need to plan ahead.Shukla Poddar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2182972024-01-09T21:00:50Z2024-01-09T21:00:50ZSmall-scale solar has key benefits, and one critical weakness, over large solar farms<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/small-scale-solar-has-key-benefits-and-one-critical-weakness-over-large-solar-farms" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>A new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-023-02254-x">study shows size matters</a> in solar energy. The first ever life-cycle analysis comparing big and small solar <a href="https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy/energy-sources-distribution/renewables/solar-photovoltaic-energy/7303">photovoltaic systems</a> has concluded that small-scale solar systems are in fact better for the environment than even the largest, and most efficient, solar farm. </p>
<p>Historically, <a href="https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/evolution-of-solar-pv-module-cost-by-data-source-1970-2020">solar electric systems were so expensive that many felt they could not pay for themselves</a>. Today’s reality could not be more different with renewables now the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/renewables-cheapest-form-power">cheapest form of energy in the global mix</a>. Not only that, solar panels can now <a href="https://doi.org/10.1115/SED2002-1051">easily repay the energy invested in their production many times over</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-australias-net-zero-transition-threatens-to-stall-rooftop-solar-could-help-provide-the-power-we-need-220050">As Australia's net zero transition threatens to stall, rooftop solar could help provide the power we need</a>
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<p>Today, the lowest solar costs are found in giant solar farms. This has led some to claim large solar operations are better for the environment. However, the new life cycle analysis that I coauthored with Riya Roy at the University of Western Ontario has similarly shown this is wrong too — smaller is better for the Earth.</p>
<h2>Solar is cheap and works in Canada</h2>
<p><a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2022/06/08/just-the-facts-the-cost-of-solar-has-fallen-more-quickly-than-experts-predicted/">Solar photovoltaic costs have dropped even faster than experts predicted</a> to the point that <a href="https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Solar-Is-Cheapest-Energy-Source-Says-IEA.html">solar electricity is normally the least expensive</a> source of power according to the International Energy Agency. </p>
<p>A recent study has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/en12040674">everyone that lives in Michigan</a> would have thicker wallets if they invested in rooftop solar instead of paying the local utility for — often out-of-state — coal-fired power. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-worth-investing-in-a-battery-for-your-rooftop-solar-heres-what-buyers-need-to-know-but-often-cant-find-out-209219">Is it worth investing in a battery for your rooftop solar? Here's what buyers need to know (but often can't find out)</a>
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<p>Indeed, solar is so cheap it can subsidize other energy devices. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/en14040834">solar-powered heat pumps are profitable for home owners</a> in the
northern United States and Canada as they offset the purchase of ‘natural’ gas. </p>
<p>Solar panels pay for the energy invested in them in less than a year even in Canada and they last for 25 years under warranty (but can last much longer). <a href="https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/emily-folk/effectiveness-of-solar-panels-during-the-winter-20201223">Solar panels actually get more efficient as the temperature gets colder,</a> and the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/101705582/Validating_Marion_and_Townsend_Snow_Shedding_Models_for_Solar_Photovoltaic_Systems">snow losses in most of Canada are actually modest</a> (only a few percent). You can even get a <a href="http://www.academia.edu/3081684/The_effect_of_spectral_albedo_on_amorphous_silicon_and_crystalline_silicon_solar_photovoltaic_device_performance">boost from snow albedo</a> (unless you have <a href="https://www.academia.edu/17524663/Impact_of_Snow_and_Ground_Interference_on_Photovoltaic_Electric_System_Performance">ground interference</a>). </p>
<p>As the climate continues to warm, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D2YA00310D">snow will sadly become even less of a problem for solar panels</a>.</p>
<p>Although solar power works great in Canada, to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/net-zero-emissions-2050.html">eliminate carbon emissions by 2050 and reach Canada’s commitments</a>, we will need a lot of solar panels. One study predicted we would need <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228">only one per cent of Canada’s agricultural land to offset all fossil fuels for electricity generation</a> if we installed large-scale solar farms — a seemingly modest amount of land.</p>
<p>This, however, begs the question: should we have a bunch of rooftop systems or a few super-large solar farms?</p>
<h2>Your roof or a solar farm?</h2>
<p>Although solar farms cost less money per unit energy for the utilities, it might be smarter to put solar on your roof. </p>
<p>Our life cycle analysis study compared rooftop solar systems to multi-megawatt utility-scale solar photovoltaic systems from production to decommission. We found rooftop solar systems require 21 per cent to 54 per cent less input energy, make 18 per cent to 59 per cent less carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions, and consume a reduced <a href="https://www.pbssocal.org/redefine/fact-check-how-much-water-does-solar-power-really-use">quantity of water</a> ranging from one per cent to 12 per cent per kilowatt-peak.</p>
<p>That means, the energy payback time of rooftop solar systems is approximately 51 per cent to 57 per cent lower than that of ground-mounted solar systems across all locations.</p>
<p>The primary reason for this huge advantage is that rooftop solar uses the existing infrastructure of the house or building and thus requires radically reduced material use as opposed to freestanding racks. Similarly, by putting the solar panels close to the <a href="https://circuitglobe.com/electrical-load.html">electric load</a>, transmission losses across the grid are reduced.</p>
<p>Overall, the <a href="https://www.treehugger.com/how-much-co-does-one-solar-panel-create-4868753">carbon dioxide payback time</a> was 378 to 428 per cent longer for ground mounted large-scale solar farms compared to rooftop solar for the same modules.</p>
<p>Although water use is dominated by the photovoltaic modules themselves, it is important to note that the water consumption for the utility scale ground rack is approximately six to 260 times that of the rooftop mounting structure depending upon variances in solar modules and mounting techniques.</p>
<h2>Or both?</h2>
<p>With these better environmental values, it might be tempting to conclude we should implement aggressive policies to encourage small-scale rooftop solar. This would provide for the most resilient infrastructure, save consumers a ton of money on electric bills and do good by the environment. </p>
<p>However, the plain truth is that, despite their clear benefits over large-scale operations, we simply do not have enough <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.01.001">rooftop area</a> to also cover needs like electrified heating and transportation. A mixed approach is needed.</p>
<p>We might consider for the additional solar power to come from agrivoltaics which purposefully combine solar with agriculture. Agrivoltaics has the advantage that it <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-shading-crops-with-solar-panels-can-improve-farming-lower-food-costs-and-reduce-emissions-202094">does not sacrifice agricultural land and indeed can lead to increased food production</a>. Agrivoltaics is highly profitable and is growing rapidly in the U.S., Asia and Europe and <a href="https://agrivoltaicscanada.ca/">agrivoltaics in Canada</a> has a strong foothold — with particularly <a href="https://theconversation.com/mixed-use-solar-and-agricultural-land-is-the-silver-bullet-albertas-conservatives-have-wished-for-212409">notable potential benefits for a post-fossil fuels Alberta</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/solar-panel-technology-is-set-to-be-turbo-charged-but-first-a-few-big-roadblocks-have-to-be-cleared-210723">Solar panel technology is set to be turbo-charged – but first, a few big roadblocks have to be cleared</a>
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<p>As is often the way, there is no one clear solution.</p>
<p>If you have an unshaded roof on your home or building then you should look for a local supplier to enjoy some cost savings on electricity. Likewise, if you own a farm consider installing agrivoltaics to grow more food while also making an additional income generating electricity to power our electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps. </p>
<p>Regardless, we can take heart in knowing that renewable solar electricity will no doubt play a key role in powering our world for years to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua M. Pearce has received funding for research from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Mitacs, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Defense, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In addition, his past and present consulting work and research is funded by the United Nations, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, many non-profits and for-profit companies in the energy and solar photovoltaic fields. He is a founding member of Agrivoltaics Canada. He does not directly work for any solar manufacturer and has no direct conflicts of interests. </span></em></p>Looking to go solar? While small-scale solar delivers the best results with the least life-cycle impact, a mixed approach offers the best long-term path towards an all-electric future.Joshua M. Pearce, John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation and Professor, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2200502024-01-08T19:17:52Z2024-01-08T19:17:52ZAs Australia’s net zero transition threatens to stall, rooftop solar could help provide the power we need<p>Australia is not rolling out clean energy projects nearly fast enough to reach the Australian government’s target of 82% renewable electricity by 2030. A <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-06/australia-likely-to-fall-short-of-82pc-renewable-energy-target/102689392">huge build</a> of solar and wind farms, transmission lines and big batteries is needed. But progress is challenged by the scale required, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-beat-rollout-rage-the-environment-versus-climate-battle-dividing-regional-australia-213863">community resistance to new infrastructure</a> and connecting all that new renewable electricity to the grid.</p>
<p>In the latest obstacle to expanding renewable energy capacity in the longer term, federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/plibersek-delivers-massive-blow-to-victorian-wind-hub-20240108-p5evqq">knocked back</a> a plan by the Victorian government to build a sea terminal to service offshore wind farms, saying it posed “clearly unacceptable” environmental risks.</p>
<p>The roadblocks facing large projects present an opportunity to ramp up the contribution of small-scale technologies in the energy transition. Recently, federal and state energy ministers agreed on the need for <a href="https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/news/energy-ministers-identify-key-areas-to-reinvigorate-australias-energy-transformation">a national roadmap</a> and a co-ordinated approach to integrating into the grid what they call <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/ministers-put-consumer-energy-on-agenda-is-this-a-turning-point-or-groundhog-day/amp/">“consumer energy resources”</a> (CER), which include batteries, electric vehicles and rooftop solar.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-973" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/973/534c98def812dd41ac56cc750916e2922539729b/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>More than <a href="https://apvi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/National-Survey-Report-of-PV-Power-Applications-in-AUSTRALIA-2022.pdf">one in three</a> Australian houses have solar panels on their roofs. Australia <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-31/how-rooftop-solar-panels-transformed-energy-in-australia/102987100">leads the world</a> in rooftop solar per head. During the past year these systems generated <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2023-04/apo-nid322455.pdf">close to 10%</a> of our electricity. Several times over the past few months, they even provided enough electricity to <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/rooftop-solar-meets-all-of-south-australia-demand-in-major-new-milestone/">briefly meet all</a> South Australia’s electricity demand.</p>
<p>And the technology still has great potential to grow: although installed capacity has doubled in the last four years, these systems cover only about 10% of <a href="https://www.cefc.com.au/insights/market-reports/how-much-rooftop-solar-can-be-installed-in-australia/">Australia’s estimated usable roof area</a>. So, how large a share of our electricity needs might rooftop solar provide? The answers are not simple.</p>
<h2>Why rooftop solar presents a challenge for the grid</h2>
<p>In electricity systems, demand and supply must be balanced at all times. The <a href="https://aemo.com.au/en">Australian Energy Market Operator</a> (AEMO) runs the grid and keeps it secure to avoid blackouts in case of unexpected events such as the sudden disconnection of a transmission line. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-homes-can-be-made-climate-ready-reducing-bills-and-emissions-a-new-report-shows-how-219113">Australian homes can be made climate-ready, reducing bills and emissions – a new report shows how</a>
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<p>To meet demand, every five minutes AEMO dispatches electricity from large-scale generators such as coal-fired power stations or large solar farms. As the grid operator, AEMO must also procure reserve capacity to balance any differences in demand and maintain security.</p>
<p>But AEMO does not dispatch power from rooftop solar, which is either used on site, or flows into the grid independently of AEMO’s control. This isn’t usually a problem, since AEMO keeps the grid balanced by forecasting how much rooftop solar is being generated.</p>
<p>However, if rooftop solar generates the majority of power in a particular region, there may not be enough dispatchable generation and reserves online to keep the grid balanced and secure. Grid security can also be challenged when <a href="https://aemo.com.au/en/initiatives/major-programs/nem-distributed-energy-resources-der-program/operations/der-behaviour-during-disturbances">unexpected events</a> trigger the safety settings of rooftop solar systems and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114283">cause them to disconnect</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hyped-and-expensive-hydrogen-has-a-place-in-australias-energy-transition-but-only-with-urgent-government-support-219004">Hyped and expensive, hydrogen has a place in Australia’s energy transition, but only with urgent government support</a>
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<p>The other big issue for grid balance is that the network businesses that manage the poles, wires and other infrastructure connecting generators to homes and businesses need to ensure that voltages remain <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341931377_Voltage_Analysis_of_the_LV_Distribution_Network_in_the_Australian_National_Electricity_Market_Available_at_httpsprod-energycouncilenergyslicedtechcomaulv-voltage-report">within defined technical limits</a> to avoid damaging equipment or appliances. When solar generates a lot of power at a time of low electricity demand, voltage can exceed the upper operational limit. Voltage can also go below the lower operational limit when too many people connect big appliances like air-conditioners. </p>
<p>So how are we managing the three challenges of rooftop solar: lack of controllability by the market operator, uncertain behaviour during unexpected grid events and impact on network voltage?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/green-growth-or-degrowth-what-is-the-right-way-to-tackle-climate-change-218239">Green growth or degrowth: what is the right way to tackle climate change?</a>
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<h2>Ways to manage and expand rooftop solar</h2>
<p>Current Australian standards require solar to automatically disconnect when voltage gets too high. Network businesses also pre-emptively manage this problem by preventing customers in areas where voltage is an issue from connecting solar to the grid, or by limiting the size of solar systems they can connect or the amount of electricity they can export to the grid at any time. But this approach is potentially unfair to those customers who can’t connect or export.</p>
<p>The good news is that standards introduced in 2020 provide more sophisticated ways of managing solar through <a href="https://www.ceem.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/CANVAS-Succinct-Final-Report_11.11.21.pdf">more gradual voltage response</a>, and by requiring systems to ride through major disturbances rather than disconnecting. Some networks have also developed <a href="https://www.sapowernetworks.com.au/your-power/smarter-energy/flexible-exports/fixed-v-flexible/">solar-friendly ways</a> to cut off surplus output “dynamically”, meaning only at times when they have to.</p>
<p>Thanks to these measures, solar customers face less constraint on exporting power to the grid. However, since solar sometimes now supplies most of the generation in South Australia, AEMO has also <a href="https://aemo.com.au/-/media/files/learn/fact-sheets/pv-rooftop-solar-consumer-fact-sheet.pdf">tested disconnection of solar</a> to increase its control of the grid in case of threats to system security.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-nuclear-the-answer-to-australias-climate-crisis-216891">Is nuclear the answer to Australia's climate crisis?</a>
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<p>Some of these solar management tools are still quite blunt and <a href="https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/solar-switch-off-how-aemo-took-control-of-rooftop-pv-and-why-it-didnt-need-to/">some commentators</a> worry they will be overused. While necessary in the short-term, if unchecked they will reduce our ability to realise our rooftop solar potential.</p>
<h2>Getting smarter about when we use power</h2>
<p>There is another way to use our solar systems more effectively: we can shift energy use to times when the sun is shining, and store energy – in batteries, electric vehicles and <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/electric-hot-water-is-a-hero-of-flexible-demand-where-does-it-stand-in-the-age-of-rooftop-solar/">hot water tanks</a> – <a href="https://ieefa.org/resources/saturation-der-modelling-shows-distributed-energy-and-storage-could-lower-costs-all">to use when it is not</a>.</p>
<p>To make such a change, consumer electricity prices are a potential lever. Solar customers already have an incentive to use electricity from their own rooftop systems, because they pay more for grid electricity than they are paid to sell solar back to the grid.</p>
<p>South Australia and some other network areas <a href="https://www.aer.gov.au/system/files/Ausgrid%20-%20Att.%208.1%20-%20Tariff%20Structure%20Statement%20compliance%20paper%20%20-%2031%20Jan%202023%20-%20Public.pdf">are introducing</a> low “solar soak” rates to encourage all customers to use electricity in high solar times, such as the middle of the day. Times of plentiful solar also tend to be the <a href="https://opennem.org.au/">cheapest times to buy wholesale electricity from the grid</a>, and innovative retailers like <a href="https://www.amber.com.au/">Amber Electric</a> are passing through these price signals to customers.</p>
<p>However, typical retail plans offered to customers don’t provide much incentive to change patterns of electricity use, especially since many customers are understandably not focused on their electricity bills or <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368464625_Engaging_households_in_electricity_flexibility_-_insights_from_the_UK">cannot easily shift</a> their power use.</p>
<p>In these cases orchestration schemes, often called “virtual power plants,” are an option. Under the schemes, a business will <a href="https://www.ceem.unsw.edu.au/publication/rewarding-residential-electricity-flexibility-customer-friendly-cost-reflective-tariffs">reward household customers</a> that allow it to operate their rooftop solar, batteries, appliances, electric vehicles and hot water systems in ways that reduce costs or grid impacts.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-new-dawn-becoming-a-green-superpower-with-a-big-role-in-cutting-global-emissions-216373">Australia's new dawn: becoming a green superpower with a big role in cutting global emissions</a>
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<p>Better management of electricity use through these schemes can make room for the grid to take on more solar.</p>
<p>Recent trials in Western Australia (<a href="https://www.wa.gov.au/government/announcements/project-symphony-paving-the-way-our-brighter-energy-future">Project Symphony</a>) and Victoria (<a href="https://aemo.com.au/initiatives/major-programs/nem-distributed-energy-resources-der-program/der-demonstrations/project-edge/project-edge-reports">Project EDGE</a>) prove orchestration can work. Nevertheless, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629621003030?via%3Dihub">people will need good reasons</a> to hand over control of their solar, batteries and appliances, particularly if they bought expensive equipment such as batteries <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629623003018?via%3Dihub">for back-up power or to increase their energy independence</a>.</p>
<p>It would be a major setback to the net zero transition if AEMO and network businesses, lacking better options for managing the grid, continue to cut back and switch off solar systems until people find it unattractive to purchase them.</p>
<p>The new <a href="https://switchedon.reneweconomy.com.au/content/finally-a-national-roadmap-for-decarbonising-homes-and-communities">CER roadmap</a> needs to provide clear guidance on how AEMO and network businesses can manage rooftop solar, and other technologies such as batteries and EVs. Good governance arrangements and meaningful stakeholder consultation are essential if Australia is to maintain the momentum of its people-powered energy transition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Bruce receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Race for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Australian PV Institute.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Baran Yildiz receives funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the RACE for 2030 Cooperative Research Australia. Baran is a member of International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Heating & Cooling Programme Task 69.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dani Alexander receives funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the RACE for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre. Dani previously was the Business Program Leader for the RACE for 2030 CRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Roberts receives funding from the Race for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre, the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, and Essential Energy. He is a former director of the Australian PV Institute.</span></em></p>Australia leads the world in rooftop solar per head. Can this small-scale power source be the secret weapon to fire up our struggling transition to net zero?Anna Bruce, Associate Professor in the Collaboration on Energy and Environmental Markets and the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, UNSW SydneyBaran Yildiz, Senior Research Associate, UNSW SydneyDani Alexander, CEO, UNSW Energy Institute, UNSW SydneyMike Roberts, Senior Research Fellow in the Collaboration on Energy and Environmental Markets and the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2147552023-10-23T07:55:17Z2023-10-23T07:55:17ZVictims of the green energy boom? The Indonesians facing eviction over a China-backed plan to turn their island into a solar panel ‘ecocity’<p>I first visited Rempang island in Summer 2022. Greeting me were lush fields lined with coconut and banana trees, picture-book fishing villages with houses jutting into the water on stilts, and boats carrying people between the dozens of islands that dot the Riau archipelago in western Indonesia. I had made the pleasant, one-hour ferry trip from bustling, glass-and-chrome Singapore. This felt like another world.</p>
<p>My hosts (an environmental lawyer and an indigenous Melayu community organiser) and I had reached Rempang from the economic hub of Riau Islands province: the special manufacturing, trade and logistics zone of <a href="https://www.indonesia.travel/uk/en/destinations/sumatra/batam">Batam</a>. We had gone from Batam to Rempang by crossing one of the six metal bridges that connect the islands of Batam, Rempang and Galang. This network of bridges has turned the islands into an economic zone, now called the Barelang region. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/konflik-rempang-bagaimana-proyek-transisi-energi-yang-didukung-cina-justru-merampas-lahan-rakyat-bagian-1-216178">Konflik Rempang: bagaimana proyek transisi energi yang didukung Cina justru merampas lahan rakyat (bagian 1)</a>
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<p>My ongoing research is investigating how the international quest for green energy is reliant on “sacrificial zones” in developing countries. The transition to green energy, far from creating a green new deal for all, is actually reinforcing entrenched inequalities and hierarchies.</p>
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<img alt="Large suspension bridge" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552772/original/file-20231009-19-qgpzcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552772/original/file-20231009-19-qgpzcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552772/original/file-20231009-19-qgpzcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552772/original/file-20231009-19-qgpzcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552772/original/file-20231009-19-qgpzcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552772/original/file-20231009-19-qgpzcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552772/original/file-20231009-19-qgpzcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Batam Rempang Galang Bridge (Barelang). This bridge connects Batam Island with Rempang Island and Galang Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/batam-rempang-galang-bridge-barelang-this-2099136529">Shutterstock/NPCplastik</a></span>
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<p>I became interested in Rempang when I saw news reports heralding a renewable energy revolution. Companies from Singapore, Portugal and beyond were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/sunseap-build-2-bln-floating-solar-farm-indonesia-worlds-largest-2021-07-22/">signing agreements</a> to build vast floating solar farms in local reservoirs in the Batam region. The plan was that the clean energy produced would be transported from the sunlit western Indonesian islands of Batam, Bulan, and Rempang to energy intensive Singapore via undersea cable.</p>
<p>But on reaching the islands, and visiting the sites named in the news reports, I saw no sign of green energy activity. The waters were placid. There was no solar farm in sight. I shrugged, met friends, ate the freshest possible seafood at a small <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelong">Kelong</a> restaurant that was half on land and half in the sea, and went back to Singapore on the ferry. </p>
<h2>‘A state-backed land grab’</h2>
<p>My return a year later could not have been more different. The atmosphere was tense and the roads were lined with armed police. Large military trucks moved ominously on the tar, monitoring the situation. Villagers stood around in clusters, anxious and clutching at straws of information trickling through on WhatsApp and word of mouth about what seemed to be a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/44609/chapter/393367359">state-backed land grab</a>.</p>
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p>People were protesting because the 16 villages and 7,500 inhabitants of Rempang are facing eviction, as plans to transform their home into the latest hub for the global green transition gather apace. The Indonesian government and a Chinese-backed business consortium want to <a href="https://time.com/6313609/indonesia-rempang-eco-city-protests-china/">move the entire community</a> to another island and turn their home into a huge solar panel manufacturing centre, solar farm, and “ecocity”.</p>
<p>Videos filmed by residents from sites of protest show armed military and police clashing with the farmers and fishers of Rempang. The videos, some of which have been posted on social media, show people being thrown to the ground, bleeding, apparently roughed up by state forces. There have been many arrests. I regularly hear from friends and acquaintances who tell me that police and government authorities have taken to summoning suspected protestors, examining their phones for incriminating evidence, and looking into their home, work lives and tax affairs. Residents are clear this is “harassment” and “pressure” to give up their land and withdraw from the struggle. </p>
<p>Alongside large and publicised confrontations, the residents of Rempang are resisting the everyday encroachments of the proposed project. In local, spontaneous opposition in affected villages, women, including mothers and grandmothers in veils, have blocked roads, preventing government officials from entering villages to measure their land. Videos show them wailing as armed police approach. In others, young girls and old women can be seen in a semi-conscious state, being taken to hospital after apparent tear gassing.</p>
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<p>But how did things move so fast? From April 2023, news had begun to filter in that a well-connected businessman from Jakarta, who reportedly made his money and reputation <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/dili-tycoon-deal-triggers-alarm-20090502-aqtj.html">through businesses operated</a> on behalf of the Indonesian military, before turning to <a href="https://www.tatlerasia.com/people/tomy-winata">banking and real estate</a>, was to build a “township” on Rempang.</p>
<p>By August, the better informed in the community had gathered that the planned Rempang project was to be a collaboration between Tomy Winata’s Artha Graha Group, and a Chinese “glass manufacturer”. By September, Winata himself <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1775361/tomy-winata-its-just-miscommunication">was granting interviews</a> and talking about his plans for an ecocity. <a href="https://futuresoutheastasia.com/rempang-eco-city/">The project</a> – which has the enthusiastic blessings of the Batam economic zone authorities, the provincial government of Riau Islands, and importantly, the central government in Jakarta – is imminent. </p>
<p>It will displace 16 villages on Rempang island and will cover a mind boggling 17,000 hectares (one square hectare is roughly equivalent to one rugby field). As residents discussed these figures among themselves, they lobbed questions at me: “Why do they need so much land?” and “what will they even do with it?”</p>
<p>An elderly, mild mannered fisherman I spoke to in August, who was trying to organise resistance to what was then still a mysterious investment pushed by Jakarta and China said he was worried about the community being relocated:</p>
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<p>People here have history. Their whole story is in this area. They love this land. They live here. You can make your project here. Welcome. But build it in an empty area. Whatever you do, don’t disturb us. Keep us here, give jobs to our children … When people ask me, where is your village, I say it is Bapke [pseudonym]. Later, what will I say? Our identity will be lost.</p>
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<h2>From trickles of information to violence</h2>
<p>On first learning about the Rempang project, residents petitioned different layers of government, sought meetings, and even went to Jakarta to try and meet officials. Finding them unresponsive, people contemplated taking to the streets.</p>
<p>By mid-August, groups were meeting at local cafes and in the homes of community leaders. They were determined not to give up their land. One member of a group that was congregating in Batam told me “there is a meeting of Melayu youth to plan a protest at Barelang [bridge], and at the mayor’s office [in Batam]. We are here to discuss the situation. We will protest in the coming days”.</p>
<p>By the last week of August, there were demonstrations organised by the community at various locations in Rempang and Batam, and by civil society organisations in Jakarta. Soon, my contacts were talking about “clashes between the community and BP Batam” (<a href="https://bpbatam.go.id/en/profile/background/">the authority in charge</a> of the Batam free trade zone), and larger and larger demonstrations involving not just Rempang residents, but ethnic Melayus from the surrounding islands as well. At these early protests, police forces were present, there was tension, but no violence.</p>
<p>Despite growing opposition, authorities dismissed popular discontent as “<a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2023/09/14/jokowi-downplays-rempang-riot-as-miscommunication.html">miscommunication</a>”. As reported in the press, increasingly incensed residents began to resort to violence, <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/rempang-eco-city-batam-indonesia-riot-bp-xinyi-3764671?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=channelnewsasia%2Fmagazine%2FCNA">using rocks and glass bottles</a>. These were desperate measures from increasingly desperate people facing the might of the state.</p>
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<img alt="Protestors on the streets holding banners." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552754/original/file-20231009-21-j7gcb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552754/original/file-20231009-21-j7gcb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552754/original/file-20231009-21-j7gcb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552754/original/file-20231009-21-j7gcb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552754/original/file-20231009-21-j7gcb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552754/original/file-20231009-21-j7gcb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552754/original/file-20231009-21-j7gcb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Hundreds of people staged a protest against the Rempang ecocity project in central Jakarta on September 20, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jakarta-indonesia-september-20-2023-hundreds-2365501927">Shutterstock/KevinHerbian</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2023/09/17/govt-insists-on-rempang-project-following-visit-by-ministers-police.html">Local</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/15/protests-in-indonesia-as-thousands-face-eviction-for-rempang-eco">international media</a>, which had initially ignored the Rempang issue, was finally <a href="https://time.com/6313609/indonesia-rempang-eco-city-protests-china/">covering it</a> amid escalating “<a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2023/09/13/police-arrest-43-after-riot-over-china-backed-rempang-city-project.html">rioting</a>” at Rempang.</p>
<p>A Melayu youth messaged me on Whatsapp recently, saying: “I was called to the police station for questioning … I went through the investigation process [for many hours] regarding the case at [location X]. There was a clash between community and authorities which resulted in eight people being sent to prison.”</p>
<h2>Ecocity and mega solar panel production facility</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, preparations for the Rempang development have continued apace. It appears that as early as 2004, the Indonesian company PT Makmur Elok Graha (PT MEG), which is part of the Artha Graha Group, secured permission from the Batam Regional People’s Representative Council to <a href="https://ugm.ac.id/en/news/rempang-conflict-land-disputes-triggered-by-development-project/">develop Rempang</a>. The understanding at the time was for a tourism zone, covering <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/27/how-a-china-deal-put-the-homes-of-thousands-of-indonesians-at-risk">5,000 hectares</a>. Existing villages were to be preserved in this plan.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tweet from Amnesty International." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552962/original/file-20231010-19-c6innt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Amnesty International is trying to draw attention to the islanders’ situation on social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/amnestyindo/status/1708679798720180432">X</a></span>
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<p>Nothing came of the agreement with PT MEG, until 2023. Earlier in 2023, representatives of PT MEG visited houses of notable locals in Rempang and indicated their intention to survey the land. According to one such local businessperson and community leader, the company did not inform him about what they intended to build. However, in a neighbouring village, some people say they were told about a survey for a glass factory, and in yet another, there was apparently talk of a hotel. </p>
<p>Now, in October 2023, the official business and government plans have revealed a much larger development than was suggested in 2004. The “Rempang ecocity” will be an industrial, service, and tourism area, as envisioned in the National Strategic Programme (PSN) of 2023. It is a joint venture between <a href="https://bpbatam.go.id/en/profile/background/">BP Batam</a> (which incorporates the free trade zone and Free Port Management Agency) and PT MEG. <a href="https://futuresoutheastasia.com/rempang-eco-city/">The project aims to attract investment</a> of about 381 trillion Indonesian Rupiah (Rp) by 2080, creating jobs for 30,000 workers. This equates to around US$24.8 billion or £20 billion. </p>
<p>Crucially, there is a major international investor: the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/27/how-a-china-deal-put-the-homes-of-thousands-of-indonesians-at-risk">world’s largest manufacturer of glass and solar panels</a>, China’s <a href="https://www.xinyiglass.com/en/">Xinyi Glass</a>. And the “glass factory” is no ordinary enterprise. It is a mega-investment from Xinyi which has reportedly pledged US$11.6 billion for the factory over several decades. In return, it seems, they have been promised Rempang’s land. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150.2020.1764542">my previous research</a> I called a similar zone of special economic interest in India, “hydra-like”. That’s because these sought after zones change shape, name and purpose according to what’s profitable at a particular point in time. And what’s profitable in Indonesia, and the world today, is the transition to green energy. Therefore, the showpiece of the Rempang ecocity proposal is the mega solar panel manufacturing facility that will probably supply the world with solar panels in the near future.</p>
<p>In the existing vision of the ecocity, there will be <a href="https://futuresoutheastasia.com/rempang-eco-city/">several zones</a> for industries, commercial and residential purposes, tourism, solar farms, and wildlife and nature. Rempang currently sustains farmers, fishers, seaweed processors and exporters, traders and shopkeepers, seafood kelongs, ten primary schools, three junior high schools, a senior school, hospitals, tourist guest houses and more. But it seems there is no place for this community in the futuristic vision of “green” Rempang. </p>
<h2>A project of strategic importance</h2>
<p>The proposed solar panel manufacturing facility, and the Rempang ecocity, may be a portent of a globalised production boom that the government of Indonesia, and its partner countries like China, envision for this region. This economic vision intends to draw on Indonesia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/jobless-youth-raise-risk-of-indonesias-demographic-bonus-turning-into-disaster-50402">young and cheap labour</a>, its land and natural resources like silica, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/aae97af3-02ac-4723-a6fd-dbb0e5de55ff">nickel and cobalt</a>, and its willingness for regulatory flexibility. </p>
<p>It is this flexibility that made the government declare the proposed Rempang ecocity as a <a href="https://www.eco-business.com/opinion/why-has-batams-rempang-eco-city-national-project-become-a-controversy/#:%7E:text=Rempang%27s%20Eco%2DCity%20was%20upgraded,US%2425%20billion">Project of National Strategic Importance</a>, allowing it <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/886/1/012071/pdf">to bypass social and environmental impact assessments, and acquire land quickly</a>.</p>
<p>The strategic importance of the Rempang project has not been lost on my contacts in Rempang. One of them speculated that the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/16/headway/indonesia-nusantara-jakarta.html">government’s plans</a> to build a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tale-of-two-cities-why-indonesia-is-planning-a-new-capital-on-borneo-and-abandoning-jakarta-podcast-181134#:%7E:text=Indonesia%20plans%20to%20move%20its,island%20of%20Borneo%20called%20Nusantara.">new capital city on Borneo</a> could be a motive for closer relations with China. They wondered whether the money for the new capital Nusantara would come from China, and whether that was why their land in Rempang had been “gifted” to the Chinese.</p>
<p>Another said: “Did they ask us? No. They only value investment. Not people.” Still others draw links with China’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/china-belt-road-initiative-44606">Belt and Road Initiative</a>, which has invested heavily in Indonesian infrastructure.</p>
<p>Not far from Rempang is one such investment: the series of bridges that will connect two of the largest islands in Riau province: the Batam-Bintan bridge project spread over <a href="https://batamterminal.com/7-km-batam-bintan-bridge-project/">7 kilometres</a>. Funded by the China-led <a href="https://www.aiib.org/en/projects/details/2022/special-fund/Indonesia-Support-for-Indonesia-Batam-Bintan-Bridge-Project.html">Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank</a>, the bridge will make it even easier to manufacture on Indonesia’s westernmost islands and carry this produce by road and sea to Singapore and the rest of the world.</p>
<p>The Rempang project may also be part of a looming trade war between China, the US and the EU. In 2022, China manufactured <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/17/1173250926/solar-power-eu-germany-china">three quarters of the world’s solar panels</a> and produced 97% of the silicon wafers that go into them. So far, the bulk of this production has been in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, which have a poor human rights record towards minorities like Uyghurs. Concerns around forced labour and Uyghur “re-education” camps, have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/25/us-bans-target-chinese-solar-panel-industry-over-xinjiang-forced-labor-concerns">attracted sanctions from the west</a>.</p>
<p>This has come with protectionist policies towards <a href="https://www.unpri.org/download?ac=17824">emerging solar industries in the EU and America</a>. That is, to encourage national renewables manufacturing and create much needed green jobs, western governments are ready to generously subsidise manufacturers, while heavily taxing imports from competitors like China. <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/media-reaction-us-inflation-reduction-act-and-the-global-clean-energy-arms-race/">This international trade tussle</a> begs the question: does mass solar industrial manufacturing in a third country allow China to bypass sanctions and retain its domination of global solar panel manufacturing?</p>
<h2>Sand: a critical resource in the renewables push</h2>
<p>We know that the <a href="https://www.iea.org/topics/critical-minerals">green transition will require critical minerals</a> like cobalt, lithium and nickel to produce electric vehicles, solar cells and wind turbines. Indonesia has some of the world’s <a href="https://www.energymonitor.ai/extractive-industries/the-top-ten-critical-minerals-powerhouses-of-the-energy-transition/?cf-view">largest deposits of nickel and cobalt</a>, making it extremely attractive for countries and companies involved in the renewables push. </p>
<p>Rempang is not known for critical mineral or metal deposits. Yet, apart from its strategic location in the South China Sea, overlooking Singapore, Rempang is sitting on a crucial resource in the renewables transition: sand. Rempang, and its surrounding islands are abundant in silica and quartz sand, which is the <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/from-sand-to-solar-panels-unveiling-the-journey-of-solar-panel-manufacturing">base material for the manufacture of glass, and solar panels</a>.</p>
<p>Mass mining of sand is considered a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/27/sand-mining-global-environmental-crisis-never-heard">global environmental crisis that often goes unreported</a>. The world over, a push for infrastructure and urbanisation is founded on massive supplies of cement and concrete, which are made from sand. By 2060, the world is expected to require <a href="https://theweek.com/news/science-health/960931/why-is-the-world-running-out-of-sand#">4.6 billion tonnes of sand</a>. The hunger for solar panels is part of this global sand rush.</p>
<p>Indonesia is at the heart of the sand trade. For years, it has supplied sand to Singapore. Official figures suggest that between 1997-2002 alone, Singapore imported 150 million tonnes of sand from Indonesia. Between 1999-2019, Singapore has shipped in <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-scraps-two-decade-ban-on-sea-sand-exports">517 million tonnes of sand </a> from neighbours like Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia. </p>
<p>Riau Islands are directly affected, with several islands shrinking significantly in area due to legal and illegal sand export to Singapore. <a href="https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/indonesia-resume-sand-exports-raising-fears">About a quarter of Singapore</a>, including iconic spaces like Marina Bay Sands and the luxury beach and resort area of Sentosa <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/sentosa-history-50-years-golden-jubilee-2547546">are built on reclaimed land</a> with imported sand. The losers in this process of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/44609/chapter-abstract/393367359?redirectedFrom=fulltext">land-making</a> have been fishworkers, and others dependent on coastal land and waters, including my contacts in the Riau Islands. Fishworkers I have met speak of muddied waters, islands disappearing and drastic reduction in fish and seaweed at the peak of the sand trade.</p>
<p>In 2003, facing irreversible environmental harm, including rising seawater owing to reduced sand and mangrove plant buffers, Indonesia banned the sand trade. Yet, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5359d629-365c-4cd5-94dd-49eb168be1a2">illegal trade in sand went on</a>. In 2023, <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-scraps-two-decade-ban-on-sea-sand-exports">sand is back on the government’s agenda</a> as a legally <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/press/58968/sea-sand-export-returns-after-a-20-year-ban/">tradeable commodity</a>. Rempang is very likely to face the repercussions of renewed sand mining.</p>
<h2>Compensation: a drop in the ocean</h2>
<p>The ecocity and solar panel project are a priority for the government of Indonesia. Ministers have now been deployed to the site to convince locals to support the project, and to hear them out. This includes the investment minister, <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1773595/minister-bahlil-visits-rempang-island-to-find-best-solution-without-violence">Bahlil Lahadalia</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, residents were handed an eviction date of September 28, 2023. Representatives of <a href="https://bpbatam.go.id/en/">BP Batam</a> told them to sign consent forms by mid-September or risk losing the compensation on offer. Finally, villagers were made aware of the terms of compensation: a 45-square metre house, on 500 square metres of land. The house and land is estimated to cost around Rp120 million, or £6,257.</p>
<p>Residents rejected the compensation, with some instead demanding a 70-sq metre house, 1,000sq metres of land, and Rp200 million in cash. As a political commentator indicated <a href="https://kbanews.com/english-edition/land-and-cultural-conflict-in-rempang-balancing-progress-and-heritage/">in the local press</a>, if the government were to meet this higher demand, it would cost them Rp1.04 trillion for compensating all residents. When the proposed investment in the ecocity is Rp381 trillion, what is a compensation amount of a little under 0.3% of the total cost? </p>
<p>While the government is finally in talks with people at Rempang, and as compensation is being discussed, some people have already signed relocation papers. Some say they have been under intense pressure to do so. </p>
<p>This, however, is not the narrative being pushed by BP Batam which is now trying to win a PR war. In its latest press release <a href="https://bpbatam.go.id/en/progres-rempang-eco-city-25-kk-sudah-tempati-hunian-sementara/">it claimed</a> “most residents at some point have voluntarily accepted the shift”. It quoted the head of BP Batam, Muhammad Rudi, as saying, “there is no coercion or intervention,” and that the choice to be relocated was being made “purely from the hearts of the people” who support the ecocity project.</p>
<p>But others are holding out, convinced that “the Melayu cannot be bought”, or moved from their land. The idea that the local Melayu community is not for sale was repeated by many of my contacts. The powerful slogan was also printed on posters that have gone up in Rempang villages in the gathering movement against the glass factory and ecocity.</p>
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<p>Rumours and threats that the resistance at Rempang will lead to the cancellation of the project are beginning to be circulated. These have been <a href="https://inp.polri.go.id/2023/09/20/minister-luhut-confident-in-xinyi-groups-rempang-investment-amid-conflicts/">denied</a> at the highest levels but protests have forced the government to postpone the eviction date, even as they remain determined to start solar panel production at Rempang by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-27/indonesia-to-build-25-billion-project-rocked-by-violent-clashes?leadSource=uverify%20wall">2024</a>. The government has also been compelled to <a href="https://voi.id/en/economy/314059">negotiate with protestors</a> regarding compensation, and has shifted the site of relocation from Galang Island to <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/front-row/2023/10/02/visit-to-tanjung-banon-indicates-eco-city-development-is-near.html">Tanjung Banon</a>, a district in the south-eastern corner of Rempang.</p>
<p>There is also talk of a phased relocation and a reduced project area. Some in the government have suggested that shifting within the same island, and fishing just a few kilometres past their old homes, can hardly even be called relocation. But for those who continue to resist the project, their only true home is where they currently live, and where their histories lie. Having had to reckon with relocation, residents are asking fundamental questions like: where will our children study? And, will the solar panel factory displace <a href="https://voi.id/en/news/311679">Melayu ancestral graves</a>?</p>
<p>After fighting alone for their rights for months, the people of Rempang finally have assistance from civil society groups and legal aid organisations. In August 2023, a civil society activist from Jakarta told me “there are too many resource and land conflicts in Indonesia. Something or other is always happening on our 17,500 islands. It is hard to keep up, and be involved in everything”.</p>
<p>But from September, <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1775087/civil-coalition-opens-legal-aid-post-in-rempang">prominent civil society groups</a> are assisting the residents of Rempang with a strategy for pushing back. Legal aid has been offered to them relating to their land rights as long-term residents – some of whom trace their connection to Rempang at least to the <a href="https://www.foei.org/rempang-island-indonesia-solidarity/">early 1800s</a>.</p>
<h2>The green transition’s collateral damage?</h2>
<p>My contacts at Rempang had been contemptuous of the suggested shift to Galang Island, and are not impressed by the alternate, smaller site at Tanjung Banon either. One said: “How can you take people from 16 villages, and put them in one small island? There will be conflict over land, and fishing. We are all fishers.” Adding to this incredulity is the idea that the government could even consider moving them to Galang — an island they know as the “Vietnamese refugee island”.</p>
<p>Galang housed boat people from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos under the auspices of the <a href="https://refugeecamps.net/GalangCamp.html">UNHCR between 1975-1996</a>. These were refugees in limbo, as they sought clearance of paperwork to emigrate to richer countries like the US and Australia. More recently, Galang housed the area’s main <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2022/12/22/galang-island-covid-emergency-hospital-closes.html">COVID emergency hospital</a>. People I am speaking to are understandably furious at being seen as “residue” by their own government – successors to a land that housed refugees and the sick and dying that needed to be isolated from the rest of society.</p>
<p>It is easy to understand the fury of those being left behind, or even trodden on, in the global march for greener energy. These local populations are, sometimes literally, at the coalface of the transition, yet their needs – and sometimes even their human rights – are deemed of little importance. </p>
<p>It is often Chinese investment, which makes the <a href="https://time.com/6313609/indonesia-rempang-eco-city-protests-china/">headlines</a>. But my ongoing research makes it clear that local people as residue is at the heart of this area’s longstanding development model. Indeed, as my <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dech.12742">writing on the global south</a> more broadly shows, colonial and postcolonial development, and continuing north-south structural inequalities are built on the idea of the residual, racialised, inferior “other”. </p>
<p>The transition to green energy is reinforcing these long-held hierarchies. Events in Rempang are just the tip of the iceberg, as the poorer areas of the south become suppliers in the world’s energy needs.</p>
<p>Batam, and its neighbouring islands in Riau, were first conceptualised as an oil trading and logistics zone by US companies and fossil fuel contractors in the late 1960s. The US had aligned with the military <a href="https://theconversation.com/backgrounder-what-we-know-about-indonesias-1965-anti-communist-purge-66338">General Suharto</a>, against left-leaning nationalist President Sukarno in the fraught Cold War context. With US support, Suharto’s dictatorial New Order ruled Indonesia from 1968-98. </p>
<p>The US was the biggest oil producer in Indonesia at this time, with <a href="https://www.caltex.com/id/en/about-us/who-we-are/our-journey.html">Caltex</a>, a joint venture between Texaco and Chevron, producing <a href="https://oilandgascourses.org/the-amazing-chevron-pacific-indonesia/">a million barrels of oil per day</a> at its peak. Batam, as a regional logistics – and then a manufacturing and services – hub, is a creation of the Suharto-era. It was a major outlet for the crude oil trade from Batam to Singapore, and further afield. It was also an inlet for refined oil, with western oil companies and their enablers in Indonesia hiving off profits at the expense of a decimated environment, and a <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2022/12/01/mining-capital-and-the-indonesian-state/">dispossessed local population</a>.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tale-of-two-cities-why-indonesia-is-planning-a-new-capital-on-borneo-and-abandoning-jakarta-podcast-181134">A tale of two cities: why Indonesia is planning a new capital on Borneo – and abandoning Jakarta. Podcast</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, people on the small islands around Batam receive between four and six hours of electricity a day from the public utility provider. They experience a sense of déjà vu, as their government starts yet another ambitious project with foreign companies. Once more, their resources are to be ploughed into a money-spinning investment. They will be residue, to be signed off the land. Except this time, in the hotbed of Rempang, they have decided to fight back.</p>
<p>As the world looks to up its green energy consumption, with attendant demands on resources like sand, land and water, we will do well to consider the likely winners and losers in this process. There is a lot of talk on climate and energy justice in international circles right now. The idea of a green energy transition that can be “<a href="https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/what-just-transition-and-why-it-important">just</a>” is absent from the volatile spaces of Rempang.</p>
<p>Faced with losing everything they call their own, the people of Rempang are not waiting for justice to be delivered to them. They are fighting for it on the ground. It might be the only way they will be heard, and counted, in the global green energy transition.</p>
<p><em>The Conversation approached the Indonesian government and the Artha Graha group for comments but none were received by time of publication.</em></p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/my-home-city-was-destroyed-by-war-but-i-will-not-lose-hope-how-modern-warfare-turns-neighbourhoods-into-battlefields-211627">‘My home city was destroyed by war but I will not lose hope’ – how modern warfare turns neighbourhoods into battlefields</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/beatrix-potters-famous-tales-are-rooted-in-stories-told-by-enslaved-africans-but-she-was-very-quiet-about-their-origins-202274">Beatrix Potter’s famous tales are rooted in stories told by enslaved Africans – but she was very quiet about their origins
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/invisible-windrush-how-the-stories-of-indian-indentured-labourers-from-the-caribbean-were-forgotten-206330">Invisible Windrush: how the stories of Indian indentured labourers from the Caribbean were forgotten
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</ul>
<p>_To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nikita Sud receives funding from the Oxford University Press supported John Fell Fund at Oxford University. Grant reference: 0012658.</span></em></p>The international quest for green energy is reliant on ‘sacrificial zones’ in developing countries.Nikita Sud, Professor of the Politics of Development, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2107232023-09-10T20:05:59Z2023-09-10T20:05:59ZSolar panel technology is set to be turbo-charged – but first, a few big roadblocks have to be cleared<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543607/original/file-20230821-255381-6ttzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6434%2C3939&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Solar panel technology has made enormous progress in the last two decades. In fact, the most advanced silicon solar cells produced today are <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01790">about as good</a> as the technology will get.</p>
<p>So what’s next? Enter “tandem solar cells”, the new generation in solar technology. They can convert a much greater portion of sunlight into electricity than conventional solar cells.</p>
<p>The technology promises to fast-track the global transition away from polluting sources of energy generation such as coal and gas. But there’s a major catch.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EE00952A">our new research</a> shows, current tandem solar cells must be redesigned if they’re to be manufactured at the scale required to become the climate-saving technology the planet needs. </p>
<h2>The solar story so far</h2>
<p>A solar cell is a device that turns sunlight into electricity. One important measure when it comes to solar cells is their efficiency – the proportion of sunlight they can convert into electricity.</p>
<p>Almost all solar panels we see today are made from “photovoltaic” silicon cells. When light hits the silicon cell, electrons inside it produce an electric current.</p>
<p>The first silicon photovoltaic cell, demonstrated in 1954 in the United States, had an <a href="https://www.science.org.au/curious/technology-future/solar-pv">efficiency of about 5%</a>. That means that for every unit of the Sun’s energy the cell received, 5% was turned into electricity.</p>
<p>But the technology has since developed. At the end of last year, <a href="https://www.longi.com/en/news/propelling-the-transformation/">Chinese solar manufacturer LONGi announced</a> a new world-record efficiency for silicon solar cells of 26.81%.</p>
<p>Silicon solar cells will never be able to convert 100% of the Sun’s energy into electricity. That’s mostly because an individual material can absorb only a limited proportion of the solar spectrum.</p>
<p>To help increase efficiency – and so continue to reduce the cost of solar electricity – new technology is needed. That’s where tandem solar cells come in.</p>
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<h2>A promising new leap</h2>
<p>Tandem solar cells use two different materials which absorb energy from the Sun together. In theory, it means the cell can absorb more of the solar spectrum – and so produce more electricity – than if just one material is used (such as silicon alone).</p>
<p>Using this approach, researchers overseas <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/05/30/kaust-claims-33-7-efficiency-for-perovskite-silicon-tandem-solar-cell/">recently achieved</a> a tandem solar cell efficiency of 33.7%. They <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adi6278">did this by</a> building a thin solar cell with a material called <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/engineering/our-schools/photovoltaic-and-renewable-energy-engineering/our-research/research-activities/perovskite-solar-cells">perovskite</a> directly on top of a traditional silicon solar cell. </p>
<p>Traditional silicon solar panels still dominate manufacturing. But leading solar manufacturers <a href="https://www.pv-tech.org/qcells-to-invest-us100-million-in-perovskite-tandem-production-line/">have signalled plans</a> to commercialise the tandem cell technology.</p>
<p>Such is the potential of tandem solar cells, they are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nenergy201515">poised to overtake</a> the conventional technology in coming decades. But the expansion will be thwarted, unless the technology is redesigned with new, more abundant materials.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-worth-investing-in-a-battery-for-your-rooftop-solar-heres-what-buyers-need-to-know-but-often-cant-find-out-209219">Is it worth investing in a battery for your rooftop solar? Here's what buyers need to know (but often can't find out)</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="automated solar cell production line" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543609/original/file-20230821-225972-z8sj6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543609/original/file-20230821-225972-z8sj6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543609/original/file-20230821-225972-z8sj6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543609/original/file-20230821-225972-z8sj6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543609/original/file-20230821-225972-z8sj6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543609/original/file-20230821-225972-z8sj6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543609/original/file-20230821-225972-z8sj6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Tandem solar cells cannot overtake existing technology (pictured) unless they are redesigned.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>The problem of materials</h2>
<p>Almost all tandem solar cells involve a design known as “silicon heterojunction”. Solar cells made in this way normally require more silver, and more of the chemical element indium, than other solar cell designs. </p>
<p>But silver and indium are <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ee/d1ee01814k">scarce materials</a>. </p>
<p>Silver is used in thousands of applications, including manufacturing, making it highly sought after. In fact, global demand for silver <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/record-demand-pushes-silver-into-new-era-deficits-silver-institute-says-2023-04-19/">reportedly rose by 18%</a> last year.</p>
<p>Likewise, <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2021/07/20/touchscreen-alternative-allays-fear-of-world-indium-shortage.html">indium is used</a> to make touchscreens and other smart devices. But it’s extremely rare and only found in tiny traces.</p>
<p>This scarcity isn’t a problem for tandem solar technology yet, because it hasn’t yet been produced in large volumes. But our research shows this scarcity could limit the ability of manufacturers to ramp up production volumes in future.</p>
<p>This may represent a substantial roadblock in tackling climate change. By mid-century, the world must install <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adf6957">62 times more solar power capacity</a> than is currently built, to enable the clean energy shift. </p>
<p>Clearly, a major redesign of tandem solar cells is urgently needed to enable this exponential acceleration of solar deployment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-maximise-savings-from-your-home-solar-system-and-slash-your-power-bills-197415">How to maximise savings from your home solar system and slash your power bills</a>
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<img alt="lumps of silver" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543610/original/file-20230821-218096-jqcbca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543610/original/file-20230821-218096-jqcbca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543610/original/file-20230821-218096-jqcbca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543610/original/file-20230821-218096-jqcbca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543610/original/file-20230821-218096-jqcbca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543610/original/file-20230821-218096-jqcbca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543610/original/file-20230821-218096-jqcbca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Silver is a key component in much electronics manufacturing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Ramping up the transition</h2>
<p>Some silicon solar cells don’t use indium and require only a small amount of silver. Research and development is urgently needed to make these cells compatible with tandem technology. Thankfully, this work has <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aenm.202200821">already begun</a> – but more is needed.</p>
<p>A scarcity of materials is not the only barrier to overcome. Tandem solar cells must also be made more durable. Solar panels we see everywhere today are <a href="https://www.cleanenergyreviews.info/solar-panel-warranty">generally guaranteed</a> to produce a decent amount of electricity for at least 25 years. Perovskite-on-silicon tandem cells <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-022-00521-1">don’t last as long</a>.</p>
<p>Solar power has already shaken up electricity generation in Australia and around the world. But in the race to tackle climate change, this is only the beginning. </p>
<p>Tandem solar cell research is truly global, conducted within a range of countries, including Australia. The technology offers a promising way forward. But the materials used to make them must be urgently reconsidered.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despairing-about-climate-change-these-4-charts-on-the-unstoppable-growth-of-solar-may-change-your-mind-204901">Despairing about climate change? These 4 charts on the unstoppable growth of solar may change your mind</a>
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</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruno Vicari Stefani receives funding from the CSIRO Research Office. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Wright receives funding from UK Research and Innovation. </span></em></p>Tandem solar cells promise to revolutionise the clean energy transition – but a shortage of materials means they must urgently be redesigned.Bruno Vicari Stefani, CERC Fellow, Solar Technologies, CSIROMatthew Wright, Postdoctoral Researcher in Photovoltaic Engineering, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092192023-08-21T01:52:23Z2023-08-21T01:52:23ZIs it worth investing in a battery for your rooftop solar? Here’s what buyers need to know (but often can’t find out)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536382/original/file-20230708-35060-lwu843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3326%2C2210&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent electricity price increases of <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/electricity-prices-set-to-soar/5ed9ec22-0861-4546-9291-15b6c2f3094b">20–30%</a> have hit households hard. Some are installing rooftop solar systems and batteries to reduce or even <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/what-if-one-third-of-australians-chose-to-go-off-grid-85095/">end their reliance</a> on energy providers.</p>
<p>However, Australia’s uptake of household batteries lags well behind rooftop solar installations. The <a href="https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2020-04/DER_Roadmap.pdf">high upfront cost</a> of batteries is a <a href="https://www.solarchoice.net.au/residential/battery-storage-price/">key reason</a>. </p>
<p>A household battery stores excess electricity generated by your solar power system. You can use it later when solar generation can’t meet your needs – for example, at night or on cloudy days. This reduces the amount of power you buy from the grid.</p>
<p>But how long will the battery take to pay for itself, in the form of lower power bills? The answer varies. It depends, among other things, on where you live, your solar system size and design, how much electricity you use and at what times, network tariffs, and limits on how much surplus electricity you can feed into the grid. </p>
<p>Our current <a href="https://www.ecu.edu.au/schools/engineering/staff/profiles/lecturers/dr-asma-aziz">research project</a> has found cases in which a solar panel and battery system will save you money in Western Australia. But the situation varies across Australia. Here, we take a look at what to consider before you buy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Solar panel ready to be installed in front of a household battery mounted on a wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542542/original/file-20230814-25-bxxy9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542542/original/file-20230814-25-bxxy9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542542/original/file-20230814-25-bxxy9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542542/original/file-20230814-25-bxxy9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542542/original/file-20230814-25-bxxy9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542542/original/file-20230814-25-bxxy9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542542/original/file-20230814-25-bxxy9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Consumers need to consider many factors to work out whether adding a battery to their solar system is worth it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/solar-curtailment-is-emerging-as-a-new-challenge-to-overcome-as-australia-dashes-for-rooftop-solar-172152">Solar curtailment is emerging as a new challenge to overcome as Australia dashes for rooftop solar</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A tricky transition for consumers</h2>
<p>Almost <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/28/solar-already-australias-largest-source-of-electricity-as-rooftop-capacity-hits-20gw-consultancy-says">a third</a> of Australian households have rooftop solar systems – the <a href="https://www.powermag.com/a-global-look-at-residential-solar-adoption-rates/">highest rate</a> in the world. Households can now generate electricity on a massive collective scale. </p>
<p>This capability is key to the clean energy transition. But when solar systems aren’t generating enough power, households must draw electricity from the grid or a battery.</p>
<p>Battery costs vary with brand, size and location. On average, you’ll pay around <a href="https://www.solarchoice.net.au/solar-batteries/price/#The_Are_we_there_yet_Meters">A$1,420 per kilowatt-hour</a> (kWh) to install 1–5kWh of storage capacity. That’s down from $1,710 per kWh in 2017. The point at which buying a battery makes sense for most households is estimated at <a href="https://www.solarchoice.net.au/solar-batteries/price/#The_Are_we_there_yet_Meters">around $700 per kWh</a> (for a lithium battery with a ten-year warranty).</p>
<p>At current prices, <a href="https://www.solarchoice.net.au/research-solar/is-home-battery-storage-worth-it/">online</a> <a href="https://redbacktech.com/wa-electricity-costs-comparison-solar-and-batteries/">advice</a> suggests the warranty will typically expire before the battery pays for itself. So consumers might conclude they are better off buying solar systems only and waiting for battery prices to drop.</p>
<p>That’s not always the case. Our modelling found the payback time is less than the warranty period in Perth for at least two cases: using 50kWh per day with a 13.5kW solar system and 13kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 battery, and at 30kWh per day with a 6.6kW system and 6.5kWh LG Chem RESU battery. These batteries will cost you around <a href="https://www.solarchoice.net.au/products/batteries/tesla-powerwall-2-review">$12,900</a> and <a href="https://www.solarquotes.com.au/battery-storage/comparison-table/">$5,300</a> respectively, plus installation.</p>
<p>Our research also found that while there can be other reasons to get a battery, most people care about the financial benefits. But it’s not a simple decision. Some situations are good for batteries, but many people can’t use them effectively. </p>
<p>The amount of sunshine where you live and electricity prices also matter a lot. </p>
<p>In many cases, batteries might need government subsidies to be worth it.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1632301085909213184"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/think-of-solar-panels-more-like-apple-trees-we-need-a-fairer-approach-for-what-we-use-and-sell-205751">Think of solar panels more like apple trees – we need a fairer approach for what we use and sell</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What you need to know to design the optimum system</h2>
<p>Installers usually advise householders on what size solar and battery system is best for them. To get this right, installers need to know:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>household load profile</strong> – its energy use at different hours of the day and times of the year<br></li>
<li><strong>daily load</strong> – the household’s average total energy use in 24 hours</li>
<li><strong>tariffs</strong> – how much the household is charged for electricity from the grid, with higher tariffs at times of peak demand</li>
<li><strong>grid sales limits</strong> – households might be paid for energy they export to the grid. However, retailers may restrict the level of exports, change the feed-in tariff at different times of the day, and block feed-in to maintain grid stability. </li>
</ul>
<p>Most households will not know their load profile. Even if they do, it might change in response to energy providers’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/managing-demand-can-save-two-power-stations-worth-of-energy-at-peak-times-78173">demand management</a> programs – which give households incentives to reduce electricity consumption at peak times. </p>
<p>A system that was optimally sized might not remain so. And once installed, systems are difficult and costly to modify. </p>
<p>Also, customers can’t control tariff changes and grid sales limits. These can have huge impacts on the returns from their solar investments.</p>
<p>Unless all these factors are considered, a household might end up with an unsuitable solar panel and battery system and never recover the costs.</p>
<p>All this means consumers need a reliable source of information. The problem is not a lack of information but an overwhelming amount from a wide range of sources. It can be hard to tell who has a vested interest in promoting certain choices and who is offering independent advice. </p>
<p>Many consumers will leave the decisions to their installer. They must then choose their installer with care.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-maximise-savings-from-your-home-solar-system-and-slash-your-power-bills-197415">How to maximise savings from your home solar system and slash your power bills</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Solar panels on tiled roof of house on a sunny day" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542507/original/file-20230814-23-xuo96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542507/original/file-20230814-23-xuo96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542507/original/file-20230814-23-xuo96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542507/original/file-20230814-23-xuo96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542507/original/file-20230814-23-xuo96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542507/original/file-20230814-23-xuo96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542507/original/file-20230814-23-xuo96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At times of peak solar generation, household exports of electricity to the grid might be cut off.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to fix this</h2>
<p>Householders are not the only ones who will benefit from widespread adoption of solar batteries. Network operators will too. </p>
<p>WA has one of the world’s largest isolated electricity grids. It also has a high uptake of rooftop solar. This threatens grid stability when solar generation surges and exceeds the capacity the network is designed to handle. Network operators are permitted to <a href="https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/energy-policy-wa/emergency-solar-management">disconnect systems</a> installed after March 14 last year as a last resort. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/using-electric-water-heaters-to-store-renewable-energy-could-do-the-work-of-2-million-home-batteries-and-save-us-billions-204281">Using electric water heaters to store renewable energy could do the work of 2 million home batteries – and save us billions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If more households installed batteries, they could store surplus energy that otherwise could destabilise the grid. But households want to be sure it’s a good investment. As <a href="https://energyconsumersaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/20230210_Submission-to-the-National-Energy-Performance-Strategy-Consultation-Paper.pdf">recommended</a> by Energy Consumers Australia, a trusted “one-stop shop” is needed to provide independent, tailored advice to consumers and refer them to government programs and measures.</p>
<p>Retailers and installers should provide households with consumer-friendly technology such as home energy management systems, including <a href="https://www.energy.gov.au/business/equipment-and-technology-guides/metering-and-monitoring">smart meters</a>, to help them understand and manage their energy use. </p>
<p>Households should also be informed of alternatives. One option is <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/energy/renewable/community-batteries">community batteries</a>, which store and supply energy to a neighbourhood of homes with solar power. Another is <a href="https://www.solar.vic.gov.au/how-does-virtual-power-plant-work">virtual power plants</a> – energy-sharing networks that connect thousands of household batteries. </p>
<p>Armed with all this information, consumers could make more informed decisions about investing in the energy transition. Until then, many will defer the decision. And that could increase costs for both households and electricity networks.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-buying-a-battery-to-help-power-your-home-heres-what-you-need-to-know-192610">Thinking of buying a battery to help power your home? Here's what you need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research leading to some of the results mentioned in article has received funding from Edith Cowan University for EMCR Grant Scheme 2022 (Stream 2), 2023 ‑ 2024</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryoush Habibi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In some cases, adding a battery to your rooftop solar system will pay off. But to be sure of this, households need information about many factors – and there’s no single reliable place to find it.Asma Aziz, Lecturer in Power Engineering, Edith Cowan UniversityDaryoush Habibi, Professor and Executive Dean, School of Engineering, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113472023-08-16T20:04:42Z2023-08-16T20:04:42ZA green roof or rooftop solar? You can combine them in a biosolar roof, boosting both biodiversity and power output<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542944/original/file-20230816-19-ud5god.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C6000%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Growing city populations and limited space are driving the adoption of green roofs and green walls covered with living plants. As well as boosting biodiversity, green roofs could play another unexpectedly valuable role by increasing the electricity output of solar panels. </p>
<p>As solar panels heat up beyond 25°C, their efficiency <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2009.06.037">decreases markedly</a>. Green roofs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119443">moderate rooftop temperatures</a>. So we wanted to find out: could green roofs help with the problem of heat reducing the output of solar panels?</p>
<p><a href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/150142/2/City%20of%20Sydney%20Final%20Report%20EPI%20R3%20201920005.pdf">Our research</a> compared a “biosolar” green roof – one that combines a solar system with a green roof – and a comparable conventional roof with an equivalent solar system. We measured the impacts on biodiversity and solar output, as well as how the plants coped with having panels installed above them. </p>
<p>The green roof supported much more biodiversity, as one might expect. By reducing average maximum temperatures by about 8°C, it increased solar generation by as much as 107% during peak periods. And while some plant species outperformed others, the vegetation flourished.</p>
<p>These results show we don’t have to choose between a green roof or a solar roof: we can combine the two and reap double the rewards.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pz3PiqzGxEQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Daramu House in the Sydney CBD has a large array of solar panels installed over a green roof.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/despairing-about-climate-change-these-4-charts-on-the-unstoppable-growth-of-solar-may-change-your-mind-204901">Despairing about climate change? These 4 charts on the unstoppable growth of solar may change your mind</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How was the study done?</h2>
<p>Many studies have tested a single rooftop divided into “green roof” and “non-green roof” sections to measure the differences caused by vegetation. A problem with such studies is “spatial confounding” – the effects of two nearby spaces influencing one another. So, for example, the cooler green roof section could moderate the temperature of the non-green section next to it.</p>
<p>In studies that use distinct buildings, the buildings might be too far apart or too different in construction to be comparable.</p>
<p>The two buildings in our study were the same height, size and shape and located next to each other in Sydney’s central business district. The only difference was Daramu House had a green roof and International House did not.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/150142/2/City%20of%20Sydney%20Final%20Report%20EPI%20R3%20201920005.pdf">selected a mix</a> of native and non-native grasses and non-woody plants, which would flower across all seasons, to attract diverse animal species.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=717&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542713/original/file-20230815-23-s0cct9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">(A) The study site location (red dot) in the Sydney central business district. (B) Architectural design of Daramu House. (C) Rooftop view looking south, showing plantings around and underneath solar panels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/150142/2/City%20of%20Sydney%20Final%20Report%20EPI%20R3%20201920005.pdf">Green Roof & Solar Array – Comparative Research Project</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The biosolar green roof and conventional roof had the same area, about 1860 square metres, with roughly a third covered by solar panels. Vegetation covered about 78% of the green roof and the solar panels covered 40% of this planted area.</p>
<p>To identify which species were present on the roofs we used motion-sensing cameras and sampled for DNA traces. We documented changes in the green roof vegetation to record how shading by the solar panels affected the plants.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greening-our-grey-cities-heres-how-green-roofs-and-walls-can-flourish-in-australia-139478">Greening our grey cities: here's how green roofs and walls can flourish in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How did the panels affect the plants?</h2>
<p>In the open areas, we observed minimal changes in the vegetation cover over the study period compared to the initial planted community. </p>
<p>Plant growth was fastest and healthiest in the areas immediately around the solar panels. Several species doubled in coverage. We selected fast-growing vegetation for this section to achieve full coverage of the green roof beds as soon as possible.</p>
<p>The vegetation changed the most in the areas directly below and surrounding the solar panels. The Baby Sun Rose, <em>Aptenia cordifolia</em>, emerged as the dominant plant. It occupied most of the space beneath and surrounding the solar panels, despite having been planted in relatively low densities. </p>
<p>This was surprising: it was not expected the plants would prefer the shaded areas under the panels to the open areas. This shows that shading by solar panels will not prevent the growth of full and healthy roof gardens.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542714/original/file-20230815-29045-mip8m6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1028&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">(A) An example of evenly distributed plant cover around solar panels. (B) <em>Aptenia cordifolia</em> (Baby Sun Rose) came to dominate the area beneath solar panels. Minor cover of <em>Viola hederacea</em> can also be seen. (C) Vegetation around solar panels along the outside of east section of the roof. (D) Additional evidence of the dominance of <em>A. cordifolia</em> beneath the panels and dieback directly under them. (E) Relatively even cover of a range of species and marked increase in height in <em>Goodenia ovata</em> (Hop Goodenia). (F) Substantial height increases for the entire vegetation community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/150142/2/City%20of%20Sydney%20Final%20Report%20EPI%20R3%20201920005.pdf">Green Roof & Solar Array – Comparative Research Project</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/up-on-a-roof-why-new-zealands-move-towards-greater-urban-density-should-see-a-rooftop-revolution-172226">Up on a roof: why New Zealand's move towards greater urban density should see a rooftop revolution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What were the biodiversity impacts?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542721/original/file-20230815-19-5rlkuv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">eDNA sampling on site.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys to compare biodiversity on the green roof and conventional roof. Water run-off samples were collected from both roofs and processed on site using portable citizen scientist <a href="https://www.smith-root.com/edna/edna-citizen-scientist-sampler">eDNA sampling equipment</a> to detect traces of DNA shed by the species on the roof. </p>
<p>The eDNA surveys detected a diverse range of species. These included some species (such as algae and fungi) that are not easily detected using other survey methods. The results confirmed the presence of bird species recorded by the cameras but also showed other visiting bird species went undetected by the cameras. </p>
<p>Overall, the green roof supported four times as many species of birds, over seven times as many arthropods such as insects, spiders and millipedes, and twice as many snail and slug species as the conventional roof. There was many times the diversity of microorganisms such as algae and fungi. </p>
<p>Encouragingly, the green roof attracted species unexpected in the city. They included blue-banded bees (<em>Amegilla cingulata</em>) and metallic shield bugs (<em>Scutiphora pedicellata</em>).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bee with blue bands on a flower" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542918/original/file-20230816-22-9cxflo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542918/original/file-20230816-22-9cxflo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542918/original/file-20230816-22-9cxflo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542918/original/file-20230816-22-9cxflo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542918/original/file-20230816-22-9cxflo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542918/original/file-20230816-22-9cxflo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542918/original/file-20230816-22-9cxflo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blue-banded bees were among the unexpected visitors to the green roof.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amegilla_cingulata_on_long_tube_of_Acanthus_ilicifolius_flower.jpg">Chiswick Chap/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-the-state-of-the-environment-is-grim-but-you-can-make-a-difference-right-in-your-own-neighbourhoood-187259">Yes, the state of the environment is grim, but you can make a difference, right in your own neighbourhoood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How did the green roof alter temperatures?</h2>
<p>The green roof reduced surface temperatures by up to 9.63°C for the solar panels and 6.93°C for the roof surfaces. An 8°C reduction in average peak temperature on the green roof would result in substantial heating and cooling energy savings inside the building. </p>
<p>This lowering of temperatures increased the maximum output of the solar panels by 21-107%, depending on the month. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109703">Performance modelling</a> indicates an extensive green roof in central Sydney can, on average, produce 4.5% more electricity at any given light level.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="2 graphs showing temperatures and solar power output for biosolar green roof and conventional roof" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542712/original/file-20230815-25187-3vc42q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Energy output (left) and surface temperatures (right) of solar panels on a biosolar green roof and on a conventional roof.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/150142/2/City%20of%20Sydney%20Final%20Report%20EPI%20R3%20201920005.pdf">Data: Green Roof & Solar Array – Comparative Research Project</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These results show we don’t have to choose between a green roof or a solar roof. We can combine them to take advantage of the many benefits of biosolar green roofs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/green-roofs-improve-the-urban-environment-so-why-dont-all-buildings-have-them-123420">Green roofs improve the urban environment – so why don't all buildings have them?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Biosolar roofs can help get cities to net zero</h2>
<p>The next step is to design green roofs and their plantings specifically to enhance biodiversity. Green roofs and other green infrastructure may alter urban wildlife’s activities and could eventually attract non-urban species.</p>
<p>Our green roof also decreased stormwater runoff, removed a range of run-off pollutants and insulated the building from extremes of temperature. A relatively inexpensive system provides all of these services with moderate maintenance and, best of all, zero energy inputs. </p>
<p>Clearly, biosolar green roofs could make major contributions to net-zero cities. And all that’s needed is space that currently has no other use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Irga receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The City of Sydney and NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. Peter Irga engages with the Australian Flora Foundation and the Australian Green Infrastructure Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eamonn Wooster receives funding from The City of Sydney. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fraser R Torpy receives funding from The Australian Research Council, the City of Sydney and NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Rojahn receives funding from The Centre for Invasive Species Solutions.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Fleck receives funding from The City of Sydney and NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.. </span></em></p>A new study shows we can maximise the benefits of green roofs and rooftop solar systems by putting them together on the one roof.Peter Irga, ARC DECRA Fellow and Lecturer in Air and Noise Pollution, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology SydneyEamonn Wooster, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt UniversityFraser R Torpy, Director, Plants and Environmental Quality Research Group, University of Technology SydneyJack Rojahn, PhD Candidate, Institute for Applied Ecology, University of CanberraRobert Fleck, Research Scientist, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047922023-05-04T01:01:05Z2023-05-04T01:01:05ZAustralia is facing a 450,000-tonne mountain of used solar panels. Here’s how to turn it into a valuable asset<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524231/original/file-20230503-1235-6w7v3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C49%2C1024%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CPVA</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There were an estimated <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7996851/australias-100-million-solar-panel-puzzle/">100 million</a> individual solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in Australia at the end of 2022. We estimate this number will likely grow to <a href="https://www.circularpv.com.au/_files/ugd/10e921_d7a4fbb30adb4fd585b5d4784ccdc24b.pdf">over 2 billion</a> if we are to meet Australia’s <a href="https://www.netzeroaustralia.net.au/">2050 net-zero</a> emissions target. This growth means Australia is facing a <a href="https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2016/IRENA_IEAPVPS_End-of-Life_Solar_PV_Panels_2016.pdf?rev=49a75178e38c46288a18753346fb0b09">450,000-tonne</a> mountain of used PV panels by 2040.</p>
<p>Managing all those discarded PV panels will be a huge job. Rather than treating them as “waste”, though, these panels could be a source of social, environmental and economic value. Our new <a href="https://www.circularpv.com.au/new-industry-report">industry report</a> outlines how we can realise that value. </p>
<p>PV panels contain a variety of valuable materials. The panels can also be put to new uses, such as on uninhabited community and sports club buildings, for agricultural irrigation pumps, or for camping and caravanning. </p>
<p>However, at present, they tend to follow a linear, “take, make, dispose” lifecycle. This results in many PV panels being sent to landfill or stockpiled. Much of their value is wasted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="hand lifts up one of a pile of old solar panels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524232/original/file-20230503-26-mqha78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524232/original/file-20230503-26-mqha78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524232/original/file-20230503-26-mqha78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524232/original/file-20230503-26-mqha78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524232/original/file-20230503-26-mqha78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524232/original/file-20230503-26-mqha78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524232/original/file-20230503-26-mqha78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PV panels are being discarded in large numbers, but sending them to landfill is a waste.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CPVA</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-removing-your-solar-panels-early-please-its-creating-a-huge-waste-problem-for-australia-160546">Stop removing your solar panels early, please. It's creating a huge waste problem for Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What did the research look at?</h2>
<p>The University of Queensland and Circular PV Alliance have assessed the market for used and surplus PV panels, with funding from <a href="https://energyconsumersaustralia.com.au/">Energy Consumers Australia</a>. Our findings are in <a href="https://www.circularpv.com.au/new-industry-report">the report</a> launched today at the <a href="https://smartenergyexpo.org.au/">Smart Energy Council Expo</a> in Sydney. </p>
<p>Our goal was to understand potential customers and value streams for used PV panels. We also wished to identify market or policy barriers to reusing, repurposing and recycling these panels. </p>
<p>We reviewed the academic research on the topic and conducted a series of interviews. Thirteen organisations with diverse interests in solar energy and PV panel reuse and recycling participated. A series of recurrent themes emerged that indicate potential or perceived opportunities and challenges for PV panel reuse. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-maximise-savings-from-your-home-solar-system-and-slash-your-power-bills-197415">How to maximise savings from your home solar system and slash your power bills</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What did the research find?</h2>
<p>Overall, there was broad concern among interviewees that PV panels are being decommissioned before the end of their productive lives. A few key reasons stood out:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/About/Pages/Accountability%20and%20reporting/Administrative%20Reports/The%20Renewable%20Energy%20Target%202015%20Administrative%20Report/The-renewable-energy-certificate-market.aspx">renewable energy certificates</a> encourage PV investors to install new panels rather than extend the life of older panels, because the subsidy is paid in full on installation, rather than as power is generated</p></li>
<li><p>low-quality PV products have a high failure rate</p></li>
<li><p>an array that combines different PV panels can be limited by the lowest-performing panel.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These issues contribute to the already large amounts of discarded panels coming from solar farms, and warranty and insurance claims.</p>
<p>However, we also found reclaimed PV panels offer low-cost, clean energy options for households and community energy projects. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/solar-power-can-cut-living-costs-but-its-not-an-option-for-many-people-they-need-better-support-201090">Solar power can cut living costs, but it's not an option for many people – they need better support</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young woman in hi-viz carries PV parts as she walks past two old solar panels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524233/original/file-20230503-14-ykdqca.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524233/original/file-20230503-14-ykdqca.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524233/original/file-20230503-14-ykdqca.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524233/original/file-20230503-14-ykdqca.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524233/original/file-20230503-14-ykdqca.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524233/original/file-20230503-14-ykdqca.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524233/original/file-20230503-14-ykdqca.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Several challenges must be overcome to scale up the work of repurposing and recycling the volume of panels discarded in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CPVA</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even when not reusable, PV panels include valuable materials that can be recovered. The average silicon panel <a href="https://www.circularpv.com.au/_files/ugd/10e921_d7a4fbb30adb4fd585b5d4784ccdc24b.pdf">contains</a> silver (47% of recycled materials value), aluminium (frame, 26%), silicon (cells, 11%), glass (8%) and copper (8%). </p>
<p>And PV panel recycling is becoming more efficient. This has led to better-quality outputs and higher recovery rates. For example, nano-silicon created by processing recovered silicon can sell for over <a href="https://ifm.deakin.edu.au/2023/01/new-process-extracts-silicon-from-solar-panels-to-build-better-batteries/">A$44,000 per kilogram</a>.</p>
<p>A shift towards viewing a PV panel as a valuable resource or asset, rather than “waste”, will improve both consumer and industry understanding of its inherent value, even when it’s not brand new.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/solar-is-the-cheapest-power-and-a-literal-light-bulb-moment-showed-us-we-can-cut-costs-and-emissions-even-further-187008">Solar is the cheapest power, and a literal light-bulb moment showed us we can cut costs and emissions even further</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How do we turn ‘waste’ into an asset?</h2>
<p>We can keep used PV panels out of landfill by treating them as an asset through a value-capture system. This will create a variety of benefits and opportunities. </p>
<p>The circular economy model loops the “take, make, reuse” phases into a self-sustaining cycle. It provides a foundation to grow markets for used PV panels. This will tap into consumer demands for credible and sustainable products and services. </p>
<p>There are already successful examples of similar solutions for other products in Australia and around the world. Australian examples include the <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/product-stewardship/products-schemes/television-computer-recycling-scheme">National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme</a>
and <a href="https://www.tyrestewardship.org.au/">Tyre Stewardship Australia</a>, as well as state-based beverage container deposit schemes. </p>
<p>So how do we set up a circular economy for PV panels? We found a combination of policies, regulations and commercial services can overcome the obstacles to reuse and recycling. </p>
<p>A consistent, national approach is needed to establish successful markets for used PV panels. Standards for testing and certifying these panels, as well as repair warranties, are essential to build consumer trust in this product. </p>
<p>Industry reporting and accreditation requirements as well as product traceability, so the reused and recycled panels can be accounted for, are all important elements of product stewardship and used PV panel markets. </p>
<p>Targeted engagement with a broader range of potential consumers, insurers and PV panel manufacturers will help overcome their perceived barriers to reusing panels. </p>
<p>Taken together, these actions are the building blocks of creating a circular economy for PV panels in Australia. The looming volumes of used panels and ever-increasing amount of solar energy being installed in Australia compel us to do this. Consumers, industry and the environment will all benefit.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author acknowledges Megan Jones, Circular PV Alliance co-founder and director, for her contribution to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Jones, Circular PV Alliance co-founder and Director, was employed as a research assistant by The University of Queensland for the work discussed in this article and was an author of the industry report. Archie Chapman received funding from Energy Consumers Australia to conduct this research. He is affiliated with the Circular PV Alliance.</span></em></p>As the energy revolution gains pace, huge numbers of PV panels are already going to landfill. Many are still usable and even those that aren’t contain valuable materials that shouldn’t be discarded.Archie Chapman, Senior Lecturer, School of IT and Electrical Engineering, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2020942023-04-26T21:16:23Z2023-04-26T21:16:23ZHow shading crops with solar panels can improve farming, lower food costs and reduce emissions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522881/original/file-20230425-1231-3mecq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C13%2C986%2C547&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Agrivoltaic farming — growing crops in the protected shadows of solar panels — can help meet Canada's food and energy needs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alexis Pascaris, AgriSolar)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you have lived in a home with a trampoline in the backyard, you may have observed the unreasonably tall grass growing under it. This is because <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228">many crops, including these grasses, actually grow better when protected from the sun</a>, to an extent.</p>
<p>And while the grass under your trampoline grows by itself, researchers in the field of <a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/solar/photovoltaics-and-electricity.php#:%7E:text=">solar photovoltaic technology</a> — made up of solar cells that convert sunlight directly into electricity — have been working on shading large crop lands with solar panels — on purpose.</p>
<p>This practice of growing crops in the protected shadows of solar panels is called <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/agrivoltaic-farming-solar-energy/">agrivoltaic farming</a>. And it is happening right here in <a href="https://agrivoltaicscanada.ca/">Canada</a>.</p>
<p>Such agrivoltaic farming can help meet Canada’s food and energy needs and reduce its fossil fuel reliance and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/how-canadians-can-cut-carbon-footprints-1.6202194">greenhouse gas emissions</a> in the future. </p>
<h2>When shade equals protection</h2>
<p>Our recently published paper found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228">Canada has an enormous agrivoltaic potential</a> as it is a global agricultural powerhouse — with <a href="https://www.fcc-fac.ca/en/knowledge/canada-agri-food-powerhouse.html">Canadian-produced food export goals set at $75 billion by 2025</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A diagram showing the benefits of agrivoltaic farming" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516130/original/file-20230317-3219-h1ixfx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Agrivoltaics provide numerous services including renewable electricity generation, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, increased crop yield, plant protection and so on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228">(U. Jamil, A. Bonnington, J.M. Pearce)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many crops grown here, including corn, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, wheat and pasture grass have already been proven to increase with agrivoltaics. </p>
<p>Studies from all over the world have shown crop yields increase when the crops are partially shaded with solar panels. These yield increases are possible because of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2013.04.012">microclimate created underneath the solar panels</a> that conserves water and protects plants from excess sun, wind, hail and soil erosion. This makes more food per acre, and could help bring down food prices.</p>
<p>And as <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2022/06/08/just-the-facts-the-cost-of-solar-has-fallen-more-quickly-than-experts-predicted/">the costs of solar energy plummet</a>, nations across the world are <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.024">installing agrivoltaic systems</a> and offsetting the burning of fossil fuels by profitably producing more renewable energy.</p>
<h2>Solar farming is now globally trending</h2>
<p>The agricultural industries in Europe, Asia and the United States have been aggressively expanding their agrivoltaic farms with wide public support. </p>
<p>In Europe, solar panels are put over different types of crops, including <a href="https://debate.energy/en/i/133-agrivoltaic-systems-produce-energy-and-food/">fruit trees</a>. Meanwhile, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116338">in China, agrivoltaics is used to reverse desertification</a> which is literally using solar panels to green former deserts. </p>
<p>In the U.S., social science studies have shown the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102023">photovoltaic industry</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10121885">farmers</a> and the general public are enthusiastically looking forward to the implementation of such projects. </p>
<p>Surveys of the rural U.S., from Michigan to Texas, show <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s44173-022-00007-x">81.8 per cent of respondents would be more likely to support solar development in their community if it integrated farming</a>. Rural residents generally like the idea of maintaining agricultural jobs, increased revenue from the sale of energy and the fact that it could provide a continued source of income. They believe it can act as a buffer against inflation and bad growing seasons.</p>
<h2>It’s time to expand Canadian solar farms</h2>
<p>In Canada, agrivoltaics has primarily been applied to <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/12/29/news/doubting-farmers-proof-solar-panels-and-sheep-get-along-just-fine">conventional solar farms</a> and used by shepherds and their sheep. While the shepherds get paid to cut the grass on solar farms, the sheep use the grass and pastures under the solar panels for shade and grazing. Sheep-based agrivoltaics is found throughout Canada.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing parts of Canada with high solar flux." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516133/original/file-20230317-2069-js4ch1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map showing the agrivoltaic potential in Canada. The colours indicate the solar flux (amount of solar energy per unit area) in the areas that are currently farmed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228">(U. Jamil, A. Bonnington, JM Pearce)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The life cycle analysis of agrivoltaics, which assesses its impact from its conception to use, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cles.2022.100036">found that these solar-covered farms emit 69.3 per cent less greenhouse gases and demand 82.9 per cent less fossil energy compared to separate food farms and solar farms-based production</a>. </p>
<p>This is great, but to remain competitive with other major agriculture producers, Canada needs to start large-scale agriculture in the shadow of solar panels. This will enable the production of numerous crops that have been known to increase yield when covered.</p>
<p>This would include vegetables like broccoli, celery, peppers, lettuce, spinach and tomatoes as well as field crops like potatoes, corn and wheat.</p>
<p>Seriously embracing agrivoltaics in Canada would completely drop fossil fuel use. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228">Less than one per cent of Canadian land would be sufficient to support over 25 per cent of the country’s electrical energy needs using this system</a>.</p>
<p>This in turn can help the nation honour its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the non-emitting share of electricity generation to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/eccc/documents/pdf/climate-change/erp/Canada-2030-Emissions-Reduction-Plan-eng.pdf">90 per cent by 2030</a>.</p>
<h2>Agrivoltaic solar farms outstrip electricity demand</h2>
<p>The potential of agrivoltaic-based solar energy production in Canada far outstrips current electric demand. This solar energy can be used to electrify and decarbonize transportation and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/en14040834">heating</a>, expand economic opportunities by <a href="https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2023.278">powering the burgeoning computing sector</a> and export green electricity to the U.S. to help eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An EV getting charged" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523063/original/file-20230426-1087-axvgjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523063/original/file-20230426-1087-axvgjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523063/original/file-20230426-1087-axvgjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523063/original/file-20230426-1087-axvgjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523063/original/file-20230426-1087-axvgjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523063/original/file-20230426-1087-axvgjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523063/original/file-20230426-1087-axvgjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This solar energy from agrivoltaic farms can be used to electrify and decarbonize transportation and heating.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Electricity produced by agrivoltaic farms can also be stored by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies10060114">charging electric vehicles</a> as well as hydrogen production, thus benefiting transportation. Solar can already profitably meet <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/en14040834">Ontario households’ heating requirements by replacing natural gas furnaces with solar-powered heat pumps</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, any extra agrivoltaic electricity could be used to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2023.278">power computing facilities and cryptocurrency miners at profit</a> and possibly be exported to the U.S. to help them clean up their much dirtier grid. This would help increase our trade surplus as well as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.119">health and environmental benefits of decreasing the American pollution</a> that wafts across the border.</p>
<h2>When benefits outweigh the costs</h2>
<p>Despite the numerous benefits of agrivoltaic farming, there are some barriers to its distribution in Canada. There are well-intentioned regulations that are holding these farms back. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su14053037">Ontario for example, you cannot install solar in the Greenbelt</a> because of the law to protect farms. Similar <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010053">issues arise in Alberta on Crown Land</a>.</p>
<p>In the old days that made sense. We did not want to repeat the U.S. fiasco of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3200/ENVT.49.9.30-43">raising food prices for energy crops</a>. Now we know that with agrivoltaics we can get more food while using solar technology to make electricity.</p>
<p>The other main issue holding agrivoltaics back is capital costs. Agrivoltaics has a much higher capital cost per acre than farmers are accustomed to, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.024">but the revenue is much higher</a>. So even though it is profitable it is difficult for farmers to implement large agrivoltaic systems on their own. </p>
<p>This means we need new methods of financing, new partnerships and new business models to help Canada take advantage of the strategic benefits of agrivoltaics for our farmers and the country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202094/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua M. Pearce has received funding for research from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Mitacs, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Defense, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In addition, his past and present consulting work and research is funded by the United Nations, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, many non-profits and for-profit companies in the energy and solar photovoltaic fields. He is a founding member of Agrivoltaics Canada. He does not directly work for any solar manufacturer and has no direct conflicts of interests. </span></em></p>Canada can meet its carbon emission reduction targets, make food cheap again and open up a gigantic trade surplus with the U.S. by shading farm crops with solar panels.Joshua M. Pearce, John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation and Professor, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2010902023-03-07T19:05:46Z2023-03-07T19:05:46ZSolar power can cut living costs, but it’s not an option for many people – they need better support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513859/original/file-20230307-14-atzhip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C12%2C8118%2C5444&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the cost of living soars, many Australian households are turning to rooftop solar to cut their energy costs. A <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/to-address-rising-energy-costs-australians-want-long-term-solutions-from-the-government-rather-than-temporary-reliefs">Pulse of the Nation</a> survey last month showed about 29% of Australians have installed or are considering installing solar panels on their homes. </p>
<p>The same survey shows one in five Australians can’t afford to adequately heat or cool their homes. Many are also unable to install energy-saving options such as solar panels or insulation because of the upfront costs or because they are renters who cannot make changes to the dwelling. Among those who are financially stressed, earn less than A$50,000 or are between the ages of 18 and 34, a large majority do not intend to install energy-saving options, largely because they cannot afford them.</p>
<p>Renewable energy is not just critical for saving on energy bills, but also for <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2022/217/9/2022-report-mja-lancet-countdown-health-and-climate-change-australia-unprepared">mitigating climate change and fostering sustainable development</a>. However, the reality is access to solar power is not equitable for all Australians. Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800923000174?via%3Dihub">new research</a> shows without better government support, many people will miss out on its benefits.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-maximise-savings-from-your-home-solar-system-and-slash-your-power-bills-197415">How to maximise savings from your home solar system and slash your power bills</a>
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</em>
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<h2>What does equity in rooftop solar uptake look like?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800923000174?via%3Dihub">Our research</a> focuses on how to make access to rooftop solar more equitable. </p>
<p>It is important to distinguish between equity and equality. Equality means every household will be given the <a href="https://onlinepublichealth.gwu.edu/resources/equity-vs-equality/">same resources or opportunities</a>. For example, every household would receive the same subsidy to install solar panels. </p>
<p>Equity refers to fairness. The idea of equity recognises not all households start from the same place. Instead, adjustments to imbalances might be required. </p>
<p>In the context of solar adoption, equity would mean every Australian can benefit from solar power. Any subsidies or other support would be adjusted based on individual circumstances. </p>
<p>To better understand how it affects the adoption of solar panels, we looked at several aspects of inequity. These include financial situation, renting status, gender, education and ethnicity. </p>
<p>For our study, we collected 167 studies worldwide on household solar panel adoption to determine what we know about how it’s affected by these aspects of inequity. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-all-need-energy-to-survive-here-are-3-ways-to-ensure-australias-crazy-power-prices-leave-no-one-behind-193459">We all need energy to survive. Here are 3 ways to ensure Australia's crazy power prices leave no-one behind</a>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1486909044132806661"}"></div></p>
<h2>Solar power equity has been neglected</h2>
<p>Our findings show there is very limited in-depth data and research on this issue in Australia. Australian studies on residential solar uptake account for 20 (12%) of the 167 studies. </p>
<p>Research in Australia tends to focus on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988322002833">equity related to income</a>. Of the 20 Australian studies, six find a positive link between income and solar panel adoption, four find a negative link, five show inconclusive results and five omit income altogether. </p>
<p>These mixed results can be explained, in part, by the fact that a range of factors impact whether a household can afford solar power. For example, a somewhat higher household income does not automatically mean that a household has <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988322002833">less bill stress and enough accumulated wealth</a> to afford the upfront cost of installing solar power. </p>
<p>Few studies offer a deeper analysis of variables such as education or ethnicity. For Australia, only five studies looked at education and only one at ethnicity. There is a lack of data on solar uptake among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. </p>
<p>This limited research does not allow for definite conclusions about how these variables impact rooftop solar uptake.</p>
<p>Energy-saving installations in investment properties have also received limited attention. Many Australian renters report their dwellings have extremely poor insulation. This leads to hot indoor temperatures in summer and <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-renting-chances-are-your-home-is-cold-with-power-prices-soaring-heres-what-you-can-do-to-keep-warm-184472">cold conditions in winter</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-renting-chances-are-your-home-is-cold-with-power-prices-soaring-heres-what-you-can-do-to-keep-warm-184472">If you're renting, chances are your home is cold. With power prices soaring, here's what you can do to keep warm</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Renters typically have <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-renting-chances-are-your-home-is-cold-with-power-prices-soaring-heres-what-you-can-do-to-keep-warm-184472">limited ways to fix these problems</a>. The only available options for many renters are air conditioning and portable heaters powered by traditional energy sources, which increases electricity bills.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1525959210432745472"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heat-pumps-can-cut-your-energy-costs-by-up-to-90-its-not-magic-just-a-smart-use-of-the-laws-of-physics-185711">Heat pumps can cut your energy costs by up to 90%. It’s not magic, just a smart use of the laws of physics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What policies can improve solar equity?</h2>
<p>Policies that could improve equity in rooftop solar access include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>direct financial support for low-income households that otherwise could not afford solar power</p></li>
<li><p>a variety of other financial incentives such as solar rebates</p></li>
<li><p>community solar programs that allow households to share the benefits. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Some programs are in place to help home owners on low incomes to install solar systems. For example, New South Wales has a “<a href="https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/households/rebates-grants-and-schemes/rebate-swap-solar">Solar for low-income households</a>” program. Eligible individuals can get a free 3-kilowatt solar system in return for giving up the <a href="https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-for-the-low-income-household-rebate-on-supply-customers">Low-Income Household Rebate</a> for ten years. South Australia had a “<a href="https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/care-and-support/concessions/household-concessions/solar-offer">Switch for Solar</a>” trial, for which applications closed on August 31 2022. </p>
<p>However, to access these schemes Australians must first overcome one difficult hurdle: home ownership. </p>
<p>In addition, a focus on income alone can be problematic. Directing subsidies to low-income households alone <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988322002833">misses households with low wealth that are above an income threshold</a>.</p>
<p>The Australian government has promised new policy approaches. Its <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/powering-australia">Powering Australia Plan</a> pledged $102.2 million for community solar banks. These are community-owned projects to improve access for those currently locked out of solar power. Households can lease or buy a plot in these solar banks, instead of using their own rooftops. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother and son stand next to rows of solar panels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513547/original/file-20230306-4646-h5a5e1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513547/original/file-20230306-4646-h5a5e1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513547/original/file-20230306-4646-h5a5e1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513547/original/file-20230306-4646-h5a5e1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513547/original/file-20230306-4646-h5a5e1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513547/original/file-20230306-4646-h5a5e1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513547/original/file-20230306-4646-h5a5e1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Households can lease or buy a plot in a community solar bank, instead of using their own rooftops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-ways-the-albanese-government-can-turn-australia-into-a-renewable-energy-superpower-without-leaving-anyone-behind-183640">3 ways the Albanese government can turn Australia into a renewable energy superpower – without leaving anyone behind</a>
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<p>The success of such projects will depend on whether they are accessible to and affordable for everyone.</p>
<p>More data collection is needed to identify priorities for policy action on energy equity. This can include a new <a href="https://near.csiro.au/assets/a673168c-7b33-4c87-ac7f-02baf700a2e4">Household Energy Consumption Survey</a> (the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted such a survey until a decade ago), broader analysis by researchers to consider equity dimensions, and collaboration between researchers and policymakers to trial new policies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martina Linnenluecke receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rohan Best has received past funding from the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mauricio Marrone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The very people most in need of the cost savings from installing solar panels are missing out. Better policies are needed to make home solar systems accessible to all Australians.Martina Linnenluecke, Professor of Environmental Finance at UTS Business School, University of Technology SydneyMauricio Marrone, Associate Professor, Department of Actuarial Studies and Business Analytics, Macquarie UniversityRohan Best, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1974152023-01-18T19:23:49Z2023-01-18T19:23:49ZHow to maximise savings from your home solar system and slash your power bills<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504576/original/file-20230116-20-8lxhys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C0%2C6974%2C4671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget/australians-will-feel-the-pinch-later-this-year-with-the-treasurer-revealing-one-key-date/news-story/86f3e0ddb9c7753ca8726ccdb622a4cc">Soaring electricity prices</a> have made 15% of Aussies think about installing solar panels, a <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/soaring-energy-bills-push-australians-to-consider-solar">recent survey</a> found. Another 6% were already weighing up the move, on top of the 28% who had panels. </p>
<p>With costs falling, the average system size is growing rapidly. Households now typically install 8-10kW solar systems, often with a battery – roof area often limits the system’s size. </p>
<p>But does that guarantee no future electricity costs? No, some are still paying stubbornly high bills. </p>
<p>This is because they are often feeding energy into the grid during peak sunshine hours, when retailers pay low feed-in tariffs of five cents per kWh or less (a response to surging rooftop solar generation). To encourage customers to use energy at these times, retailers offer generous time-of-use (“solar sponge”) tariffs. </p>
<p>But the cost doubles during peak demand periods (around 6-10am and 3-11pm) when solar output is low or zero. Most rooftop solar owners are still paying for the electricity they use then.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-closely-monitoring-households-energy-data-can-unleash-their-solar-outputs-and-possibly-make-them-more-money-196134">How closely monitoring households' energy data can unleash their solar outputs and (possibly) make them more money</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The solution is a matter of getting three things right:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>choosing efficient appliances</p></li>
<li><p>using smart technology or simple timers to run them during times of ample solar generation</p></li>
<li><p>choosing a retail electricity plan that best matches your use. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>How much difference can appliances make?</h2>
<p>To cut energy costs, the starting point is to understand your usage patterns. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pie chart showing breakdown of energy use in the average Australian home" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504566/original/file-20230115-25905-13i0d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A breakdown of energy use in the average Australian home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/energy-and-environment/using-saving-energy/home-energy-use">www.sa.gov.au</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/top-10-tips-to-keep-cool-this-summer-while-protecting-your-health-and-your-budget-193723">Top 10 tips to keep cool this summer while protecting your health and your budget</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Heating and cooling account for 30-45% of typical home energy use. Our testing at the University of South Australia suggests air conditioners use more energy as they age. Yet many homes have air conditioners older than ten years with 2-3 star ratings. Modern split systems with 6 stars use less than half as much electricity.</p>
<p>Users can program or control air conditioners remotely with a mobile phone to run for an hour or two before getting home. They then use cheap solar electricity to create a comfortable home. Smart and affordable controllers can also reduce cooling or heating when they sense a room is unoccupied or windows are open. </p>
<p>Typically, another quarter to a third of energy use is for water heating. Ample solar electricity and soaring gas prices make heat pump water heaters the best option. With <a href="https://enviro-friendly.com/solar-hot-water/heat-pump-hot-water-rebates/">government subsidies</a>, their initial cost is similar to conventional gas or electric systems and they typically use a third of the energy. </p>
<p>Again, they can be programmed to heat water at times of peak solar generation and store it, thus providing almost free hot water when needed. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heat-pumps-can-cut-your-energy-costs-by-up-to-90-its-not-magic-just-a-smart-use-of-the-laws-of-physics-185711">Heat pumps can cut your energy costs by up to 90%. It’s not magic, just a smart use of the laws of physics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many other smart appliances and lights are available. Induction cooktops deliver fast and impressive results using little electricity. Along with the microwave, air fryer and pressure cooker, they can reduce energy use. Ovens and slow cookers can be programmed to use solar power and have meals ready when we get home. </p>
<p>As well as having options with high star ratings, appliances to wash and dry clothes and dishes can easily be set to run during sunshine hours. </p>
<p>Energy-efficient fridges also cut costs. However, while people are happy to buy such fridges, our <a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/research-node-for-low-carbon-living/lochiel-park-research-projects/sustainable-housing/">research</a> <a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/siteassets/episerver-6-files/global/itee/bhi/lochiel-park/whaleyberrysaman_impactoffeedbackdisplays_eedal.pdf">survey</a> found some keep the old one, using three to four times the electricity, for drinks. </p>
<p>Homes with swimming pools or spas are notorious for having the highest electricity bills. A pool will typically use 2,000-3,000kWh of electricity per year (depending on type of pump, hours of use and whether the pool is heated), at a cost of A$700-1,200. Solar pool heaters are an excellent alternative. A simple timer switch can ensure most power is consumed during sunshine hours. </p>
<p>A typical outdoor spa uses 5kW for water heating and circulating. Much heat is lost to the surroundings if you let the thermostat keep it warm all the time. By installing a timer switch, you can use solar power for heating and have the spa ready for use after working hours.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A backyard swimming pool" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504577/original/file-20230116-25-5xgp61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504577/original/file-20230116-25-5xgp61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504577/original/file-20230116-25-5xgp61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504577/original/file-20230116-25-5xgp61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504577/original/file-20230116-25-5xgp61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504577/original/file-20230116-25-5xgp61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504577/original/file-20230116-25-5xgp61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pools can rack up big bills for running pumps and heaters – unless a timer ensures they’re using solar power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Use smart technology to control time of use</h2>
<p>The key to making the best use of your solar output is avoiding energy wastage and matching the timing of energy supply with household demand. An affordable smart control system – for the whole home or individual appliances – can do this. </p>
<p>This system can set seven-day schedules for all appliances. It can turn off lights and air conditioning after you leave home. On a hot day, it can lower blinds and switch on the ceiling fan and air conditioner before you return, then adjust the bedroom temperature for comfortable sleep. </p>
<p>With improved energy supply and demand forecasting and artificial intelligence, future controllers will provide the optimal energy options with little human intervention. If smart gadgets are not for you, simple timer switches start at less than $10.</p>
<p>Energy storage remains a key technology for enabling use at night and on days of no sunshine. A recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-buying-a-battery-to-help-power-your-home-heres-what-you-need-to-know-192610">Conversation article</a> discussed home batteries. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-buying-a-battery-to-help-power-your-home-heres-what-you-need-to-know-192610">Thinking of buying a battery to help power your home? Here's what you need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another emerging technology is <a href="https://www.ecohome.net/guides/2208/thermal-batteries-all-about-storing-solar-heat/">thermal batteries</a> for heating and cooling. During sunshine hours a reverse-cycle air conditioner generates heat or cool to store in the thermal battery (commonly as hot or chilled water) for later use. </p>
<p>Electric vehicles that connect to the grid will go a long way towards making better use of rooftop electricity and storing it for evening use. Their battery capacity is several times that of home batteries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother and son head into house leaving electric vehicle plugged in to charger in the garage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504579/original/file-20230116-47292-h1zqc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504579/original/file-20230116-47292-h1zqc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504579/original/file-20230116-47292-h1zqc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504579/original/file-20230116-47292-h1zqc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504579/original/file-20230116-47292-h1zqc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504579/original/file-20230116-47292-h1zqc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504579/original/file-20230116-47292-h1zqc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Electric vehicles can help households make better use of solar generation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Find the best energy plan for your home</h2>
<p>With 45 energy retailers in southern and eastern Australia, each offering multiple tariffs, it’s no wonder consumers are confused about which one to choose. The Australian Energy Regulator provides the most reliable <a href="https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/">guide</a>. By uploading a few basic details, including the National Meter Identifier (NMI) shown on your bill, you can find the best offers based on your recorded electricity use. </p>
<p>Using this site, my son, who had paid an $800 quarterly bill despite having a large solar system, achieved a potential annual bill below $1,500 simply by switching retailers. Installing a timer switch so their outdoor spa uses solar electricity, instead of paying 33c/kWh, is likely to further save up to $5 a day. Their goal of no electricity bills is becoming a reality.</p>
<p>We are seeing the emergence of a new Australian dream of living in a well-designed home with rooftop solar, an electric car and smartly controlled energy-efficient appliances. It will enable most single/double-storey households to be carbon-neutral while living in comfort without a big hit to their hip pockets.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wasim Saman has received multiple federal and state research grants from the Australian Research Council, government departments, the CRC for Low Carbon Living and several industry partners for research into low carbon housing.</span></em></p>To achieve low or even no electricity bills, there are three areas owners of home solar systems should focus on getting right.Wasim Saman, Emeritus Professor of Sustainable Energy Engineering, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1932732023-01-17T13:32:55Z2023-01-17T13:32:55ZDeep seabed mining plans pit renewable energy demand against ocean life in a largely unexplored frontier<p>As companies race to expand renewable energy and the batteries to store it, finding sufficient amounts of rare earth metals to build the technology is no easy feat. That’s leading mining companies to take a closer look at a largely unexplored frontier – the deep ocean seabed. </p>
<p>A wealth of these metals can be found in manganese nodules that look like cobblestones scattered across wide areas of deep ocean seabed. But the fragile ecosystems deep in the oceans are little understood, and the mining codes to sustainably mine these areas are in their infancy.</p>
<p>A fierce debate is now playing out as a Canadian company makes plans to launch the first commercial deep sea mining operation in the Pacific Ocean. </p>
<p>The Metals Company completed an <a href="https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/3013-nasdaq/tmc/131137-nori-and-allseas-lift-over-3-000-tonnes-of-polymetallic-nodules-to-surface-from-planet-s-largest-deposit-of-battery-metals-as-leading-scientists-and-marine-experts-continue-gathering-environmental-data.html">exploratory project</a> in the Pacific Ocean <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/world/deep-sea-mining.html">in fall 2022</a>. Under a treaty governing the deep sea floor, the international agency overseeing these areas could be forced to approve provisional mining there as soon as spring 2023, but several countries and companies are urging a delay until more research can be done. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/01/stop-deep-sea-mining-says-macron-in-call-for-new-laws-to-protect-ecosystems">France</a> and <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-backs-seabed-mining-ban-in-international-waters-until-strong-environmental-rules-in-place/F7RANMLZIFA3FLWC4JLAEN5TXU/">New Zealand</a> have called for a ban on deep sea mining. </p>
<p>As scholars who have long focused on the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-benefit-cost-analysis/article/abs/addressing-fundamental-uncertainty-in-benefitcost-analysis-the-case-of-deep-seabed-mining/75801881799BD7EB2D3CF7B33C4DDAC6">economic</a>, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-poseidon-project-9780190265649?cc=us&lang=en&">political</a> and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3790524">legal</a> <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/governing-new-frontiers-in-the-information-age/conclusion/3FD2DF4571D325624C012301C94EDF7F">challenges</a> posed by deep seabed mining, we have each studied and written on this economic frontier with concern for the regulatory and ecological challenges it poses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A view looking across a sea floor with nodules looking like cobblestones on a street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501179/original/file-20221214-15837-osjj0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Manganese nodules on the seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, between Hawaii and Mexico, captured on camera by a remote vehicle in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2015-04-14_18-20-14_Sonne_SO239_157ROV11_Logo_original(1).jpg">ROV KIEL 6000, GEOMAR</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s down there, and why should we care?</h2>
<p>A curious journey began in the summer of 1974. Sailing from Long Beach, California, a revolutionary ship funded by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes set course for the Pacific to open a new frontier — <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/deep_sea_mining">deep seabed mining</a>. </p>
<p>Widespread media coverage of the expedition helped to focus the attention of businesses and policymakers on the promise of deep seabed mining, which is notable given that the expedition was actually an <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0005301269">elaborate cover for a CIA operation</a>.</p>
<p>The real target was a Soviet ballistic missile submarine that had sunk in 1968 with all hands and what was believed to be a treasure trove of Soviet state secrets and tech onboard.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0005301269.pdf">expedition, called Project Azorian by the CIA</a>, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-cold-war-ci-secretly-plucked-soviet-submarine-ocean-floor-using-giant-claw-180972154/">recovered at least part</a> of the submarine – and it also brought up several manganese nodules from the seafloor.</p>
<p>Manganese nodules are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264763450_The_Geology_of_Manganese_Nodules">roughly the size of potatoes</a> and can be found across vast areas of seafloor in parts of the Pacific and Indian oceans and <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex2104/features/nodule/welcome.html">deep abyssal plains in the Atlantic</a>. They are valuable because they are exceptionally rich in 37 metals, including nickel, cobalt and copper, which are essential for most large batteries and several renewable energy technologies.</p>
<p>These nodules <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex2104/features/nodule/welcome.html">form over millennia</a> as metals nucleate around shells or broken nodules. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, between Mexico and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, where the mining test took place, has been estimated to have over 21 billion metric tons of nodules that could provide <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264763450_The_Geology_of_Manganese_Nodules">twice as much nickel and three times more cobalt</a> than all the reserves on land.</p>
<p>Mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone could be some <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/governing-new-frontiers-in-the-information-age/conclusion/3FD2DF4571D325624C012301C94EDF7F">10 times richer</a> than <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/deep_sea_mining">comparable</a> mineral deposits on land. All told, estimates place the value of this new industry at some US$30 billion annually by 2030. It could be instrumental in feeding the surging global demand for cobalt that lies at the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/reducing-reliance-cobalt-lithium-ion-batteries">heart of lithium-ion batteries</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, as several scientists have noted, we still know more about the surface of the moon than what lies at the bottom of the deep seabed.</p>
<h2>Deep seabed ecology</h2>
<p>Less than 10% of the deep seabed has been <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html">mapped</a> thoroughly enough to understand even the basic features of the structure and contents of the ocean floor, let alone the life and ecosystems therein.</p>
<p>Even the <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2017/12/the-clarion-clipperton-zone">most thoroughly studied region</a>, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, is still best characterized by the persistent novelty of what is found there.</p>
<p>Between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105006">70% and 90% of living things</a> collected in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone have never been seen before, leaving scientists to speculate about what percentage of all living species in the region has never been seen or collected. Exploratory expeditions regularly return with images or samples of creatures that would richly animate science fiction stories, like a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nearly-six-foot-glowing-shark-discovered-deep-sea-new-zealand-180977163/">6-foot-long bioluminescent shark</a>.</p>
<p>Also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105006">unknown is the impact that deep sea mining</a> would have on these creatures.</p>
<p>An experiment in 2021 in water about 3 miles (5 kilometers) deep off Mexico found that seabed mining equipment <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn1219">created sediment plumes</a> of up to about 6.5 feet (2 meters) high. But <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/study-gives-new-insights-nature-deep-sea-sediment-plumes">the project authors stressed that they didn’t study</a> the ecological impact. A similar earlier experiment was conducted off Peru in 1989. When scientists returned to that site in 2015, they found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44492-w">some species still hadn’t fully recovered</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SR6o2WqX6uo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video from MIT shows the sediment plume created by a nodule-collecting machine during an experiment.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2022/12/08/momentum-builds-to-halt-the-commencement-of-seabed-mining-in-international-waters">Environmentalists have questioned</a> whether seafloor creatures could be smothered by sediment plumes and whether the sediment in the water column could effect island communities that rely on healthy oceanic ecosystems. The Metals Company has argued that its <a href="https://www.mining.com/the-metals-company-reigniting-race-to-mine-the-ocean-floor/">impact is less</a> than terrestrial mining.</p>
<p>Given humanity’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105006">lack of knowledge</a> of the ocean, it is not currently possible to set environmental baselines for oceanic health that could be used to weigh the economic benefits against the environmental harms of seabed mining.</p>
<h2>Scarcity and the economic case for mining</h2>
<p>The economic case for deep seabed mining reflects both possibility and uncertainty.</p>
<p>On the positive side, it could displace some highly destructive terrestrial mining and augment the global supply of minerals used in clean energy sources such as wind turbines, photovoltaic cells and electric vehicles. </p>
<p>Terrestrial mining imposes significant environmental damage and costs to human health of both the miners themselves and the surrounding communities. Additionally, mines are sometimes located in politically unstable regions. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/world/china-congo-cobalt.html">Democratic Republic of Congo produces 60%</a> of the global supply of cobalt, for example, and China owns or finances 80% of industrial mines in that country. China also accounts for <a href="https://www.brinknews.com/china-is-moving-rapidly-up-the-rare-earth-value-chain/">60% of the global supply</a> of rare earth element production and much of its processing. Having one nation able to exert such control over a critical resource has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/21/world/us-china-energy.html">raised concerns</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Metals Company shared video of its first collection mission.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Deep seabed mining comes with significant uncertainties, however, particularly given the technology’s relatively early state.</p>
<p>First are the risks associated with commercializing a new technology. Until deep sea mining technology is demonstrated, discoveries cannot be listed as “reserves” in firms’ asset valuations. Without that value defined, it can be difficult to line up the significant financing needed to build mining infrastructure, which lessens the first-mover advantage and incentivizes firms to wait for someone else to take the lead. </p>
<p>Commodity prices are also difficult to predict. Technology innovation can reduce or even eliminate the projected demand for a mineral. New mineral deposits on land can also boost supply: Sweden announced in January 2023 that it had <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/swedens-lkab-finds-europes-biggest-deposit-rare-earth-metals-2023-01-12/">just discovered</a> the largest deposit of rare earth oxides in Europe.</p>
<p>In all, embarking on deep seabed mining involves sinking <a href="https://investors.metals.co/news-releases/news-release-details/metals-company-provides-q3-corporate-update">significant costs</a> into new technology for uncertain returns, while posing risks to a natural environment that is likely to rise in value.</p>
<h2>Who gets to decide the future of seafloor mining?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Legal/Pages/UnitedNationsConventionOnTheLawOfTheSea.aspx">United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea</a>, which came into force in the early 1990s, provides the basic rules for ocean resources.</p>
<p>It allows countries to control economic activities, including any mining, within 200 miles of their coastlines, accounting for approximately 35% of the ocean. Beyond national waters, countries around the world established the <a href="https://www.isa.org.jm/">International Seabed Authority</a>, or ISA, based in Jamaica, to regulate deep seabed mining.</p>
<p>Critically, the ISA framework calls for some of the profits derived from commercial mining to be shared with the international community. In this way, even countries that did not have the resources to mine the deep seabed could share in its benefits. This part of the ISA’s mandate was controversial, and it was one reason that the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/international-treaties-united-states-refuses-play-ball">United States did not join</a> the Convention on the Law of the Sea.</p>
<p>With little public attention, the ISA worked slowly for several decades to develop regulations for exploration of undersea minerals, and those rules still aren’t completed. More than a dozen companies and countries have received <a href="https://www.isa.org.jm/exploration-contracts">exploration contracts</a>, including The Metals Company’s work under the sponsorship of the island nation of Nauru.</p>
<p>ISA’s work has started to draw criticism as companies have sought to initiate commercial mining. A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/world/deep-sea-mining.html">recent New York Times investigation</a> of <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22266044-seabed-mining-selected-documents-2022">internal ISA documents</a> suggested the agency’s leadership has downplayed environmental concerns and shared confidential information with some of the companies that would be involved in seabed mining. The ISA <a href="https://isa.org.jm/iwg-inspection-compliance-and-enforcement-part-3">hasn’t finalized environmental rules for mining</a>.</p>
<p>Much of the coverage of deep seabed mining has been framed to highlight the climate benefits. But this overlooks the dangers this activity could pose for the Earth’s largest pristine ecology – the deep sea. We believe it would be wise to better understand this existing, fragile ecosystem better before rushing to mine it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Shackelford is a principal investigator on grants from the Hewlett Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, National Science Foundation, and the Microsoft Corporation supporting both the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance and the Indiana University Cybersecurity Clinic.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Bosco has received funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts for research on the work of the International Seabed Authority.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Krutilla was the principal investigator for a World-Bank sponsored project on deep seabed mining. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christiana Ochoa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mining nodules from the deep ocean seabed could provide the metals crucial for today’s EV batteries and renewable energy technology, but little is known about the harm it could cause.Scott Shackelford, Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Indiana UniversityChristiana Ochoa, Professor of Law, Indiana UniversityDavid Bosco, Associate Professor of International Studies, Indiana UniversityKerry Krutilla, Professor of Environmental and Energy Policy, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962412022-12-19T06:04:11Z2022-12-19T06:04:11ZClimate change can be beaten – why some scientists are hopeful<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500678/original/file-20221213-3308-7f296x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Can our planet recover from climate change? Commissioning Editor, Kofoworola Belo-Osagie, asked scientists to share the reasons they believe there is hope.</em> </p>
<p><strong>Jennifer Fitchett, Associate Professor of Physical Geography, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa</strong></p>
<p>People are starting to notice the weather and climate, and to understand climate change better than ever before. </p>
<p>It is very difficult for humans to feel the 1.1°C post-industrial warming. In Johannesburg, our diurnal temperature range is often more than 20°C. From day to day our maximum temperatures can differ by over 10°C. This makes climate change seem intangible. However, over the last few years, the public has become far more aware of the weather and climate, and the impacts of climate change are becoming more tangible, more easily observed, and more measurable by the person on the street. </p>
<p>We are noticing, for example, that <a href="https://theconversation.com/jacarandas-in-parts-of-south-africa-are-flowering-earlier-why-its-a-warning-sign-163554">jacarandas</a> are flowering earlier than they used to. We are aware that <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-warnings-for-floods-in-south-africa-engineering-for-future-climate-change-181556">floods</a> are evidence of extreme climates, and that <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-has-already-hit-southern-africa-heres-how-we-know-169062">extreme climate events</a> are affecting southern Africa more frequently than they used to. </p>
<p>The tone of public discourse is starting to shift. Sometimes this leads to single events not-quite-correctly being attributed to climate change. But it shows that people are aware and concerned about their climate future. This public awareness is a crucial first step in addressing climate change.</p>
<p>While is it very important to recognise the immense value of young climate change activists like Greta Thunberg, we often don’t notice the many students across the world who are choosing to pursue degrees in fields relating to climate change. The University of the Witwatersrand launched a short course that was offered to over 5,000 incoming first year students in 2022, and which was taught by a PhD student in climate change. This large cohort of students passionate about understanding climate science, avenues for adaptation, and innovations for mitigation is <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-interested-in-the-weather-and-its-impact-on-nature-heres-a-career-for-you-172815">our future</a>!</p>
<p><strong>Patrick Omeja, Senior Research Fellow, College of Agriculture and Environment, Makerere University, Uganda</strong></p>
<p>There is an urgent need for far-reaching change. Government action on climate change is slow as their hands are often tied by stringent bureaucracy, big business and the need to please all of the electorate.</p>
<p>However, I am optimistic that climate action will happen because communities, businesses and foundations around the world are seeing the need for action and doing their part.</p>
<p>For example, in Uganda, solar panels are appearing <a href="https://www.solarnow.eu/ugandan-branches/">everywhere</a>. Large companies like Coca-Cola Africa, Nile Breweries, Unilever and Nations Media Group are <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/kusi-ideas/">supporting efforts</a> <a href="https://www.ugandabreweries.com/sustainability/environment">to restore</a> natural ecosystems and putting the environment before profits. And, for example, the <a href="https://www.ivey.org/">Ivey Foundation</a> in Canada is liquidating its entire endowment to promote climate action now. The funding from these companies is supporting many innovations and solutions, from refugee communities creating forests in the deserts to innovators turning plastics into boats and building materials. They are finding ways to save energy and reduce the footprints of carbon emissions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/african-digital-innovators-are-turning-plastic-waste-into-value-but-there-are-gaps-188014">African digital innovators are turning plastic waste into value -- but there are gaps</a>
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<p>Africa is just awash with new ideas and initiatives that are turning environmental challenges into new sources of livelihoods, and adapting to and mitigating the impacts of a changing climate. If many small groups take action, it will make a real difference.</p>
<p>Generally, if humans are the primary cause of a globally warming
climate, that means we can also be the architects of its undoing. I think people know that action needs to urgently happen, so people from all walks of life will volunteer to help. I believe human nature “overall” is good and the degraded ecosystems are resilient to recovery, given time and support.</p>
<p><strong>Desta Mebratu, Professor, Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Fellow, African Academy of Science</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf">Paris Agreement</a> on climate change, adopted in 2015, brought a new sense of optimism in terms of addressing the challenges associated with climate change. Unfortunately, the gap between pledges and commitments made by national governments and concrete actions on climate change continued to widen in the subsequent years. This has made the possibility of limiting the planetary temperature rise to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F8154615FCDB3453D7C6E198B9AFD114/S2059479821000259a.pdf/ten-new-insights-in-climate-science-2021-a-horizon-scan.pdf">1.5°C more remote</a>. </p>
<p>Over the last couple of years, we have witnessed increased engagement and leadership of non-state actors, including businesses, civil societies and major groups such as youth groups and local communities. This has led to a plethora of initiatives and partnerships aimed at <a href="https://unfccc.int/climate-action/marrakech-partnership-for-global-climate-action?gclid=CjwKCAiAv9ucBhBXEiwA6N8nYKCxjYatnxDdFv0Ufqgq-l6AOjm0mfg7CSRQOicMFeztAHE32AaJ9RoC2tIQAvD_BwE">fast-tracking climate actions</a> and has created a new sense of optimism. </p>
<p>This, coupled with the increasing motivation and creativity displayed by youth groups across the world around climate action, gives me a great sense of hope about our collective future. </p>
<p>Ultimately, however, it all depends on how fast national governments take concrete climate actions. </p>
<p><strong>Yimere Abay, Research Fellow, Centre for International Environment and Resource Policy, Tufts University, United States</strong></p>
<p>The sixth assessment <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/">report</a> of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in 2022, described a gloomy future for life on planet Earth. The report detailed the irreversible impacts of change on ecosystems, human life and biodiversity, along with disproportionate impacts across regions, sectors and communities. It called for urgent decisions by world leaders to minimise the adverse consequences. Disappointingly, the 27th Conference of Parties (<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop27-explained-by-experts-what-is-it-and-why-should-i-care-193727">COP27</a>) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change didn’t agree to <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop27-flinched-on-phasing-out-all-fossil-fuels-whats-next-for-the-fight-to-keep-them-in-the-ground-194941">phase down all fossil fuels</a>. </p>
<p>Yet there are still reasons to be hopeful for progress from COP.</p>
<p>First, the cost of wind and solar technologies is plummeting. Technologies for carbon capture, utilisation, storage and transmission are rapidly progressing to foster transformation into a low-carbon market. Africa has an opportunity to use its massive <a href="https://theconversation.com/renewable-energy-will-need-more-investment-or-africa-will-stay-dependent-on-fossil-fuels-193692">renewable energy resources</a>, harness its minerals and metal resources to develop solar photovoltaic systems and wind turbines, and address the barriers in the way of clean energy development. The turning point will be when <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-can-reduce-emissions-and-create-jobs-a-tough-task-but-doable-193870">fossil fuels</a> become less efficient and more expensive than renewables.</p>
<p>COP27 called for reforms in multilateral development banks. Reforms could address Africa’s reputation of being “riskier” for climate investment by providing guarantees. Africa needs US$2.8 trillion from 2020 to 2030, whereas the yearly climate finance flow is only US$30 billion. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-finance-for-africa-the-key-challenges-and-what-needs-to-be-done-about-them-194150">Climate finance for Africa: the key challenges and what needs to be done about them</a>
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<p>COP27 also introduced a new holistic approach towards food and agriculture. The aim is to boost the finance for agricultural transformation and adaptation. This is another reason to be optimistic, since about 70% of the continent’s population depends on agriculture.</p>
<p>Finally, it’s encouraging to see social movements, particularly among the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop27-how-young-climate-activists-are-changing-international-human-rights-law-193906">youth</a>, taking action on climate change. These social movements, including <a href="https://www.forestpeoples.org/en/node/50021">indigenous peoples’ alliances,</a> have self-organised across all regions without discrimination of faith, race, colour, age, gender, ideology, or education and have become the guardians of the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Omeja works for Makerere University, Kampala. Uganda; and the research was funded from grants from the International Development Research Center, IDRC, Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Fitchett receives funding from GENUS: The DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Palaeoscience and the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abay Yimere and Desta Mebratu do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People are starting to notice the weather and climate, and to understand climate change better than ever before.Patrick Omeja, Senior Research Fellow and Field Director, Makerere University Biological Field Station, Makerere UniversityAbay Yimere, Postdoctoral Scholar in International Environment and Resource Policy, The Fletcher School, Tufts UniversityDesta Mebratu, Professor and United Nations High Level Champions (UNHLC) Lead on Waste, Stellenbosch UniversityJennifer Fitchett, Professor of Physical Geography, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1950152022-11-21T11:36:24Z2022-11-21T11:36:24ZGroundbreaking studies of Earth’s churning oceans recognised at Australia’s most prestigious science prizes this year<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496396/original/file-20221121-14-7m0lqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=609%2C0%2C6173%2C4311&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=3827">Greg Shirah/NASA Scientific Visualisation Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year, Australia’s prestigious Prime Minister’s Prize for Science has been awarded to a physical oceanographer whose work has had a “transformative impact” on our understanding of Earth’s oceans.</p>
<p>Professor Trevor McDougall AC from the University of New South Wales has made major contributions to unveiling the fundamental physics of the ocean.</p>
<p>During his illustrious career, McDougall has discovered previously unknown ocean mixing processes – the turbulent ways seawater churns and <a href="https://www.uib.no/en/rg/fysos/53334/ocean-mixing">irreversibly changes</a> under various conditions.</p>
<p>His discoveries have improved climate models, allowing us to better predict our planet’s fast-changing future.</p>
<p>“The ocean is notoriously difficult to observe; we know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about the seafloor,” McDougall said.</p>
<p>“We study the ocean because it transports a lot of heat from the equatorial regions towards the poles and also because it acts as the thermal flywheel of the climate system.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A smiling older gentleman looking at the camera with the sea in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496389/original/file-20221121-12-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Trevor McDougall is a world-leading researcher in ocean thermodynamics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
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<p>A world-leading authority on ocean mixing, McDougall was recognised for his many contributions, including a redefinition of the thermodynamic description of seawater. The latter <a href="https://csiropedia.csiro.au/science-adopts-a-new-definition-of-seawater/">was accepted by</a> the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in 2009 as a new international standard. </p>
<p>“To receive the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science is an incredible honour, and it’s also an honour for the early career researchers that I’ve been working with for the past ten years,” said McDougall.</p>
<p>“They’ve been integral to some of the results that have been recognised in this prize.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ocean-is-becoming-more-stable-heres-why-that-might-not-be-a-good-thing-157911">The ocean is becoming more stable – here's why that might not be a good thing</a>
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<h2>Predicting sea level rise</h2>
<p>Earth’s oceans and their role in climate change are also the focus of another prize recipient this year – physical oceanographer and ocean modeller Dr Adele Morrison from the Australian National University (ANU). </p>
<p>She won the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year for her innovative methods of modelling ocean circulation around Antarctica.</p>
<p>Morrison’s research has greatly reduced uncertainty in predicting future sea level rise from Antarctic ice sheet melt, driven by warm ocean currents in the Southern Ocean.</p>
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<img alt="A smiling woman with curly hair looking at the camera with greenery in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496391/original/file-20221121-18-9zfgta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496391/original/file-20221121-18-9zfgta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496391/original/file-20221121-18-9zfgta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496391/original/file-20221121-18-9zfgta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496391/original/file-20221121-18-9zfgta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496391/original/file-20221121-18-9zfgta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496391/original/file-20221121-18-9zfgta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Adele Morrison’s work has revealed the ongoing impact of warm ocean currents on Antarctic ice melt.</span>
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<p>Such work is particularly pertinent to Australia, with 85% of Australians living in places that could soon be affected by rising sea levels.</p>
<p>Morrison hopes to “inspire the next generation of scientists to unravel new discoveries and technologies that limit the impacts of climate change and our transition to a zero-emissions world”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/satellites-reveal-ocean-currents-are-getting-stronger-with-potentially-significant-implications-for-climate-change-159461">Satellites reveal ocean currents are getting stronger, with potentially significant implications for climate change</a>
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<h2>Molecular diagnostics and solar cell improvements also recognised</h2>
<p>Several other researchers and inventors received accolades at the ceremony held on November 21 at Parliament House in Canberra.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Adjunct Professor Alison Todd and Dr Elisa Mokany, co-founders of the molecular diagnostics company SpeeDx, received the Prize for Innovation. Their highly advanced diagnostic tests have improved diagnosis and treatments for several infectious diseases and cancers.</p></li>
<li><p>The other Prize for Innovation went to Dr Nick Cutmore, Dr James Tickner and Mr Dirk Treasure of the company Chrysos. They have successfully commercialised an X-ray technology that measures the presence of gold and minerals in ore samples.</p></li>
<li><p>Professor Si Ming Man from ANU was awarded the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year for his work on inflammation and new therapies for inflammatory diseases.</p></li>
<li><p>The Prize for New Innovators went to University of Melbourne’s Dr Pip Karoly, whose unique seizure forecasting technology is improving the lives of millions of people with epilepsy.</p></li>
<li><p>UNSW Associate Professor Brett Hallam was also awarded the Prize for New Innovators, whose discoveries and patented tech have improved solar cell performance by a whopping 10%.</p></li>
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<h2>Inspiring our youngest future scientists</h2>
<p>Each year, the prizes also include recognition for outstanding achievements in science teaching.</p>
<p>Mr George Pantazis from Marble Bar Primary School in Western Australia was awarded the Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools for his work integrating First Nations cultural knowledge, including the critically endangered Nyamal language, in the school’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program.</p>
<p>This “wouldn’t be possible without the support of our teachers and the community, in particular the Nyamal people and their Elders”, said Pantazis.</p>
<p>“This prize is the highlight of my career. I owe it all to the students. Without them, I have nothing.”</p>
<p>The Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools went to Ms Veena Nair from Viewbank College, Victoria. She has collaborated with countless academics and industry leaders to not only show students the practical application of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) subjects, but also find pathways for them in STEAM careers.</p>
<p>“As a first-generation migrant, I’m deeply thankful to my birth country India, where I got my foundation skills – and to my adopted country Australia, where I was given the wings to fly,” said Nair.</p>
<p>For 23 years now, the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes have been awarded for outstanding achievements in scientific research, research-based innovation and excellence in science teaching. The recipients share a prize pool of $750,000.</p>
<p>This is the first year since 2019 the prizes were held at the Parliament House again, with the 2020 and 2021 events having taken place virtually.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-whats-the-difference-between-stem-and-steam-95713">Explainer: what's the difference between STEM and STEAM?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195015/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The 2022 Prime Minister’s Science Prizes have been awarded for outstanding achievements in scientific research, innovation and teaching.Signe Dean, Science + Technology Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1945722022-11-17T14:47:24Z2022-11-17T14:47:24ZFrance’s plan for solar panels on all car parks is just the start of an urban renewable revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495643/original/file-20221116-18-z1j489.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7000%2C4669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/solar-panels-cityscape-singapore-1006787965">Wang An Qi/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>France has approved legislation that will require all car parks with more than 80 spaces to be <a href="https://electrek.co/2022/11/08/france-require-parking-lots-be-covered-in-solar-panels/">covered over by solar panels</a>. This is part of a wider programme that will see solar panels occupy derelict lots, vacant land alongside roads and railways, as well as some farmland. </p>
<p>This is expected to add 11 gigawatts to the French electricity grid <a href="https://www.publicsenat.fr/article/parlementaire/l-obligation-de-pose-de-panneaux-photovoltaiques-sur-les-grands-parkings">equal to ten nuclear reactors</a>.</p>
<p>Do the numbers add up? And should other countries do the same?</p>
<p>Several countries, most notably <a href="https://www.bmi.bund.de/EN/topics/building-housing/building/energy-efficient-construction-renovation/buildings-energy-act/buildings-energy-act-node.html">Germany</a>, have already mandated developers of new buildings to incorporate renewables into their designs, like roof-mounted solar panels, biomass boilers, heat pumps and wind turbines. The French policy would apply to new and existing car parks.</p>
<p>The average car parking space is about <a href="https://www.parking-garage.com/en/car-park-dimensions-garage-width-length-height/">4.8m by 2.4m</a>, or 11.52m². Assuming an output of <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2015/12/02/frances-300-mw-cestas-solar-plant-inaugurated_100022247/">120 watts per m²</a> that works out at roughly 1.4 kilowatts of power per bay. There would be further space over walkways and traffic lanes within the car park, but the solar panels would need to be kept far enough apart to stop them shading each other.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rows of solar panels shaded by the row in front." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495677/original/file-20221116-26-t4tqaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495677/original/file-20221116-26-t4tqaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495677/original/file-20221116-26-t4tqaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495677/original/file-20221116-26-t4tqaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495677/original/file-20221116-26-t4tqaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495677/original/file-20221116-26-t4tqaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495677/original/file-20221116-26-t4tqaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shading can limit how much solar energy panels generate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/frosted-solar-battery-panel-ecological-power-2102570443">Audrius Merfeldas/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For an output of 11 gigawatts, you’d need to cover about 7.7 million car parking spaces. Are there that many in France that would qualify? The UK has <a href="https://www.racfoundation.org/assets/rac_foundation/content/downloadables/facts_on_parking.pdf">between 3 and 4 million spaces</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-licensing-statistics-2021/vehicle-licensing-statistics-2021">40 million</a> vehicles. France has a similar sized fleet of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/455887/passenger-cars-registered-in-france/">38 million</a>. So, 7.7 million spaces seems unlikely.</p>
<p>But the legislation covers a lot of urban land, not just car parks. In theory, 92km² of French urban land (defined as any built-up area with more then 5,000 people) could provide 11 gigawatts of solar power. </p>
<p>That might sound like a lot, but it’s only 0.106% of France’s total urban land area of <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.TOTL.UR.K2?locations=FR">86,500 km²</a>. Accounting for the difference in capacity factors (how much energy each source generates a year compared with its maximum theoretical output) between French nuclear (<a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/france.aspx">70%</a>) and French solar (<a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2015/12/02/frances-300-mw-cestas-solar-plant-inaugurated_100022247/">15%</a>), 430 km² of solar would supply the same amount of power each year in gigawatt-hours as those ten nuclear plants. </p>
<p>These panels need only cover 0.5% of French urban land, or about 0.07% of <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/FRA/france/surface-area-km">France’s total area</a>. So it’s possible, though car parks will make up a tiny portion of the overall programme.</p>
<h2>Coming to a car park near you</h2>
<p>The UK and countries further north receive less sunlight per m² and the sun sits lower on their horizon, which makes the issue of shading on panels bigger, although the longer days in summer do compensate for this to some extent.</p>
<p>Also, while a lot of car parks in southern Europe already have sun shades over them (which allow solar panels to be mounted onto existing structures), this is rare in cooler countries. As a result, it would probably be a lot easier to mount panels on the roofs of buildings than over the surrounding car park in some countries. Where solar panels aren’t practical, other options, like wind turbines, might well be viable alternatives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two solar panel arrays suspended at an angle over a parked car." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495641/original/file-20221116-24-lihd6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495641/original/file-20221116-24-lihd6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495641/original/file-20221116-24-lihd6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495641/original/file-20221116-24-lihd6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495641/original/file-20221116-24-lihd6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495641/original/file-20221116-24-lihd6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495641/original/file-20221116-24-lihd6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An electric vehicle charging station in a car park in San Ildefonso, Spain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/san-ildefonso-segovia-spain-september-24-744656308">Juan Enrique del Barrio/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Likewise, some car parks, especially those in city centres, are shaded for most of the day by tall buildings nearby. But there is no reason not to put panels on top of them instead.</p>
<p>France is likely to be pursuing this policy to ease its dependence on nuclear power, which supplies <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/france.aspx">70%</a> of the country’s electricity. This arrangement works when demand is stable. It becomes a problem when, for example, a drought forces multiple plants to reduce their power output or <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/french-nuclear-woes-stoke-europes-power-prices-2022-08-24/">shut down</a>. France is also adding several million electric cars and heat pumps to its grid, which will need to draw from a variety of energy sources and storage options.</p>
<p>The UK is similarly dependant on gas for both electricity and heating. Creating a more diverse energy supply, much of which is directly connected to the very cars or homes consuming that power, makes a lot of sense. But a strategy to unleash the green energy potential of vacant space in towns and cities should begin – and not end – with car parks.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dylan Ryan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>All French car parks bigger than 80 spaces will be covered with solar panels.Dylan Ryan, Lecturer in Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1763722022-10-21T02:03:01Z2022-10-21T02:03:01ZNot keeping up with the Joneses: the one factor that makes us less likely to emulate our neighbours on climate action<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490760/original/file-20221020-19-pm17qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=294%2C638%2C5313%2C2513&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>About 30% of Australian homes have rooftop solar panels installed – the highest uptake of any nation. Their popularity has been helped along by government subsidies that reduce the upfront costs of the technology.</p>
<p>But these subsidies may not always have a positive climate impact. While people like to “keep up with the Joneses” on climate action, my <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01124/107654/Motivation-Crowding-in-Peer-Effects-The-Effect-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext">recent research</a> suggests this is not always the case when large solar subsidies are being offered.</p>
<p>It found if someone is perceived as having installed solar panels primarily for a financial benefit, their non-solar neighbours may actually be deterred from reducing their own climate impact – such as by signing up for so-called “green” retail electricity schemes.</p>
<p>Subsidies are often a policy go-to for governments wanting to encourage more climate-friendly behaviours. But my findings indicate they should be used with caution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man in high-vis installs solar panel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490764/original/file-20221020-26-s2feja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490764/original/file-20221020-26-s2feja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490764/original/file-20221020-26-s2feja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490764/original/file-20221020-26-s2feja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490764/original/file-20221020-26-s2feja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490764/original/file-20221020-26-s2feja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490764/original/file-20221020-26-s2feja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Solar subsidies may not always have a positive climate impact.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lucy Hughes Jones/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A spotlight on buyer behaviour</h2>
<p>Examining subsidies for rooftop solar systems is valuable because it can tell us about consumer behaviour more broadly. </p>
<p>For the past 20 years or so, state and federal governments have subsidised the cost of installing rooftop solar by offering a range of rebates and other financial incentives to consumers. In recent years these subsidies have fallen, in part because the cost of the technology has become so cheap that consumers can recoup the cost fairly quickly through reduced power bills.</p>
<p>But some subsidies for <a href="https://www.solar.vic.gov.au/solar-panel-rebate">rooftop solar and home batteries</a> still exist. Some governments also apply them to energy efficiency measures and <a href="https://business.gov.au/grants-and-programs/incentives-for-electric-vehicles-sa">electric vehicles</a>. </p>
<p>Such subsidies come at great cost to the public purse. So will they help Australia reach its emissions reduction targets? My research suggests in some cases, they can be counterproductive.</p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heat-pumps-can-cut-your-energy-costs-by-up-to-90-its-not-magic-just-a-smart-use-of-the-laws-of-physics-185711">Heat pumps can cut your energy costs by up to 90%. It’s not magic, just a smart use of the laws of physics</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="rooftops with solar panels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490767/original/file-20221020-17-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490767/original/file-20221020-17-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490767/original/file-20221020-17-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490767/original/file-20221020-17-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490767/original/file-20221020-17-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490767/original/file-20221020-17-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490767/original/file-20221020-17-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Solar subsidies have fallen in recent years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Signing up for GreenPower</h2>
<p>Neighbours influence each other’s behaviour. Living near lots of homes with solar panels can <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10640-019-00374-3">change people’s beliefs</a> about the science of climate change. It also makes people <a href="https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mksc.1120.0727">more likely</a> to install solar panels on their own home. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20180559">research</a> focused on water conservation suggests the “peer pressure” effect is muted if the behaviour change doesn’t also come with a financial benefit.</p>
<p>There remain <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-019-0541-9">gaps in our understanding</a> of how neighbours influence each others’ energy use. For example, we don’t know if installing solar panels influences the energy behaviours of people who can’t install panels because, say, they live in an apartment.</p>
<p><a href="https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01124/107654/Motivation-Crowding-in-Peer-Effects-The-Effect-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext">My research</a> examined the uptake of GreenPower to help us close that knowledge gap. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.greenpower.gov.au/">GreenPower</a> is government-accredited electricity generated by renewable sources and offered for sale to consumers. </p>
<p>Like installing solar panels, GreenPower can be considered a “public good” in that it helps tackle climate change. But GreenPower is not subsidised and is not visible to neighbours. And users also don’t get the financial benefit of selling surplus electricity from rooftop solar back to the grid. </p>
<p>The number of GreenPower users in Australia has <a href="https://www.greenpower.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-08/GreenPower%20-%20Program%20Review%2C%20Final%20Report%20%28JUNE-2015%29.pdf">fallen dramatically</a> in recent years: from about 1 million customers in <a href="https://www.greenpower.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-09/GreenPower%20-%20Quarterly%20Report%20Q3%202009.pdf">2009</a> to 100,000 in <a href="https://www.greenpower.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-08/GreenPower%20-%20Quarterly%20Report%20Q4%202019-v1.2.pdf">2019</a>.</p>
<p>Much of this may be explained by people switching to rooftop solar during that period. But it was also possible that rooftop solar installations were influencing decisions by non-solar neighbours of whether to sign up to GreenPower schemes. My research aimed to distinguish between these possibilities. </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/small-communities-could-be-buying-selling-and-saving-money-on-electric-power-right-now-heres-how-190740">Small communities could be buying, selling and saving money on electric power right now – here’s how</a>
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<img alt="wind turbines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490768/original/file-20221020-17-aw3wct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490768/original/file-20221020-17-aw3wct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490768/original/file-20221020-17-aw3wct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490768/original/file-20221020-17-aw3wct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490768/original/file-20221020-17-aw3wct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490768/original/file-20221020-17-aw3wct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490768/original/file-20221020-17-aw3wct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GreenPower is government-accredited electricity generated by renewable sources.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Russell Freeman/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What the research found</h2>
<p>I studied the electricity plan choices of about 300,000 customers in Victoria from 2009-2016. I matched each contract to the number of solar panels installed in that postcode in the quarter the contract was signed. </p>
<p>I found on average, solar panel installation increases the number of non-solar homes purchasing GreenPower. But economic incentives – like subsidies – actually reduced the peer effect.</p>
<p>During periods of high solar subsidies, an additional 1,000 homes with solar panels reduced the share of GreenPower contracts by 0.08 – or 400 for every 5,000 new electricity contracts taken out by non-solar customers. </p>
<p>During periods of low solar subsidies, an additional 1,000 homes with solar panels increased the share of GreenPower contracts by 0.02, or 100 for every 5,000 new electricity contracts. </p>
<p>This suggests economic incentives compromise the signal that a neighbour is acting in the public good – and so reduces pressure on neighbours to follow their lead.</p>
<p>This may then mean neighbours feel less pressure to address their own electricity-related greenhouse emissions by purchasing GreenPower, or taking other climate-friendly measures.</p>
<p>Other factors are also likely to have contributed to the decline in the popularity of GreenPower. These include its cost relative to electricity from other sources, and debate around the introduction and removal of Australia’s carbon price. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/so-long-loy-yang-shutting-australias-dirtiest-coal-plant-a-decade-early-wont-jeopardise-our-electricity-supply-191577">So long, Loy Yang: shutting Australia’s dirtiest coal plant a decade early won’t jeopardise our electricity supply</a>
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<img alt="solar panels in low light" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490769/original/file-20221020-23-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490769/original/file-20221020-23-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490769/original/file-20221020-23-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490769/original/file-20221020-23-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490769/original/file-20221020-23-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490769/original/file-20221020-23-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490769/original/file-20221020-23-zjh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Economic incentives interacted with the peer effect of solar panel installation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>Proceed with care</h2>
<p>Subsidies affect technology adoption, and subsidies for “green” technologies such as solar panels do lower carbon emissions. </p>
<p>But subsidies also have indirect effects that must be considered when thinking about the costs and benefits of various policy options. </p>
<p>Alternatives to these subsidies exist. These include an economy-wide price on carbon, <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-australian-households-are-well-positioned-for-electric-vehicles-and-an-emissions-ceiling-would-help-172694">emissions ceilings on vehicles</a>, and mandatory renewable energy targets. These policy options could avoid the downsides of subsidies to consumers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea La Nauze has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Subsidies are often a policy go-to for governments wanting to encourage more climate-friendly behaviours. But they should be used with caution.Andrea La Nauze, Lecturer, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1886692022-08-29T13:38:03Z2022-08-29T13:38:03ZWhat are green jobs and how can I get one? 5 questions answered about clean energy careers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481333/original/file-20220826-16-wl02rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C24%2C8194%2C5462&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Solar installation jobs are among those expected to grow in the next decade.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/working-on-installing-solar-panels-royalty-free-image/1350971530?adppopup=true">Brenda Sangi Arruda / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>When President Joe Biden signed the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/16/biden-inflation-reduction-act-signing/">Inflation Reduction Act</a> in August 2022, he called it the “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/07/statement-by-president-biden-on-senate-passage-of-the-inflation-reduction-act/">largest investment ever</a>” to fight climate change. He also said it would lead to the creation of well-paying union jobs to help “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/19/fact-sheet-the-inflation-reduction-act-supports-workers-and-families/">reduce emissions across every sector of our economy</a>.” These jobs are also known as “clean energy jobs,” and the number of these jobs is expected to increase in the coming years as a result of the act’s <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/inflation_reduction_act_one_page_summary.pdf">US$369 billion</a> investment in energy security and climate change.</em></p>
<p><em>Here, Shaun Dougherty, an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K3uUtzcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">expert in career and technical education</a>, answers five questions about clean energy jobs, their expected growth and what kind of education a person needs to get one.</em></p>
<h2>1. What is a ‘clean energy’ job?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.bls.gov/green/green_definition.htm">general</a>, the term applies to any job that is related to producing goods and delivering services focused on conserving or protecting natural resources, or reducing their use.</p>
<p>So, there are jobs in manufacturing equipment for solar panel and wind turbine components. There are also sales jobs in solar energy – that is, selling solar panels to homeowners and landlords – as well as in installation, maintenance and repair in both the solar and wind industries. There is also <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/environmental-engineers.htm">growing demand for environmental engineers and scientists</a>, whose jobs include helping to design solar panels and wind turbines and determine where they are placed.</p>
<h2>2. How many green jobs will be created in the next few years?</h2>
<p>About 9 million clean energy jobs will be created over the next decade, according to an <a href="https://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/9-million-good-jobs-from-climate-action-the-inflation-reduction-act/">analysis</a> from the Political Economy Research Institute at UMass Amherst.</p>
<p>The federal government has also projected <a href="https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2022/data-on-display/green-growth.htm">strong growth in clean energy jobs</a> in the coming decade. Many of these jobs are expected expected to be as installers and technicians for both solar and wind energy. For instance, there is a projected 68% increase in wind turbine service technician jobs, and a projected 52% increase in solar panel installation jobs over the next decade. However, the growth in the actual number of such jobs will be relatively small: 4,700 and 6,100, respectively.</p>
<p>There is also a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/environmental-scientists-and-specialists.htm">growing need for environmental scientists and specialists</a>, who use their knowledge of science to protect the environment and people’s health. The federal government projects there will be 7,300 new jobs in these fields over the next decade.</p>
<h2>3. How much do these jobs pay?</h2>
<p>Clean energy jobs pay <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/advancing-inclusion-through-clean-energy-jobs/">at least $2 more per hour</a> – or nearly 10% more – than the national average of $23.86 per hour.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2022/data-on-display/green-growth.htm">Estimates</a> from the Department of Labor show that across occupations, clean energy jobs pay well. For example, solar installers could make about $47,000 per year, wind turbine technicians about $52,000 annually and engineers nearly $100,000. </p>
<h2>4. What kind of education do you need to get a green job?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-24/green-jobs-have-higher-wages-lower-entry-barriers">Not a whole lot</a> beyond high school. Solar installation jobs usually require only a high school diploma. Turbine technicians need more advanced training, but that’s usually a certificate that can be earned at a technical or community college. The highest-paying jobs as environmental scientists or engineers, however, require a two- or four-year college degree. </p>
<p>Also, college isn’t the only way to get a clean energy job. You can get a clean energy job through <a href="https://www.jobcorps.gov/train">Job Corps</a>, a federal program that works with young people who have had difficulty getting an education or employment. Research shows Job Corps, at least historically, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22233">boosts earnings</a> for the young people it serves.</p>
<p>It <a href="https://www.k12climateaction.org/blog/brief-on-policy-principles-for-green-school-infrastructure-and-cte">might be difficult</a>, however, to get the kind of technical education you need from your local high school. It <a href="https://www.greenenergytimes.org/2018/08/massachusetts-schools-awarded-funds-for-clean-energy-education-programs/">also depends on where you live</a>.</p>
<h2>5. Where’s the best place to live to get a green job?</h2>
<p>Right now, there are more green jobs in the places that are set up to supply renewable energy and that have created incentives to build the infrastructure for clean energy. For solar, this means <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/solar-jobs-state-states">famously sunny places</a> like California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Florida and Colorado. It also includes states that have created incentives to increase the potential for clean energy use, such as North Carolina, New York and Massachusetts. <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/what-are-top-10-states-clean-energy-jobs">Texas is top for wind energy</a> employment, but other Plains states, like the Dakotas, also fare well.</p>
<p>A recent report from the Brookings Institution – a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. – highlighted where it is cheapest to produce wind and solar energy. This includes areas where there <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-renewable-energy-jobs-can-uplift-fossil-fuel-communities-and-remake-climate-politics/">a lot of jobs in nonrenewable energies</a>, as opposed to clean energy.</p>
<p>This is a hopeful sign. It suggests that clean energy jobs may be coming to areas that might otherwise lose out as the country moves toward greater reliance on renewable energy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun M. Dougherty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jobs in the clean energy industry are expected to grow thanks to a historic federal investment in fighting climate change. Many of the jobs have low barriers to entry, an expert says.Shaun M. Dougherty, Professor of Education & Policy, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1870082022-08-01T01:30:23Z2022-08-01T01:30:23ZSolar is the cheapest power, and a literal light-bulb moment showed us we can cut costs and emissions even further<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474770/original/file-20220719-12-4r3kz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5085%2C3377&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent extreme weather events have underscored the need to cut the CO₂ emissions that are driving up global temperatures. This requires a rapid transition of the energy economy to renewable energy sources, the <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/energy/Energy-data-modelling/GenCost-2021-22">cheapest being solar photovoltaics (PV)</a>. And our newly <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/solr.202200449">published research</a> points to a way we can drive down costs of the shift even further using cheaper forms of silicon for highly efficient solar panels.</p>
<p>Australia has been leading the way with <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-the-runaway-global-leader-in-building-new-renewable-energy-123694">solar PV installations</a>, but our solar energy journey is just beginning. This year, humanity hit a milestone of <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/03/15/humans-have-installed-1-terawatt-of-solar-capacity/">1 terawatt (TW) – 1 million × 1 million watts – of installed solar capacity</a>. However, experts predict <a href="https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0020380">70TW of solar PV</a> may be needed by 2050 to power all sectors of the economy. </p>
<p>To help drive this rapid uptake of solar PV, we need solar panels that are high efficiency and low cost. Over the past ten years, some new solar cell designs have led to record high efficiencies. The problem is these designs also need higher-quality materials, which cost more. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/solr.202200449">recent research</a> suggests we might be able to rethink the type of silicon needed to make these high-efficiency solar cells.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-the-runaway-global-leader-in-building-new-renewable-energy-123694">Australia is the runaway global leader in building new renewable energy</a>
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<h2>Not all silicon is equal</h2>
<p>More than 95% of solar panels are made using silicon. The silicon used to make solar cells is similar to that used in computer chips. It’s effectively very pure sand. </p>
<p>To make a solar cell work, we need to form an electric field so the generated current can all flow in one direction. This is done by adding impurity atoms into silicon, a process known as “doping”. </p>
<p>In commercial panel manufacturing, the most commonly used type of silicon is “p-type” silicon. This material is doped with atoms that have one less electron than silicon, such as boron or more recently gallium. </p>
<p>We can then introduce a very thin layer on the surface full of atoms with one extra electron relative to silicon, which is called “n-type” silicon. Placing these two types of silicon together forms what is called a “p-n junction”. The massive difference in the number of electrons between the p-type region and n-type region forces electrons to move rapidly, creating an electric field that drives the current in our solar cell.</p>
<p>Conventional solar panels on Australian roofs today are overwhelmingly made using p-type silicon, as it is about 10% cheaper than the alternative “n-type” silicon, doped with phosphorus. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sunlight-that-powers-solar-panels-also-damages-them-gallium-doping-is-providing-a-solution-164935">The sunlight that powers solar panels also damages them. 'Gallium doping' is providing a solution</a>
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<h2>Higher efficiency comes at a cost</h2>
<p>Researchers are continually pushing to drive up the efficiency of solar panels so they can generate more power for consumers. In 2017, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.32">record efficiency of 26.7%</a> was achieved for a silicon solar cell. Last month, <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/06/24/longis-heterojunction-solar-cell-hits-26-5/">LONGi Solar</a> announced an efficiency of 26.5% - very close to the world record - for the same type of solar cell made in a manufacturing environment, rather than in a laboratory. </p>
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<p>This type of solar cell is called a “silicon heterojunction”. The special element of silicon heterojunction solar cells is that the surface is capped with a very thin layer – about 1,000 times thinner than a human hair – of amorphous silicon. This thin layer smooths the surface and reduces a lot of the energy losses. </p>
<p>Sanyo developed this cell design in the 1990s. At the time, high-quality n-type silicon wafers were used to make silicon heterojunction cells, even though these wafers are more expensive. </p>
<p>The main reason for this is that sunlight degrades cheaper p-type wafers. However, our understanding of this phenomenon and how to treat it has come a long way since the 1990s. </p>
<h2>Our light-bulb moment</h2>
<p>For the past 30 years, all silicon heterojunction solar cells, including the record-breaking cells, have been made using n-type silicon wafers. In <a href="https://arena.gov.au/projects/hydrogenated-hybrid-heterojunction-p-type-silicon-solar-cells/">our research project</a>, we wanted to test whether cheaper, p-type wafers could also be used.</p>
<p>Through comprehensive testing, we found heterojunction solar cells made with p-type silicon did not perform as well. We were puzzled by this. But one day we had a literal light-bulb moment. </p>
<p>We realised that accidental exposure to room lighting for as little as ten seconds before testing reduced the voltage of p-type cells by as much as 30mV, which can cut their efficiency by a percentage point (i.e. from 22% to 21%). This was causing our cells to perform much worse than expected. Much like someone who has severe allergies is more sensitive to pollen in the spring, we realised these high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells made with p-type wafers are much more sensitive to light-induced degradation.</p>
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<img alt="solar panels on roofs of suburban houses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474774/original/file-20220719-12-4osyy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474774/original/file-20220719-12-4osyy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474774/original/file-20220719-12-4osyy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474774/original/file-20220719-12-4osyy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474774/original/file-20220719-12-4osyy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474774/original/file-20220719-12-4osyy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474774/original/file-20220719-12-4osyy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Australians have led the way in installing solar panels but reducing the cost of high-efficiency panels could boost the urgent transition to renewables.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Problem identified, we now have the solution</h2>
<p>We believe this observation is the reason high-efficiency cells have only previously been explored using expensive silicon. Past researchers were unaware of the sensitivity of p-type wafers to degrade and did not have the knowledge to overcome it. </p>
<p>Fortunately, we now know the bonding of boron and unwanted oxygen in the silicon wafer causes this degradation. Treatments with a high-intensity laser have been shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pssr.201510064">stabilise cells in a matter of seconds</a>. </p>
<p>The laser illumination can make hydrogen, which is already floating around in the silicon, more mobile to move around and “passivate” the unwanted boron-oxygen defects. Exactly how hydrogen does this is still an active area of research, but we know it solves the problem. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/solr.202200449">Our research</a> confirms a short laser treatment can stabilise the performance of p-type silicon heterojunction solar cells.</p>
<p>Armed with this new knowledge, we can further develop high-efficiency technologies with cheaper raw materials. This will reduce the cost of every watt of solar electricity produced. In March this year, solar panel manufacturer LONGi Solar announced an <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/03/30/longi-achieves-25-47-efficiency-for-gallium-doped-p-type-heterojunction-solar-cell/">efficiency of 25.47%</a> for a silicon heterojunction solar cell made using p-type wafers. </p>
<p>To see manufacturers making high-efficiency solar cells that are potentially cheaper means our findings have a tangible impact on industry. Reducing solar cell costs will provide cheaper electricity to millions of consumers while addressing climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruno Vicari Stefani received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the CSIRO Research Office. Bruno Vicari Stefani performed part of this work during his PhD at the University of New South Wales.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Hallam receives funding from ARENA.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Wright receives funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant number EP/V038605/1. </span></em></p>Until now, a more expensive type of silicon was used to produce the highest-efficiency solar panels. Now there’s a way to use cheaper raw materials, cutting the cost of solar power for everyone.Bruno Vicari Stefani, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Solar Technologies, CSIROBrett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW SydneyMatthew Wright, Postdoctoral Researcher in Photovoltaic Engineering, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851012022-07-05T13:52:14Z2022-07-05T13:52:14ZCities need to embrace green innovation now to cut heat deaths in the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472366/original/file-20220704-12-qj8yqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=910%2C1053%2C7023%2C4682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The severe heat wave in western Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, between June and July 2021 caused 1,400 deaths.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/cities-need-to-embrace-green-innovation-now-to-cut-heat-deaths-in-the-future" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In late June 2021, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm6860">North America’s most severe heat wave in history</a> hit British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In many areas, temperatures soared above 40 C, 15 C hotter than the normal average high. Although other places in North America regularly hit these highs, <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220504144530.htm">the extreme contrast to “normal” is what exposes acute infrastructure, economic, environmental and social vulnerabilities</a>. </p>
<p>Heat waves silently roll in with only a shimmer of visible evidence, but leave a wake of mortality greater than floods, wildfires or hurricanes. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097036">By mid-July, this one had caused 1,400 deaths</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/11/climate/deaths-pacific-northwest-heat-wave.html">Emergency rooms across the Pacific Northwest were overwhelmed with visits 100 times greater than normal</a>. Lytton, B.C. — where temperatures soared to 49.6 C — was largely vaporized by a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/25/lytton-canada-heat-wildfire-record-temperatures">wildfire that scorched the town in 30 minutes</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-heat-dome-an-atmospheric-scientist-explains-the-weather-phenomenon-baking-texas-and-the-southwest-185569">What is a heat dome? An atmospheric scientist explains the weather phenomenon baking Texas and the Southwest</a>
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<p>Research warns that if current <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01092-9">greenhouse gas levels are sustained, “record-shattering” heat waves are up to seven times more likely</a> than they have been over the past few decades. As an urban climate policy analyst, I believe that North America’s 2021 extreme heat event should compel governments to scale innovations from leading cities and countries to advance resilient, restorative and renewable cities.</p>
<h2>Preparedness is important, but prevention is critical</h2>
<p>In response to last year’s heat wave, British Columbia has begun to roll out <a href="https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022PSSG0035-000904">a heat action plan</a> comprising an alert system through smartphones and media, on-the-ground co-ordination including cooling centres, an education campaign and outreach to vulnerable populations.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A sign that reads 'Extreme Heat Cooling Centre' placed outside a centre by the City of Vancouver" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472358/original/file-20220704-21-6f9yeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=276%2C100%2C5120%2C3164&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472358/original/file-20220704-21-6f9yeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472358/original/file-20220704-21-6f9yeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472358/original/file-20220704-21-6f9yeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472358/original/file-20220704-21-6f9yeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472358/original/file-20220704-21-6f9yeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472358/original/file-20220704-21-6f9yeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cooling centres became safe havens for those affected by the heat wave in Vancouver, B.C., in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Effective heat action plans reduce death tolls. This was seen in Italy when <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph18168362">integrated intervention with socially isolated seniors cut heat mortality risks threefold</a> between the late 1990s and 2016.</p>
<p><a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/death/coroners-service/death-review-panel">The B.C. Coroners Service has also recommended similar “prevention and long-term, risk mitigation measures.”</a></p>
<p>In the long-term, prevention is critical because of increasingly intense heat and growing underlying vulnerabilities including declining urban tree canopy and a growing building stock with outdated performance standards.</p>
<h2>Urban tree canopy loss exposes mortality</h2>
<p>The vast majority of urban fabric is losing tree canopy, displaced by asphalt, concrete and large building footprints. Heat-wave-related deaths are concentrated in neighbourhoods with lower urban tree canopy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Trees provide shade to streets and buildings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471881/original/file-20220630-24-1snc9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471881/original/file-20220630-24-1snc9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471881/original/file-20220630-24-1snc9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471881/original/file-20220630-24-1snc9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471881/original/file-20220630-24-1snc9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471881/original/file-20220630-24-1snc9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471881/original/file-20220630-24-1snc9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trees reduce the temperature in urban areas by providing shade to streets and buildings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Trees provide shade, <a href="https://coolcalifornia.arb.ca.gov/how-cool-vegetation-works#_ftn1">reducing temperatures by as much as 11 C to 25 C</a>. They allow rain to penetrate into soil and retain water. As temperatures rise, liquid water in leaves and soils devours heat, transforming it into vapour. This transpiration and evaporation dramatically cools surrounding areas. One large tree can transpire 380 litres of water daily — the cooling equivalent of five standard air conditioners running 20 hours.</p>
<p>But the U.S. urban tree cover is declining at a rate of 700 square kilometres annually, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2018.03.006">according to the U.S. Forest Service</a>. In Canada, <a href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/forests/state-canadas-forests-report/16496">urban development is one the biggest drivers of permanent forest loss</a>.</p>
<p>While the most intense urban heat islands tend to be high density zones, <a href="https://www.sightline.org/2018/09/06/seattle-trees-development-not-a-tree-apocalypse/">cities like Seattle found the greatest cumulative urban tree canopy loss in its single-family neighbourhoods</a>. One-third of British Columbia’s heat mortalities were in single-family homes.</p>
<h2>Leading cities are planting seeds for a new future</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103899">Awareness of the diverse benefits is critical for consolidating support for tree protection</a>. Trees reduce extreme heat vulnerability, flood risk and storm-water management cost. They filter airborne particulate matter, sequester carbon and cut building energy demand.</p>
<p>Many cities like <a href="https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/urban-forest-strategy.pdf">Vancouver</a> and <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/baltimores-urban-tree-canopy-flourishes">Baltimore</a> have strengthened park and street planting. Private land — the majority of urban geography — is, however, a bigger challenge. Effective regulation and innovative incentives must reinforce awareness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Clearing in a forest with construction and buildings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471888/original/file-20220630-14-lcgatr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471888/original/file-20220630-14-lcgatr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471888/original/file-20220630-14-lcgatr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471888/original/file-20220630-14-lcgatr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471888/original/file-20220630-14-lcgatr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471888/original/file-20220630-14-lcgatr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471888/original/file-20220630-14-lcgatr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Building construction poses the biggest threat to urban tree canopies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While tree canopies suffer from thousands of individual cuts, their greatest blows today are dealt during building construction when sites are razed. Costs and benefits must be effectively calculated. “<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/zero-net-deforestation-is-the-wrong-target-warn-experts/">Zero net loss</a>” policies that permit a large, 50-year-old tree to be replaced by one or two seedlings are a gross loss.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/9297-City-Planning-Toronto-Green-Standard-2017_MidHiRise_Standard.pdf">Toronto justifies development charge reductions on sites that protect urban tree canopy because of storm-water management cost savings</a>. </p>
<p>To maximize benefits and manage risks at scale, provinces and states should work with cities to legislate tree canopy protection and restoration.</p>
<h2>Contemporary air conditioning impedes resilient design</h2>
<p>The reflexive response to home cooling is air conditioners. However, surging <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/28/1027424/the-northwests-blistering-heatwave-underscores-the-fragility-of-our-grids/">electricity demand from air conditioning during extreme heat stresses grids</a>, increasing blackout risk with more devastating consequences. This <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/31/spiking-temperatures-could-cause-more-blackouts-this-summer-they-wont-be-the-last-00034858">risk rises as demand grows to electrify the transportation and industrial sectors to tackle climate change</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A view of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, with sparce tree cover" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471890/original/file-20220630-13-34j4j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471890/original/file-20220630-13-34j4j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471890/original/file-20220630-13-34j4j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471890/original/file-20220630-13-34j4j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471890/original/file-20220630-13-34j4j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471890/original/file-20220630-13-34j4j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471890/original/file-20220630-13-34j4j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The urban tree canopy in Phoenix, Arizona, is down to nine per cent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt York)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before the widespread adoption of air conditioning, many homes in hot cities had exterior shutters or shades, covered porches as well as floor and window plans to allow cross ventilation. Main streets had awnings and trees. <a href="https://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/phoenix-az-once-and-future-forest/">In the 1920s, Phoenix — the hottest U.S. city — had 50 per cent urban tree canopy. This is down to nine per cent today.</a> These solutions cost less than air conditioning and new power supply.</p>
<h2>Climate-anticipatory home retrofits can eliminate heat risk</h2>
<p>Building standards — currently based on historical conditions — must be updated for existing and new homes based on the climate anticipated over the next century. </p>
<p><a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/birth-adoption-death-marriage-and-divorce/deaths/coroners-service/death-review-panel/extreme_heat_death_review_panel_report.pdf">The B.C. Coroners Service recommended retrofits in the least energy efficient homes occupied by low-income households where heat-wave deaths were concentrated</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://energiesprong.org/about/">Netherlands-based Energiesprong</a> — the world’s most successful home retrofit model — used public procurement in social housing to drive down costs by 50 per cent. Precisely measured, prefabricated insulated panels and roofs are installed on 50-year-old homes, along with a solar panel and an air source heat pump, replacing aged assets and eliminating indoor extreme heat risk and virtually all greenhouse gases.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.retrofitcanada.com/news/43-years-in-the-making-the-sundance-housing-cooperatives-journey-to-net-zero">an Energiesprong-inspired demonstration in Edmonton</a> during the 2021 heat wave, occupants of upgraded 1970s townhomes switched their new heat pumps to cooling mode. They used 300-400 per cent less energy than a typical air-conditioned home.</p>
<p>Strategic investment in home retrofits and urban tree canopies can yield great returns on government and household ledgers, bring down heat-wave-related deaths and advance resilient, restorative and renewable cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Boston and the Simon Fraser University special initiative where he serves as Executive Director, Renewable Cities, receives funding from senior and local governments and utilities on consulting projects; philanthropic and non-governmental grant makers with affordability, nature and climate change mitigation and adaptation program and economic development objectives.</span></em></p>North America’s 2021 extreme heat event should compel governments to scale innovations from leading cities and countries to advance resilient, restorative and renewable cities.Alex Boston, Fellow, MJ Wosk Centre for Dialogue; Executive Director, Renewable Cities, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1835672022-06-16T12:07:50Z2022-06-16T12:07:50ZEco-friendly tech comes with its own environmental costs: that’s why it’s vital to cut energy demand now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468012/original/file-20220609-5837-p73uas.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3613%2C2170&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mining and extracting metals has ecologically damaging consequences.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/silhouettes-workers-mine-176428352">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If we want to keep <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-says-earth-will-reach-temperature-rise-of-about-1-5-in-around-a-decade-but-limiting-any-global-warming-is-what-matters-most-165397">global temperature rise</a> below 1.5 or even 2°C, we’ll need a monumental shift in how our energy and transport systems work. The <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050">International Energy Agency</a> has declared that millions of solar panels, wind turbines and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-climate-friendly-is-an-electric-car-it-all-comes-down-to-where-you-live-179003">electric vehicles</a> (EVs) will need to be made and deployed around the world in the next three decades. Thankfully, these technologies are constantly improving – as well as becoming cheaper. </p>
<p>However, a key feature of most <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-energy-innovations-could-transform-how-we-mitigate-climate-change-and-save-money-in-the-process-5-essential-reads-180076">eco-friendly tech</a> is that it requires more, and more varied, <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/extractiveindustries/brief/climate-smart-mining-minerals-for-climate-action">materials</a> than those used in the tech it’s replacing. Wind turbines need <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/zinc-low-carbon-economy-construction/">iron and zinc</a> for the corrosion-proof steel and motors needed to capture energy from the wind. And <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/iea-mineral-supplies-for-electric-cars-must-increase-30-fold-to-meet-climate-goals/">electric vehicles</a> need lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese for their batteries, plus neodymium and other rare earth materials for their motors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="White cars charging electrically from charging points mounted on grey frames" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468055/original/file-20220609-18-5fcrtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468055/original/file-20220609-18-5fcrtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468055/original/file-20220609-18-5fcrtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468055/original/file-20220609-18-5fcrtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468055/original/file-20220609-18-5fcrtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468055/original/file-20220609-18-5fcrtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468055/original/file-20220609-18-5fcrtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Electric vehicles require rare materials to run.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/power-supply-electric-car-charging-station-1070497337">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Building lots of these devices will therefore require huge amounts of specific materials, many of which are difficult to mine. Some can come from recycling, but for many materials, such as lithium, there’s just not enough being used today that can be recycled for future use. Instead, most will have to come from mining.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/electric-car-supplies-are-running-out-and-could-drastically-slow-down-the-journey-to-net-zero-182787">Electric car supplies are running out – and could drastically slow down the journey to net-zero</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This means that if low-carbon tech is to be used around the world, we need to face the less palatable consequences, or trade-offs, of building it. Making a global switch to EVs, for example, may mean <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/dec/08/the-curse-of-white-oil-electric-vehicles-dirty-secret-lithium">damaging forest ecosystems</a> to access lithium or cobalt.</p>
<h2>Trade-offs</h2>
<p>One major trade-off is the environmental damage associated with <a href="https://hackaday.com/2021/12/13/mining-and-refining-from-red-dirt-to-aluminum/">mining and refining</a> materials. An example is <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/12/05/the-weekend-read-solar-needs-aluminum-but-it-has-a-carbon-problem/">aluminium</a>, vital for making solar panel frames. Worldwide aluminium production accounts for 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions, with studies estimating future emissions could reach <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00838-9">1.7 gigatonnes</a> of CO₂ by 2050 – equivalent to twice the annual emissions from planes. </p>
<p>There’s potential to cut these emissions significantly, however. Switching the source of electricity for processing aluminium from fossil fuels to hydroelectric can reduce emissions from new aluminium by around 75%. What’s needed to make that happen, though, are better financial incentives for the mining sector to use renewable energy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Brine pools for lithium mining" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468051/original/file-20220609-20-nyq0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468051/original/file-20220609-20-nyq0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468051/original/file-20220609-20-nyq0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468051/original/file-20220609-20-nyq0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468051/original/file-20220609-20-nyq0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468051/original/file-20220609-20-nyq0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468051/original/file-20220609-20-nyq0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brine extraction has uncertain consequences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brine-pools-lithium-mining-1833635461">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Difficulties with sourcing these materials are not limited to the emissions they create. Extracting <a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/lithium-triangle/">lithium from brine</a> – as is done in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile – requires drilling holes in salt flats to bring brine (salt water) to the surface, then evaporating the water using sunlight to leave potassium, manganese, borax and lithium salts behind.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-lithium-mined-from-hot-springs-in-cornwall-could-boost-britains-green-tech-71741">How lithium mined from hot springs in Cornwall could boost Britain's green tech</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00080-9">debate</a> about the extent to which this brine qualifies as water, and therefore how much its extraction is affecting <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/water-stress-global-problem-thats-getting-worse">water-stressed</a> regions like Chile. For those arguing that it should be classed as water, its extraction is creating unnecessary water scarcity and damaging fragile ecosystems. And even from the perspective of those arguing it’s not water due to its high concentration of minerals, the long-term consequences of its extraction remain unknown. </p>
<p>Cobalt, another vital material used in EV batteries, is mostly mined in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-coltan-mining-in-the-drc-costs-people-and-the-environment-183159">Democratic Republic of Congo</a>. A large but unknown quantity of cobalt is extracted by small-scale miners who often employ children and have been <a href="http://resourcefever.com/publications/reports/OEKO_2011_cobalt_mining_congo.pdf">accused</a> of unsafe working conditions, poor safety records and exploitative employment contracts.</p>
<p>These trade-offs are not a justification for avoiding action on climate change, nor for refusing to build the tech we need to decarbonise essential systems. They do, however, justify <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-necessary-to-trash-the-environment-to-extract-metals-needed-for-renewable-energy-174271">closer focus</a> on how the materials needed to make eco-friendlier tech are sourced. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person holds a sign reading '#FreeCongo End Child Mining'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468052/original/file-20220609-26-352gf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468052/original/file-20220609-26-352gf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468052/original/file-20220609-26-352gf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468052/original/file-20220609-26-352gf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468052/original/file-20220609-26-352gf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468052/original/file-20220609-26-352gf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468052/original/file-20220609-26-352gf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mining can have socially devastating consequences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-dc-november-14-2020-democratic-1856050648">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Improving recycling of old products and scrap materials is a crucial part of this. However, the sheer increase in demand for these materials, due to the ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/fight-or-switch-how-the-low-carbon-transition-is-disrupting-fossil-fuel-politics-122376">low-carbon transition</a> as well as consumers’ growing wealth across the world, means this alone probably won’t be enough to avoid widespread ecosystem damage.</p>
<p>To help reduce this demand, we must increase the energy efficiency of our homes and businesses so they require less energy in the first place. Shifting away from private transport by investing in public transport will also help to cut mining demand. Without such action, achieving a truly sustainable <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-energy-revolution-is-possible-but-only-if-leaders-get-imaginative-about-how-to-fund-it-172427">low-carbon transition</a> will be impossible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Laing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Solar panels and electric cars come with their own environmental trade-offs like increased mining and extraction.Timothy Laing, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1845372022-06-07T12:33:17Z2022-06-07T12:33:17ZBiden throws US solar installers a lifeline with tariff relief, but can incentives bring manufacturing back?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467360/original/file-20220607-12-mf3uyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C3000%2C1940&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. solar installations had been rising quickly until the threat of new tariffs darkened the 2022 outlook.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/roger-garbey-and-andres-hernandez-from-the-goldin-solar-news-photo/909389746">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Biden administration announced it was putting a two-year freeze on the threat of new solar tariffs, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/06/fact-sheet-president-biden-takes-bold-executive-action-to-spur-domestic-clean-energy-manufacturing/">throwing a lifeline to U.S. solar installers</a> – and boosting the country’s ability to meet its climate goals.</em></p>
<p><em>The tariff threat involved imported solar panels and components from four Asian countries <a href="https://www.mcguirewoods.com/client-resources/Alerts/2022/4/us-department-commerce-investigation-solar-panel-imports-puts-solar-projects-risk">that supply about 80%</a> of photovoltaic cells and modules used in the U.S. The administration also announced new plans on June 6, 2022, to use the Defense Production Act to help industries ramp up production of solar panels in the U.S. and give U.S. solar manufacturers other incentives through federal purchasing.</em> </p>
<p><em>We asked energy researcher <a href="http://www.webberenergygroup.com/people/emily-beagle/">Emily Beagle</a> to explain the changes and the impact they could have.</em></p>
<h2>Part of President Joe Biden’s announcement is aimed at boosting US solar manufacturing. How large is that part of the industry today?</h2>
<p>In 2020, the entire U.S. solar industry employed over <a href="https://www.seia.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/National-Solar-Jobs-Census-2020-FINAL.pdf">231,000 people</a>. About 31,000 of those jobs – roughly 13% of all solar jobs – were in manufacturing. </p>
<p>Those jobs, including building solar panels and components, supported <a href="https://www.woodmac.com/news/editorial/whats-at-stake-for-clean-energy-in-the-us-election/">7.5 gigawatts</a> of manufacturing capacity in 2020. That’s a <a href="https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/despite-a-solar-deployment-hot-streak-homegrown-manufacturing-in-america-is-stalled">tiny fraction</a> of global manufacturing capacity.</p>
<p>Most of the rest of the U.S. solar workforce, 67% of it, worked in installation and development. And most of the cheap solar cells in the panels they installed came from Asia – specifically, about <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2022/04/27/solar-industry-says-46-of-u-s-projects-at-risk-00028064">80% of solar panel imports</a> came from the four Asian countries addressed in Biden’s order.</p>
<h2>What effect did the threat of new tariffs have on solar installations and Biden’s climate goals more broadly?</h2>
<p>The first silicon solar cells were <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200904/physicshistory.cfm">developed at Bell Labs in the U.S. in the 1940s and 1950s</a>, and the U.S. was an early manufacturing leader. But overseas competition and differing energy and research priorities and policies <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-understand-why-biden-extended-tariffs-on-solar-panels-take-a-closer-look-at-their-historical-impact-177528">drove much of the industry out</a>. China has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/29/climate/solar-industry-imports.html">dominated solar manufacturing</a> for the past decade.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women in clean-suits, caps and gloves bend over a table with solar modules." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467361/original/file-20220607-26-56mjcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most solar cells and modules are currently manufactured overseas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/employees-work-on-the-production-line-of-solar-panel-at-a-news-photo/1311503663">Si Wei/VCG via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recent years, the federal government has put <a href="https://www.snl.com/articles/412799530.png">tariffs on solar imports</a> to try to boost growth of U.S. manufacturing. The tariffs raised some prices but didn’t stop the growth of solar installations. Then the U.S. Commerce Department announced in March 2022, that it had opened an <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-04-01/pdf/2022-06827.pdf">investigation into solar imports</a> from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The issue was whether solar components from China – which faced tariffs – were being routed through those countries. If the investigation led to new tariffs, the Commerce Department could make them retroactive, significantly raising the cost for U.S. buyers.</p>
<p>That threat cut the U.S. solar installation forecasts for 2022 and 2023 by 46%, according to the <a href="https://www.seia.org/news/tariff-case-cuts-solar-deployment-forecasts-nearly-half-100000-jobs-risk">Solar Energy Industries Association</a>. </p>
<p>Over 300 projects have been delayed or canceled since the case was brought forward. These canceled or delayed projects account for 51 gigawatts of solar capacity and 6 gigawatt-hours of attached battery storage capacity. That would be more than double <a href="https://www.seia.org/us-solar-market-insight">all the solar capacity installed in the U.S. in 2021</a>, which was <a href="https://www.seia.org/us-solar-market-insight">23.6 gigawatts</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="lgF5F" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/lgF5F/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Rapid installation of solar power to reduce emissions from the electricity sector is a key pillar of the Biden administration’s climate goals. To stay aligned with the administration’s climate target of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/">reducing emissions 50%-52% by 2030</a>, the U.S. needs to install <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/US-Long-Term-Strategy.pdf">about 25 gigawatts</a> of new solar capacity each year for the next decade. Imposing tariffs could cause solar capacity to reach only 70%-80% of that goal.</p>
<h2>Can Biden’s order to use the Defense Production Act and provide other support give US manufacturing enough of a boost to succeed?</h2>
<p>Biden’s order does several important things to address the threat to the U.S. solar industry and expand other critical technologies to meet the administration’s climate goals. </p>
<p>In the short term, the order addresses the solar tariff threat by temporarily allowing solar imports from specific countries. Specifically, this 24-month “bridge” allows U.S. solar deployers to purchase solar parts from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam free of certain duties. </p>
<p>This is important for the Biden administration’s climate goals because it will help ensure that the U.S. has the solar components it needs in the immediate term to continue building out new solar capacity while domestic production ramps up. </p>
<p>The president is also authorizing use of the <a href="https://www.fema.gov/disaster/defense-production-act">Defense Production Act</a> not only to expand U.S. domestic manufacturing of solar panel components, but also to boost several other critical climate technologies, including building insulation, heat pumps, clean hydrogen and power grid infrastructure.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Workers prepare solar-paneled roofs on two new homes in a neighborhood with other homes with solar roofs in behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467355/original/file-20220607-14-ib0q2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California now requires most new homes to be solar-ready, but the cost of the system and how soon it will pay off is an important concern.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-install-solar-panels-on-the-roofs-of-homes-under-news-photo/957099636">Will Lester/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another important part of that order is the use of federal procurement provisions to give U.S. solar manufacturers a market.</p>
<p>Federal procurement provisions, such as <a href="https://www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca/sell2usgov-vendreaugouvusa/procurement-marches/buyamerica.aspx">Buy American</a>, use the vast purchasing power of the federal government to create demand for U.S. manufactured goods. The procurement provisions in Biden’s order, including master supply agreements and “super preferences,” will provide certainty and a guaranteed buyer – the federal government – for new solar products manufactured here in the U.S.</p>
<p>While a step in the right direction, whether the new efforts will be able to build up the U.S. solar manufacturing industry and make it competitive remains to be seen. The greatest potential impact to address not only challenges in the solar industry but U.S. climate goals more broadly lies with Congress, which could still pass historic climate legislation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily A. Beagle receives funding from DOE. </span></em></p>Only 13% of US solar industry jobs are currently in manufacturing. The Biden administration hopes the sector will grow fast, but that might not be so simple.Emily A. Beagle, Research Associate in Energy Systems, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1753932022-01-25T13:45:10Z2022-01-25T13:45:10ZWe created the first AI-powered solar electricity backup system for houses in sub-Saharan Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442529/original/file-20220125-23-1wly912.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4208%2C2374&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Lesotho, solar panels generate power for households.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.maxpixel.net/Rondavels-Lesotho-Bergdorf-Solar-Energy-927581">Max Pixel</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the <a href="https://www.newzimbabwe.com/total-blackout-as-zim-electricity-crisis-worsens/">collapse</a> of Zimbabwe’s electricity grid on December 14 2021 plunged most of the country into a blackout, Zimbabweans feared that they would have to spend Christmas in the dark. Much to their relief, two days later, the utility company restored a major power station and <a href="https://businesstimes.co.zw/minimal-loadshedding-during-festive-season-zesa/">announced</a> that there would be “minimal scheduled power cuts during the festive season”. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, due to weak and stressed power grids, outages are common in sub-Saharan African countries. Those who can afford it tend to invest in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2019/10/02/figure-of-the-week-deployment-and-use-of-back-up-generators-in-sub-saharan-africa/">backup systems</a> to ensure access to electricity. </p>
<p>Despite their high operational and environmental costs, <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1718400/africas-noisy-generators-boost-electricity-but-bad-for-climate/">diesel generators</a> have proved the most popular choice. Unfortunately, the alternative – using <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-energy-revolution-is-possible-but-only-if-leaders-get-imaginative-about-how-to-fund-it-172427">renewable energy</a> sources as a backup – is often seen as unreliable, since wind and sunlight are inherently <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/oxfam-us/www/static/media/files/oxfam-RAEL-energySSA-pt1.pdf">intermittent</a>. </p>
<p>Yet sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions with the most <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-southern-africas-interior-is-an-ideal-place-to-generate-solar-energy-161030">solar energy</a> generation potential in the world, thanks to its relatively low cloud cover and high sunlight <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2016/harvesting-sun">intensity</a>. That means ways to reliably harvest this free, clean solar energy to power the grid without pollution are desperately needed.</p>
<p>Along with engineers from <a href="https://www.ulster.ac.uk/research/topic/built-environment/sustainable-technologies">Ulster University</a>, we’ve developed an intelligent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221313882100312X">solar backup system</a> powered by <a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-is-now-part-of-our-everyday-lives-and-its-growing-power-is-a-double-edged-sword-169449">artificial intelligence</a> (AI) to support sub-Saharan Africa’s utility grids.</p>
<h2>What we made</h2>
<p>Our system is connected both to the grid and to a battery that can store electricity to back up the household where necessary. Since it’s designed for a region where individual electric water heaters are commonly used – in fact, they account for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352484718301495">up to 40%</a> of total household electricity consumption – the system also includes a solar hot water device, which uses solar radiation to directly pre-heat water without needing electricity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A world map of solar power potential" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442222/original/file-20220124-23-ymdrlb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This map shows the high solar power potential of sub-Saharan Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://solargis.com/maps-and-gis-data/download/world">The World Bank, Global Solar Atlas 2.0</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To ensure that the backup system reliably provides electricity, an autonomous AI-based <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352152X21013281">control system</a> takes charge of battery usage.</p>
<p>By analysing the expected amount of energy produced by the solar panels and electricity needed by the household alongside the typical frequency and duration of blackouts, the AI makes sure that enough backup electricity is available in the battery at any moment by storing more during periods of high solar intensity. When the battery is full, that surplus electricity can be used to heat water or can even be sold back to the grid.</p>
<p>Using data collected from households in both Zimbabwe and Botswana, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S221313882100312X">simulations</a> comparing our intelligent solar backup system with a standard diesel generator demonstrated the superiority of our solar solution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph comparing solar and diesel electricity demand" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442221/original/file-20220124-25-1p2ht9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442221/original/file-20220124-25-1p2ht9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442221/original/file-20220124-25-1p2ht9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442221/original/file-20220124-25-1p2ht9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442221/original/file-20220124-25-1p2ht9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442221/original/file-20220124-25-1p2ht9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442221/original/file-20220124-25-1p2ht9o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our research shows that using a solar backup system dramatically reduces electricity demand on the grid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Masoud Salehiborujeni</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, our system meets strict electricity reliability and hot water temperature parameters: meaning it’s guaranteed to work well when needed. Second, the lifetime costs of its installation, maintenance and use are around 25% lower than those of its diesel counterpart. </p>
<p>Third, it’s able to cut reliance on the grid during <a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10069826/8/Adeoye_Modelling%20and%20forecasting%20hourly%20electricity%20demand%20in%20West%20African%20countries_AAM.pdf">peak</a> electricity usage hours. Importantly, this reduces stress on the grid and makes power outages less frequent. And fourth, this environmentally friendly solution cuts harmful <a href="https://theconversation.com/countries-may-be-under-reporting-their-greenhouse-gas-emissions-thats-why-accurate-monitoring-is-crucial-171645">greenhouse gas emissions</a> from burning diesel. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, making solar-based backup systems in sub-Saharan Africa the norm faces a major obstacle. Their initial cost is six times higher than that of an equivalent diesel-based system: around £7,200 compared with £1,200.</p>
<p>The amount of this initial investment is likely to put many households off, especially those with lower incomes. Here’s where governments and utility companies will have to step in to provide <a href="https://www.africanpowerplatform.org/financing/grants.html">loans or grants</a>, helping everyone to access this technology.</p>
<p>Despite the disappointing outcome for many African nations of the recent UN climate change conference <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-african-countries-got-out-of-cop26-172096">COP26</a>, developed nations have promised to at least double their climate adaptation finance to developing countries by 2025. Hopefully, some of that money will be invested in solar-based backup systems, silencing the intense, familiar hum of diesel generators in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sub-saharan-africa-can-harness-its-big-electricity-opportunities-97391">sub-Saharan Africa</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Masoud Salehiborujeni’s research was funded by Innovate UK as part of the 'Energy catalyst round 7: early stage' competition.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eng Ofetotse’s research was funded by Innovate UK as part of the 'Energy catalyst round 7: early stage' competition in collaboration with Ulster University, SolaForm, Empowered Ltd Botswana and Onesun Solar Zimbabwe.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-Christophe Nebel received funding from Innovate UK as part of the 'Energy catalyst round 7: early stage' competition.</span></em></p>Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s most sunlit regions. A prototype generator uses that sunlight in place of diesel to support unreliable electricity grids.Masoud Salehiborujeni, Senior Research Associate in Computing Science, University of East AngliaEng Ofetotse, Lecturer in Built Environment, Kingston UniversityJean-Christophe Nebel, Professor of Computer Science, Kingston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1733332021-12-16T19:09:10Z2021-12-16T19:09:10ZFarmers shouldn’t have to compete with solar companies for land. We need better policies so everyone can benefit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437454/original/file-20211214-13-1g02mk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C29%2C3980%2C2205&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to solar energy, Australia has a huge natural advantage with an abundance of sun and vast, flat expanses of land. This makes it relatively easy to build solar farms across the continent. </p>
<p>Some proposed projects, however, overlap with arable land. As a result, solar companies and farmers are often in competition, with conflicts already arising in <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/contested-100mw-solar-project-on-canberras-outskirts-gets-green-light/">Canberra</a>, <a href="https://www.allens.com.au/insights-news/insights/2018/08/solar-farm-wins-court-approval-despite-conflicts-with/">Queensland</a> and <a href="https://www.theland.com.au/story/6845990/call-to-halt-works-at-eunony-valley-solar-project/?cs=4963">Wagga</a>, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-05-23/battle-over-the-future-of-prime-australian-agricultural-land/11140144">South Riverina</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-24/jindera-solar-farm-approved-despiter-farmer-concerns/13013156">Greater Hume</a> in New South Wales.</p>
<p>But these are familiar battlegrounds. Such tension has played out over many decades with agricultural communities facing serious environmental, social and health impacts from coal and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-28/farmers-fear-coal-seam-gas-could-cause-prime-ag-land-to-subside/13207950">coal seam gas</a> projects. </p>
<p>We can avoid history repeating itself if we urgently set the right policies and laws in place. The pressing task for law and policymakers now is to ensure Australia’s clean energy transition sees solar development occur with co-benefits for local communities, and protects productive agricultural land. </p>
<h2>Rising tension</h2>
<p>Australia has the highest average <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/summer-gas-stats-2020-21/">solar radiation</a> <a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/energy/resources/other-renewable-energy-resources/solar-energy">per square metre</a> of any continent in the world. This has led the federal government to aim for ultra-low cost solar production in its long-term plan to reduce emissions.</p>
<p>Likewise, <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/parliament-house-press-conference-labor-powering-australia-plan&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1639373014593000&usg=AOvVaw2UcDse-v_PXOdcnWcd-BMp">Labor’s</a> recent announcement of 43% emissions reduction target by 2030 relies heavily on increased renewable energy. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/renewables-need-land-and-lots-of-it-that-poses-tricky-questions-for-regional-australia-156031">Renewables need land – and lots of it. That poses tricky questions for regional Australia</a>
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<p>But right now, the state and territory governments are leading Australia’s clean energy revolution, rolling out crucial “<a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/what-is-renewable-energy-zone/">Renewable Energy Zones</a>”, often within or near agricultural regions.</p>
<p>Agricultural land is flat, cleared, and sometimes situated near existing power infrastructure and distribution networks. Such conditions are <a href="https://www.agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/19-060.pdf">ideal for solar farms</a>, which can require up to 2-3 hectares per 1 megawatt (MW) of solar energy.</p>
<p>Clean energy companies must avoid the development mistakes of the fossil fuel industry or risk losing their <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-contentious-nsw-gas-project-is-weeks-away-from-approval-here-are-3-reasons-it-should-be-rejected-144201">social licence</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, rising tension between agricultural communities and solar companies has led the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-15/solar-wind-farm-development-limits/100538634">NSW government to recently consider</a> restricting solar and wind farm developments in regional towns.</p>
<p>Some communities who have experienced the impacts of <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Kicking-the-Gas-Habit-How-Gas-is-Harming-our-Health.pdf">coal seam gas</a>, such as the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-14/coal-seam-gas-wells-drilled-under-farmland/100155818">Darling Downs</a>, are particularly sensitive to the potential impacts of any new energy development. This includes aquifer contamination, damage to the surrounding environment and ecosystems, and the displacement of communities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/against-the-odds-south-australia-is-a-renewable-energy-powerhouse-how-on-earth-did-they-do-it-153789">Against the odds, South Australia is a renewable energy powerhouse. How on Earth did they do it?</a>
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<p>Now, these communities are once again being asked to negotiate land access and compensation arrangements for solar farms. Vast solar farms may mean arable land can no longer be used for growing crops. </p>
<p>The main problem is the twin policy objectives of accelerating renewable energy development and preserving sensitive land uses aren’t woven into legal precedent in some states.</p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://dsdmipprd.blob.core.windows.net/general/solar-farm-guideline-part-1-local-government.pdf">Queensland</a>, local councils usually need to assess the merits of a new solar farm project by default, rather than assess them “against a range of other existing uses or matters such as agriculture”. </p>
<h2>What co-benefits could look like</h2>
<p>Experiences in Victoria show a better alternative. <a href="https://hsfnotes.com/environmentaustralia/2019/11/14/recent-vcat-refusals-for-three-of-five-solar-projects/">Two Victorian</a> tribunal cases assessed solar farm proposals on agricultural land from companies <a href="https://jade.io/article/668770">PowerVault Mildura</a> and <a href="https://jade.io/article/668769">Helios Volta</a>. The tribunal emphasised the need for “co-location” as a foundational policy pillar to balance the overall community benefit.</p>
<p>The Victorian government has also taken steps to create best practice guidelines for renewable energy companies to deal with agricultural land loss. This includes protecting high-quality soils and <a href="https://planning-schemes.delwp.vic.gov.au/schemes/vpps/14_01-01S.pdf">strategic agricultural land</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-need-to-see-the-benefits-from-local-renewable-energy-projects-and-that-means-jobs-138433">People need to see the benefits from local renewable energy projects, and that means jobs</a>
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<p>But it’s not just about managing loss of land. Best practice regulation could lead to a range of benefits for farmers, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QaCy9T5Wzw&t=1s">electricity benefits</a> in the local community to sustainable farming practices. </p>
<p>For one farmer in Dubbo, installing 56,000 solar panels provided crucial shade and condensation to help grass stay green for sheep grazing during drought. Likewise, solar energy from <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-05-15/port-augusta-sundrop-farms-sold-to-investment-fund-morrison-co/11108046">Sundrop Farms</a> in South Australia powers a desalination unit, which produces pure water to irrigate crops.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9SeFK4UPWA4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How over 50,000 solar panels provided shade and green grass for a farmer’s sheep during drought.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what needs to happen now?</h2>
<p>Governments should incentivise and prioritise renewable energy and storage facilities on rehabilitated land, such as land previously used to develop coal, gas or other minerals. Agricultural land should be selected only if no alternative sites are available, or if co-location is possible. </p>
<p>An excellent example of this is the recent site selection of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/01/australias-biggest-privately-funded-battery-under-construction-at-hazelwood-power-station-site">150MW battery</a> earmarked for construction at the previous Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. </p>
<p>Another is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlcae3UvF5Q">Kidston</a> in regional Queensland, where an abandoned gold mine was transformed into the world’s first solar and pumped hydro system.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mlcae3UvF5Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An old mine in outback Queensland becomes a renewables goldmine.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As the world surges towards net-zero emissions, coal and gas will be rapidly phased-out. Solar and wind are now the cheapest form of energy generation and are already <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/new-data-reveals-gas-slump-national-electricity-market/">outcompeting</a> coal and gas in the electricity grid. </p>
<p>The clean energy revolution will create endless economic and job opportunities <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/clean-jobs-plan/">for regions</a>. Australia could lead the world in renewable energy and other clean industries such as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-could-lead-the-world-on-green-hydrogen-with-the-right-policies-20211103-p595lp.html">renewable hydrogen</a>. </p>
<p>But we need strategic and holistic planning to ensure the transformation of our energy system strikes the right balance for both our champion industries - renewable energy and agriculture. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-coal-is-coming-3-times-faster-than-expected-governments-must-accept-it-and-urgently-support-a-just-transition-173591">The end of coal is coming 3 times faster than expected. Governments must accept it and urgently support a 'just transition'</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173333/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeline Taylor is a Climate Councillor at the Climate Council and is affiliated and has received funding from ACOLA.</span></em></p>Such tension has played out over many decades between agricultural communities and coal companies. We can avoid history repeating itself if we urgently set the right policies and laws in place.Madeline Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1721072021-11-24T17:09:04Z2021-11-24T17:09:04ZSolar panels: we need to recycle parts of them to use again and avoid a mountain of waste<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433707/original/file-20211124-23-siuqii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">panelsshutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Billions of <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Jun/End-of-life-management-Solar-Photovoltaic-Panels">solar panels</a> globally will soon come to the end of their lives, but when they get thrown away essential materials that are needed to make future panels are being wasted. </p>
<p>It is estimated that there will be 78 million tonnes of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211467X19301245?via%3Dihub">total waste by 2050</a>. This is roughly 4 billion panels. But these panels have not been designed so that we can easily extract the elements within them again to use again, so it is likely that the majority of the panels will just be shredded in recycling. This contaminates materials, making them difficult to recover. </p>
<p>Globally, there is a desperate need to design electronics to allow easy extraction of the materials they contain so we can reuse them in new products and avoid waste. If we don’t change the way we use materials, then we are going to limit the much-needed deployment of renewable and <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2021#downloads">climate-friendly technologies</a> for the next phase of society and to mitigate climate change. The materials we will need will be lost in the waste we have created.</p>
<h2>Using the waste</h2>
<p>For the solar waste mentioned above, if the materials could be efficiently recovered, they would have an estimated value of <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Jun/End-of-life-management-Solar-Photovoltaic-Panels">US$15 billion</a> (£11.2 billion) and could make 2 billion new solar panels. There are more than just financial benefits – <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2021">70% of greenhouse gas emissions</a> are linked to the extraction, manufacture and use of goods. If the world does not reduce this by digging less materials from the earth, we will not be able to tackle climate change. </p>
<p>It is vitally important to avoid a scenario where technologies will have to compete for materials, limiting deployment and weakening society’s ability to mitigate <a href="https://www.rsc.org/globalassets/03-membership-community/connect-with-others/through-interests/divisions/environment-sustainability-and-energy-division/news/2021/09-september/esed-roundtable/esed-report---decarbonisation-materials-and-circularity-challenges.pdf">the climate crisis</a>. For example, semiconductors – materials widely used in computer chips – are also needed for solar panels and low-energy lighting, the magnets needed for wind turbines are also needed for low-carbon vehicles. Already certain elements, such as indium, are being designed out of emerging solar technologies because of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344916300969?via%3Dihub">worries over supply</a>.</p>
<h2>Reuse will have benefits</h2>
<p>Humankind has developed an insatiable appetite for the consumption of materials. In 2020, it is estimated that 100 billion tonnes of materials were extracted from the earth, with only 8.6% cycled back <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2021">into the economy.</a> As a result of this electronic waste is the fastest-growing waste stream on the planet with <a href="http://ewastemonitor.info">53.6 million tonnes</a> generated in 2019 globally. </p>
<p>A recent report by the sustainability consultancy Giraffe Innovation working with <a href="https://www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk/report-and-research/contributing-towards-a-circular-economy-utilising-critical-raw-materials-from-waste-electricals/">Swansea University</a> has shown that 1.6 metric tons of electronic waste was generated in the UK in 2019. This contained an estimated 379,000kg of critical materials, with a potential value of £148 million. Due to a lack of recycling infrastructure, poor design for end-of-life and inefficiencies in the recycling processes, the majority of these critical materials contained within the waste will be lost. </p>
<p>These critical elements are not being efficiently recovered and recycled, meaning that this technology is inherently unsustainable at present. The global recycling rate is less than <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618324673">1% for 30 critical elements</a> that are needed for future technologies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sculpture made from electronic waste" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433106/original/file-20211122-17-piapkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433106/original/file-20211122-17-piapkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433106/original/file-20211122-17-piapkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433106/original/file-20211122-17-piapkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433106/original/file-20211122-17-piapkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433106/original/file-20211122-17-piapkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433106/original/file-20211122-17-piapkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The WEEE man, a figure made from electronic waste.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_WEEE_Man_-_geograph.org.uk_-_374290.jpg">Phil Williams/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>One major design flaw is that we tend to “glue” things together, leaving little option but to smash products into small fragments of mixed materials that are then difficult to separate. Another problem is highlighted in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092134492030241X">recent research</a> on increasing recovery of critical raw materials from waste electronics. The figure below shows a typical circuit board and the location of the critical materials. It shows the difficulty in extracting these critical materials. Firstly, they are scattered in small amounts across the board and secondly, sophisticated equipment is needed to identify the position of these elements. This is before separation and recovery processes can even begin. Better design is key.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433715/original/file-20211124-25-1bi5syp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A typical circuit board with the location of critical materials highlighted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ScienceDirect</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Design for end-of-life</h2>
<p>Better design for end-of-life, greater processing and recycling infrastructure is needed to extract and reuse materials and to adopt of a circular economy approach. This will be beneficial for consumers, with better design of products that last longer and are easily upgradable or repairable.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-sustainable-circular-economy-would-look-like-133808">What a sustainable circular economy would look like</a>
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<p>For <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2020.07.025">emerging technologies</a> to be truly sustainable, it is vital that the world plans to extract critical materials when a product reaches the end of its useful life.</p>
<p>There is an opportunity to design emerging technologies with the circular economy in mind from the start. Waste should be thought of as be a resource, delivering maximum benefit to society and truly sustainable technologies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Davies receives funding from UKRI and the EPSRC.</span></em></p>Re-using elements from solar panels is essential to mitigate climate change, says an expertMatthew Davies, Associate Professor, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.