SUSTAINABILITY IS UNDER FIRE
That’s a good thing
“Simply put, sustainability is forcing companies and their investors to change. And when it comes to “change,” people tend to love the noun (the idea of change) but hate the verb (actually changing).”
– Joel Makower of GreenBiz.com.
In a thought-provoking article, Makower asserts that issues related to sustainability and climate change are no longer “under the radar.” Instead, they are front and center in boardrooms and investor conferences across industries, forcing uncomfortable choices and difficult decisions that inevitably arouse opposition.
Says Makower, “Sustainability – and its finance-oriented cousin, ESG – are now mainstream, which means they are more widely seen and understood – and misunderstood. As they gain altitude and influence, they are roiling the status quo, spurring transformations in companies, supply chains, and markets, which may be sorely needed but which aren’t universally appreciated.”
As a result, he continues, “sustainability professionals … are being confronted by a small but growing armada of politicians, business leaders, activists, regulators, and media who seem to have sustainability and ESG in their crosshairs. Suddenly, corporate sustainability is a target: It is variously seen as needlessly meddlesome, a kowtow to the political left, a distraction from the business of business, and everything from misleading to outright fraud.”
Yet, this may be a blessing in disguise. The pushback, Makower asserts, is forcing a much-needed reckoning with questions too easily avoided up to now:
- Do investors need to worry about climate risk or is it already baked into stock valuation? If it is, why create onerous new layers of disclosure?
- Are ESG funds touted by investment firms really leading to material change or are they mostly a marketing ploy? Are the companies in those funds truly exemplars?
- How much leeway is there for companies that commit to sustainability goals to be less than perfect without being called out as greenwashers?
- At what point do company declarations about their “purpose” in society become meaningless or even silly?
- How much are company net-zero pronouncements based on strategies and accounting methods that are shoddy, if not shady?
- Can financial institutions deny funding to an entire industrial sector based on their sustainability profile?
It’s a great piece. Read the full article here.
ELECTRIFICATION IN AFRICA
The Raw Numbers
Credit: Shutterstock
It is an uncomfortable truth that much of Africa still struggles with unreliable or non-existent electricity. This was highlighted in a recent article in Spectrum, the journal of the IEEE, summarizing 2019 data from the IEA.
While global electrification has risen steadily since World War II, reaching 90 percent in 2019, still about 770 million people worldwide had no electricity, three-quarters of them in Africa. While electrification rates are higher in North Africa’s Arab countries, in sub-Saharan Africa, only 78 percent of urban populations, and worse, only 28 percent of rural inhabitants have electrical connections.
The heart of the African continent remains in darkness at night. Electrification rates are less than 5 percent in Chad and the Central African Republic, and the rates remain below 50 percent in such populous countries as Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Sudan. Even South Africa suffers from frequent blackouts.
The needs are vast, but in rural areas they are also widely distributed and small in capacity, making large-scale solutions a challenge. For example, even in populous Nigeria, per capita, electricity consumption is only about 115 kWh per year. In Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Niger, Somalia, and South Sudan, mean consumption is near or below 50 kWh/year.
Says the IEEE, “What does 50 kWh/year deliver? A 60-watt light switched on for little over 2 hours a day—or one 60-W light, a small TV (25 W), and a small table fan (30 W) concurrently on for about an hour and 10 minutes. All too obviously, real access to electricity in large parts of Africa is akin to where the United States was during the late 1890s.”
There is no greater opportunity for the energy industry to change the world for the better than in Africa. Find the full article, including a great country-by-country interactive map, here.
See how Green Economic Development Zones using 247Solar technology can provide round-the-clock clean power and industrial heat to rural communities, enabling them to stimulate economic growth and create jobs.
HOW AI CAN CHANGE CLEAN ENERGY
Credit: DeepMind
Nathaniel Bullard of BloombergNEF writes about how French utility Engie is using Google’s DeepMind AI software to accurately predict wind patterns. The pilot program is targeted at helping Engie capture higher revenues from wind assets by scheduling hourly wind power commitments up to one day in advance. Conceivably, while wind is inherently more unpredictable than solar, such technology also could be applied to PV in climates with volatile weather patterns.
Engie’s initiative offers an exciting glimpse into the future. However, Bullard’s article contains a caution. The fundamental questions facing the energy industry are not about technology. Stakeholders in the clean energy transition should not count on (or wait for) technology to solve their problems. “Technology can enter a market,” he says, “but eventually, the defining questions are those rooted in the incumbent industry.
“I imagine that the same will hold true of artificial intelligence in energy. Better predictions should make for better-run markets. But at the same time, technology cannot change everything — and the most consequential questions that technology will need to answer will be the energy industry’s fundamental questions, not its own.”
Read Bullard’s full post here.
NEWS FROM 247SOLAR
247Solar Plants™ provide highly reliable, uninterrupted power for mining, processing, and ancillary operations, and easily handle surge loads.
For our readers in the mining industry
MINE POWER: In each edition of our newsletter, we have tried to feature an article of particular interest to our many readers in the mining industry. Because 247Solar technology is so well suited to off-grid mines and the amount of interest we continue to experience from the sector, we are re-introducing Mine Power, a dedicated newsletter covering important topics at the intersection of mining and sustainability. Look for it on or about the first Thursday of each month.
FOLLOW & JOIN 247Solar
LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Whatsapp
Contact: info@247solar.com