In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that persistent high pressure in the upper atmosphere led to irradiance as high as 30% above normal, and new records for solar generation and temperature in North America in mid-February.
A warm end to winter hit most of North America this February. In the west, during February mild air from the Pacific banked up clouds and depressed irradiance by 10-20%, according to analysis completed using the Solcast API. In the east, persistent high pressure in the upper atmosphere led to irradiance as high as 30% above normal, and new records for solar generation and temperature
A clear east/west divide is present in the irradiance anomaly this month. A strong low pressure system sat further east than normal over the Atlantic which brought calm, drier and sunny conditions to the Eastern U.S. and Mexico. Sunnier than normal conditions delivered 20-30% more irradiance than normal from Texas to New England. On the west coast however, high pressure was further west over the Pacific, so that coastal low pressure systems pulled moist air from equatorial regions, leading to increased clouds, blocking irradiance.
Clear skies and higher than normal irradiance will have benefited both large and small scale, solar producers. Residential ‘behind the meter’ solar performed strongly this February all over the East Coast. Solcast’s Grid Aggregation model for NYISO shows residential solar peaked at 3.52GW, and saw 23% more solar generation than last year after adjusting for capacity increases. By contrast, CAISO’s residential solar generation was down 12% on the long term capacity-adjusted average.
Utility scale generation in ERCOT also hit and surpassed their generation peak record, hitting 17.2GW on February 20th. A 50.1% increase in peak generation in February 2023, is mostly a function of capacity increases in the last year.
But it wasn’t just grid performance breaking recent records, temperature records were broken across the country, with the average temperature, more than 4 degrees above normal. Killeen in Texas saw a peak temperature of 38 C (100 F), and Jacaranda trees in Mexico City have been in full bloom all month, 6-8 weeks earlier than normal. Despite the heat further south, areas in Eastern Canada saw significant snowfall caused by a low pressure system stalling over the area, drawing in continuous cold air from the Atlantic. This caused one of the heaviest snowfall events in 20 years, blanketing parts of Nova Scotia with more than a meter of snow.
This extreme weather is reflective of an overall pattern being seen globally, as February 2024 was Earth’s warmest month on record for the 9th consecutive month.
Whenever there is bad news about climate change, people ask: What can be done?
That’s likely to be the case again following Tuesday’s news that 2023 shattered annual heat records.
The European climate agency Copernicus said average global temperatures were 1.48º Celsius (2.66º Fahrenheit) hotter than pre-industrial times. That’s barely within the 1.5ºC international goal countries agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord to avoid a world devastated by climate change.
And January 2024 is on track to be so warm that for the first time, a 12-month period will exceed the 1.5º threshold, Copernicus Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said.
Scientists have repeatedly said that Earth would need to average 1.5 degrees of warming over two or three decades to be a technical breach of the threshold.
Scientists and energy experts have long laid out roadmaps – solutions – to reduce greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that are heating up the planet. And there’s hope for the way forward, the International Energy Agency said in its World Energy Outlook for 2023.
Led by solar and electric vehicles, investment in clean energy has risen by 40 per cent since 2020. Proponents of nuclear power say ramping up that carbon-free source can replace fossil fuels now as a way of making electricity.
Sharp cuts in methane emissions have become a global priority, as shown by the discussions at the United Nations COP28 climate talks in Dubai last month. Each person can also reduce their impact on the environment through the choices they make, whether that’s saving energy at home, switching to an electric vehicle, reducing air travel, or eating less meat and more plant-based foods.
Below is a closer look at all of these solutions.
Renewables roll-out
Nearly 200 countries agreed last month at COP28 to move away from fossil fuels by tripling the use of renewable energy by 2030. It was the first time they’ve made that crucial pledge to transition, but it will require new installations at double the current rate.
UN chief António Guterres said a fossil fuel phaseout is “inevitable”. Scientists overwhelmingly agree the world needs to drastically cut the burning of coal, oil and gas to limit global warming. That’s because when fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide forms and is released.
As an example, a 200-megawatt onshore wind project consisting of roughly 50 turbines, on average, avoids the emissions equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the road or planting 20 million trees, according to the American Clean Power Association. The United States, which has lagged far behind Europe and Asia in building large offshore wind farms, now has two sending power to the grid that could fully open early this year.
New nuclear
To control global warming, the IEA says global nuclear capacity needs to expand by about three per cent each year. The global nuclear industry launched an initiative at COP28 for nations to pledge to triple nuclear energy by 2050. More than 20 have already signed on, including the United States and the host of the talks, the United Arab Emirates.
The World Nuclear Association says this form of electricity can be deployed on a large scale in time to combat climate change by directly replacing fossil fuel plants. Unlike fossil fuel-fired power plants, nuclear reactors do not produce carbon dioxide while operating.
US nuclear companies are also working on the next generation of reactors that are far smaller and cheaper than traditional ones. These small modular reactors and microreactors in the future could power a community, campus or military complex. Sceptics, however, caution that nuclear technology still comes with significant safety, security and environmental risks that other low-carbon energy sources don’t.
Less methane
Methane, or natural gas, is an extraordinarily powerful greenhouse gas, more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. It’s responsible for about 30 per cent of today’s global warming.
Many nations are prioritising bringing down methane emissions as a crucial, quick way to curb further warming, because it doesn’t last as long as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere absorbing the sun’s heat.
The Biden administration last month issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the United States’ oil and natural gas industry for its role.
Separately, 50 oil companies representing nearly half of global production pledged at COP28 to reach near-zero methane emissions and stop wasting natural gas by burning it off, by 2030. Environmental groups, however, called the pledge a “smokescreen to hide the reality that we need to phase out oil, gas and coal”.
Personal choices
Every individual can make choices that protect the environment and slow climate change, according to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The UN says start saving energy wherever possible – reduce heating and cooling, switch to LED light bulbs and energy-efficient electric appliances, wash laundry in cold water and hang things to dry. Improving a home’s energy efficiency through better insulation, or replacing an oil or gas furnace with an electric heat pump, can reduce the equivalent of up to 900 kilogrammes of CO2, or carbon dioxide, per year.
Switching from a gasolene- or diesel-powered car to an electric vehicle, taking fewer flights, and shifting from a diet reliant on meat to a vegetarian one can also make significant dents in one’s carbon footprint, the UN said. Producing plant-based foods generally results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires less energy, land and water.
The record heat in 2023 made life miserable and sometimes deadly in Europe, North America, China and many other places last year. But scientists say a warming climate is also to blame for more extreme weather events, like the lengthy drought that devastated the Horn of Africa, the torrential downpours that wiped out dams and killed thousands in Libya, and the Canada wildfires that fouled the air from North America to Europe.
Antarctic sea ice hit record low levels in 2023 and broke eight monthly records for low sea ice, Copernicus reported.
Copernicus calculated that the global average temperature for 2023 was about one-sixth of a degree Celsius (0.3ºF) warmer than the old record set in 2016. While that seems a small amount in global record-keeping, it’s an exceptionally large margin for the new record, Burgess said. Earth’s average temperature for 2023 was 14.98ºC (58.96ºF), Copernicus calculated.
“It was record-breaking for seven months. We had the warmest June, July, August, September, October, November, December,” Burgess said. “It wasn’t just a season or a month that was exceptional. It was exceptional for over half the year.”
There has been no shortage of bleak climate news this year: unprecedented global heat fueled deadly extreme weather events, scientists issued dire warnings that next year may be worse still, and the world’s carbon pollution kept rising.
But amid the gloom, there have also been signs of progress. Renewable energy records have been set, the world celebrated one of its greatest environmental wins and countries made a cautious but historic step towards a fossil fuel-free future.
Here are five reasons to be hopeful.
A surge in renewable energy
As the need to rapidly wean off planet-heating fossil fuels becomes increasingly urgent, there have been some clean energy bright spots around the world.
On Halloween, Portugal started a record-breaking streak. For more than six days straight, between October 31 to November 6, the nation of more than 10 million people relied solely on renewable energy sources — setting an exciting example for the rest of the world.
The year 2023 is on track to see the biggest increase in renewable energy capacity to date, according to the International Energy Agency.
China, the world’s biggest climate polluter, has made lightning advances in renewables, with the country set to shatter its wind and solar target five years early. A report published in June found that China’s solar capacity is now greater than the rest of the world’s nations combined, in a surge described by the report’s author, Global Energy Monitor, as “jaw-dropping.”
It can’t be ignored, however, that China also ramped up its coal production this year, turning to the fossil fuel as devastating heat waves increased energy demand for air conditioning and cooling, and as persistent drought in the country’s south impacted hydroelectric supplies, which are reliant on sufficient rainfall.
Hopes were raised that the country’s coal production will peak and come downsoon, when China and the US in November announced they would resume cooperation on climate change, pledging a major ramp-up of renewable energy, specifically to replace fossil fuels.
A climate deal that targets fossil fuels
After more than two weeks of fraught negotiations, the COP28 climate summit in Dubai concluded in December with nearly 200 countries making an unprecedented commitment to move away from fossil fuels.
While the agreement fell short of requiring the world to phase out coal, oil and gas — which more than 100 countries had supported — it did call on countries to “contribute” to a “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.” This marked the first time that all fossil fuels, the main drivers of the climate crisis, were targeted in a COP agreement.
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who presided over the negotiations, called the agreement “historic,” adding that the deal represented “a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies.”
Howimpactful this deal ultimately is will depend on what countries do next to implement it. Many experts warned of loopholes that could leave the door open to a continued expansion of fossil fuels.
But that a deal was struck at all on fossil fuels was widely welcomed seen as a breakthrough.
“We got people to do things they haven’t done before,” US climate envoy John Kerry told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour after the summit, describing it as a “historic success.”
Plummeting deforestation in Brazil
After years of soaring deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, there was good progress this year in reducing forest destruction.
The Amazon is the world’s biggest rainforest and its protection is seen as vital to curbing climate change. It acts a carbon sink that sucks in planet-heating pollution from the atmosphere. When forests or trees are destroyed, they emit greenhouse gases. Deforestation and land degradation is responsible for at least one-tenth of the world’s carbon pollution.
Deforestation in Brazil fell by 22.3% in the 12 months through July, according to data from the national government, as President Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva started to make progress on his pledge to rein in the rampant forest destruction that occurred under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Marcio Astrini, head of advocacy group Climate Observatory, described it as an “impressive result” that “seals Brazil’s return to the climate agenda.”
Still, Brazil’s deforestation rate remained nearly twice that of its all-time low in 2012. Around 9,000 square kilometers of rainforest were destroyed in the period. There’s a long way to go to meet Lula’s pledge to reach zero deforestation by 2030.
The ozone layer is healing well
The Earth’s ozone layer is on track to recover completely within decades, a UN-backed panel of experts announced in January, as ozone-depleting chemicals are phased out across the world.
The ozone layer protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays, but since the 1980s, scientists have warned about a hole in this shield due to ozone-harming substances, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which wereused widely in refrigerators, aerosols and solvents.
International cooperation has helped stem the damage. A deal known as the Montreal Protocol, which came into force in 1989, began the phase-out of CFCs. The ozone layer’s subsequent recovery has been hailed as one of the world’s greatest environmental achievements.
If global policies stay in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 levels by 2040 for most of the world, the assessment found. For polar areas, the timeframe for recovery is longer: 2045 over the Arctic and 2066 over the Antarctic.
A study published in November, however, cast some doubt on this progress. The paper, published by Nature Communications, found that a hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic “has not only remained large in area, but it has also become deeper throughout most of the Antarctic spring.” But some scientists were skeptical of the study’s findings, saying it relied on too short a time period to draw conclusions about the layer’s long-term health.
Electric vehicle sales surge
The popularity of electric vehicles has surged this year, with American sales at an all-time high. People in China and Europe are snapping up EVs in large numbers as well.
Electric vehicles — which are better for the planet than gas and diesel-powered cars when they run on renewable energy sources — are key to decarbonizing road transport, which is responsible for around one-sixth of planet-heating pollution globally, according to the International Energy Agency.
Electric vehicles accounted for about 8% of all new vehicles sales in the US during the first half of 2023, according to the report. In China, EVs accounted for 19% of all vehicle sales, and worldwide, they made up 15% of new passenger vehicle sales.
EV sales in Europe were up 47% in the first nine months of 2023, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA). However, car dealers have warned that sales are dropping off as consumers wait for cheaper models, expected in two to three years’ time.
In order to make your EV green-energy approved, you’ll need to charge it using a renewable energy source. Solar panels are one way to accomplish that.
Charging your electric car at home will only increase your electric usage unless you add another renewable energy source, such as solar panels, to offset it.
For the eco-conscious EV driver, an electric vehicle is only as clean and green as the source of electricity charging its battery.
That’s because EVs plugged into the grid can either be powered by “dirty” sources such as fossil fuels such as coal, or from “clean” renewable energy that comes from sources such as solar, hydro or wind power. With many utilities, it’s likely to be a mix of renewables and fossil fuels. The best way to ensure your EV is actually powered by renewable energy is to connect your home’s EV charger to a solar energy system or use a public charger also sourced by solar panels.
Forget the statistics, it’s in plain sight and we can’t ignore it. EV charging stations are becoming the norm, automakers are making headlines as they invest in new EV technology, and rooftop solar panels are also becoming commonplace to see.
Even with the upswing in EVs and home solar systems, switching from a combustion car to an electric vehicle, however, can be a complicated decision with considerations conventional car drivers don’t have to worry about, like installing a charger in your garage. Adding solar panels to the equation adds even more layers of complexity to an already significant investment.
Here’s what you need to know about powering your home and EV with solar panels and how many you’ll need if you do.
Why use solar panels to charge an electric vehicle (EV)?
There are some less obvious benefits to home solar charging in addition to watching free, clean electrons pulled from the sky streaming into your car’s battery.
Most home EV chargers treat your car like any other appliance that needs to be plugged in and charged overnight. Actually, it’s more like a quite needy appliance that requires a particular current (DC) and lots of it as quickly as possible, which can mean operating at high voltage.
All of this increases strain on the grid and can add a load to your home’s electrical system, especially if your wiring is older or in need of upgrading. In the worst cases of neglect or poor electrical work, it can even be dangerous.
Using solar panels to charge an EV actually streamlines the charging process because both systems speak the same electrical language, in a way.
As Wyldon Fishman, founder of the New York Solar Energy Society, explained, solar panels and electric vehicles both operate with direct current (DC), meaning there’s no need to install an inverter between your panels and EV, although a charge controller is still imperative to have in the circuit. DC can also run at lower, safer voltages.
Relying on solar panels rather than the grid to charge your electric vehicle also means not having to worry about being stuck at home with a dead battery if the power goes out, especially if you opt to pair your panels with a battery or other solar storage.
A home’s energy set up could consist of solar panels, battery storage, inverter and an EV charger. Depending on the consumption, size, efficiency and how many panels you get, this equipment could accommodate all or some of this home energy production. – Getty
How much energy is needed to charge your EV at home?
First, consider your goals for your solar charging system. Do you want to charge your car using your solar panels, and will you primarily be charging overnight? If so, you’re going to need to install a battery or other storage system.
In most cases, you’re likely to have a solar system that’s hooked into the grid as well as your home, perhaps with a connected battery for emergency backup, or not.
If this is your scenario, it could be helpful to know how much of your existing solar output the rest of your home is consuming. If you never pay a utility bill or your utility bill is primarily for nighttime or cloudy days (when your solar panels aren’t at work), this means your existing solar system is probably producing more than you need and the extra is being fed into the grid or a battery or both. Some of this excess energy could be used to charge your EV, meaning you will need fewer solar panels to drive a fully solar-powered car.
Once you’ve got an idea of whether you’re running a solar surplus, the next step is determining how much additional demand an EV will add to your system.
How many solar panels will I need to charge just my EV?
First, consider how much you typically drive in a day. Put simply, the more you drive, the more wattage you’re likely to need in panels.
Here’s the steps to figuring out how your average daily energy needs to power an EV.
Step 1. Determine how many kilowatt-hours your EV uses per mile. The EPA and US Department of Energy’s fueleconomy.gov site lists the estimated efficiency of all electric cars in kWh per 100 miles; simply divide by 100 for a per-mile estimate.
Step 2. Multiply your EV’s kWh/mi by the number of miles you anticipate you drive on an average day. (You can get your average daily miles by observing your driving habits for a few days or by dividing your annual observed mileage by 365). This gets you the total number of kilowatt-hours you’ll need to produce to power your daily driving.
Step 3. You can then divide the EVs needed kilowatt-hours by the number of peak sun hours you can expect to receive at your location each day.
Step 4. The final figure should give you the size of your ideal EV-charging solar array in kilowatts.
Step 1. According to fueleconomy.gov, it averages 24 kWh/100 mi or 0.24 kWh/mi.
Step 2. We’ll also use the EPA’s average mileage estimate of 15,000 annual miles, which works out to around 41 miles per day.
Step 3. 0.24 kWh/mi x 41 miles = 9.86 kWh daily power EV usage
Step 4. 9.86 kWh / 4 peak sun hours = 2.4 kW (This is how much solar energy in kW you will need to charge your EV).
Step 5. We will use a solar panel wattage of 410W, such as the Q.PEAK Duo Black from Qcells, to calculate the number of panels needed for the Hyundai Ioniq 6. Convert the 410W to kilowatts by dividing by 1,000 (0.41 kW).
Step 6. EV production needed to charge the Hyundai Ioniq 6 (in kWh per day) / energy needed per Q.PEAK Qcells solar panel) = number of solar panels needed. 2.4 kW / 0.41 kW = 5.85 solar panels
In this example, six Qcells solar panels are needed to accommodate the energy needs of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 with average driving habits. Six Qcells solar panels don’t accommodate the rest of the home’s energy consumption.
Meanwhile, at the other extreme, dropping the Ford F-150 Lightning‘s 48 kWh/100 mi into the same formula yields a daily energy use of 19.68 kWh and a 4.9 kW solar requirement, doubling the Qcells solar panels needed to 12 panels.
If that’s too much math, Fishman simply recommends putting around eight to 12 solar modules on a canopy that you can use as a solar carport.
“It’s about 2.5 kilowatts that you need for a canopy. You might go a little more, but that’s all you need,” Fishman said.
We’ve seen others in the industry put the figure at closer to 3 kW, but if you’re unsure, you can run through all the math for your situation.
How many solar panels will I need to power my whole home?
This basically comes down to figuring out your home’s total energy needs and then designing a solar array that can meet those needs.
There’s a lot of things to consider to determine both sides of this equation, and CNET goes into further detail on the subject here. Adding EV chargers to your home simply means adding more energy use to both sides of the equation.
Most reputable solar companies will help you work out your energy needs and propose a solution that they will surely be willing to install for you. But doing the math on your own as well can help you make the most informed choice when it comes to picking an installer and assisting in designing a system that meets your needs best.
Don’t forget that there are other things you might want to do before even beginning to consider solar for your home. Making energy efficiency improvements can go a long way toward shrinking your overall needs and thereby shrinking the size of the solar system you require.
Is it worth it to add more solar panels to accommodate an EV?
Adding more panels to your existing solar system or to one that you’re planning is one way to power all your home’s energy needs, including your EV. But it isn’t necessarily the only way to charge your EV. You can also build a stand-alone off-grid system that’s dedicated to just your car.
Fishman recommends building a carport topped with solar panels at just the right tilt to get a good amount of sun on average, based on your location on the globe.
“A carport is fixed at latitude,” she explained. “So if you’re at 42 degrees above the Equator, then your tilt for your solar modules is 42 degrees.”
Which comes first: A solar panel or EV purchase?
If you’re dedicated to renewable energy and kicking fossil fuels to the curb, it makes sense to have your solar system all setup before you spring for the EV so you never have to worry about charging your car from dirtier energy sources that mix with renewables on the grid.
But the reality for many people will be that an EV and home solar energy are two very costly investments. A car or EV tends to be a personal purchase that we spend a lot of time in, whereas energy is a readily available commodity that we tend to think about less. So it wouldn’t be surprising for people to prioritize a flashy new EV over adding solar panels to a home that already has access to electricity via the grid.
Ultimately, it comes down to your priorities and your situation. Maybe your utility is good about incorporating solar into its energy mix via its own solar farm systems, renewable energy credits or offering a community solar program. If so, you might have fewer qualms with plugging in your car at night, no matter how many panels are on the roof.
Jamaica’s energy landscape stands at a crossroads as nuclear power is being considered.
In response to the Jamaican Government’s intention to explore nuclear energy, the expressed concerns of authors like Trevor Noel Blair and Ambassador Byron Blake, Jamaica’s former deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, underscore the potential drawbacks.
Blair elucidates issues concerning radioactive waste disposal, water consumption, and the risk of environmental disasters, while Blake highlights the challenge of finding suitable locations for nuclear power plants and emphasizes the importance of thorough consultation before making irreversible commitments.
Conversely, other contributors, like Haile Dennis, advocate for the potential benefits of nuclear power, focus on the safe management of radioactive waste, water usage, and the potential for reliable energy generation. Their opinions underscore the need for informed decision-making in the pursuit of a sustainable and resilient energy future for Jamaica.
Reforming the Electricity Act of 1995 is still essential. To foster renewable energy adoption, it is plausible to make solar panels and alternative energy generation methods economically more accessible, if not free. This move can ignite a green energy revolution. Simultaneously, registering electricity generation with the Government and introducing sensible taxation mechanisms ensure fair distribution of costs and benefits among Jamaican citizens.
Furthermore, decentralisation is the way forward. Removing houses from the grid and encouraging independent power generation aligns with the growing power needs of electric vehicles (EVs), which have become more commonplace.
A substantial reduction in the oil bill is on the horizon. As battery-swapping stations powered by alternative energy emerge, the transition to cleaner transportation is accelerated. For a sustainable future we recommend a bold step: make all vehicles imported after 2025 electric. This approach complements the evolving green energy grid, aligning with global sustainability goals.
Nuclear energy should be approached with caution, addressing the concerns raised by critics. The alternative is to transform Jamaica’s energy landscape by making renewable energy accessible, promoting decentralised energy generation, reducing the oil bill, and spearheading the transition to electric vehicles. This holistic strategy ensures a more sustainable and independent energy future for Jamaica.
The Government of Jamaica has finally invited bids from investors for the provision of an additional 100 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, ending a yearslong wait by the sector.
It comes amid refreshed plans and a more ambitious goal to achieve a 50 per cent target for renewables by 2030 in a remix of the energy grid. The requests for proposal have been issued through the Generation Procurement Entity or GPE.
“This procurement signifies a step toward a cleaner and more sustainable energy future for Jamaica,” GPE said in the tender document.
The 100MW to be supplied would grow renewables from 187MW or 12 per cent of Jamaica’s total electricity grid to 287MW or about one-third of the grid.
To hit the 50 per cent target, renewables would need to grow further to around 400MW, based on the current size of the total electricity grid. The overall capacity stands at 789MW, according to the latest disclosures in filings by grid operator Jamaica Public Service Company.
Currently, the main sources of renewable energy are in the form of wind at 101MW, solar at 58MW, and hydro at 28MW.
The investors currently being sought will be required to build, own and operate the new renewables power generating plants. GPE will allow bids for one energy source or hybrid combinations.
The proposals due by February 1, 2024 may or may not include storage which are batteries that hold the power generated during peak periods for use during low periods, such as at night for solar.
Successful bidders will supply the national grid with electricity under contract known as PPAs or power purchase agreements with monopoly distributor JPS. They will also be to pay a deposit upfront, the size of which will be determined by the scope of their project.
Projects may vary in size from 5MW to 50MW of net capacity.
“As of the execution date of the power purchase agreement, the company shall furnish a construction security deposit for an amount equivalent to US$100,000 per MW of the complex,” said the GPE document.
The last time Jamaica tendered for renewable energy supplies was in 2015 for 37MW of capacity. Prior to that, in 2012 the government sought investors to develop 115MW of renewable power but only assigned 78MW in total to three successful bidders, including Eight Rivers which built a large solar farm in Westmoreland.
“No comment,” said Eight Rivers principal Angella Rainford when asked if her company would bid this time around.
Rainford diversified her firm away from sole reliance on Government projects, during the eight-year hiatus. Through a company called Soleco, she and her partners supply solar solutions for large and industrial clients.
“The market is looking at both strategies – distributed power and at the utility-scale,” she said regarding how renewable firms now assess business opportunities.
Most of Jamaica’s energy is generated from liquefied natural gas and oil, which make up 88 per cent of the energy grid. Renewables account for the other 12 per cent.
“This 12 per cent can be further divided into wind power at 6.0 per cent, solar power at 3.0 per cent, and hydro power at 3.0 per cent,” stated GPE.
However, it didn’t say how closer the 100MW would take Jamaica towards the target of 50 per cent.
“We will not make it to the target of 50 per cent of the island’s electricity coming from renewables by 2030 at this rate,” said one renewable firm operator, who explained that timelines between the release of new requests for proposals make the target of 50 per cent unlikely.
“If we are going to have to wait five to six years between each renewable capacity addition, then 50 per cent by 2030 is just not going to happen,” the person said.
Both the GPE and JPS documents reference the renewable capacity provided by independent power providers, amounting to 156MW. It grows to 187MW, once the 31MW of renewables owned by JPS is added to the mix.
Renewable projects once fell under the ambit of the Office of Utilities Regulation but that function was transferred several years ago to the Generation Procurement Entity, which was created under the amended Electricity Act of 2015.
BCIC has launched a new hurricane insurance policy just in time for the hurricane season. They have partnered with Yokahu, an insure-tech company from the United Kingdom, to create a new hurricane insurance product for homeowners and renters.
Reinsurers have left the Caribbean reducing the capacity for insurance companies in Jamaica to take on new customers. With this and other recent developments in the property insurance market, homeowners and renters have seen their premiums skyrocket.
BCIC has launched its new product to provide homeowners and renters with affordable and hassle-free insurance all year round, but especially during the hurricane season. This new product is 100 per cent online and will be sold directly to customers through the BCIC website. Customers can purchase it for as little as US$60 and premiums go up to US$750.
The process for payouts is much different from what one typically expects from an insurance company. There is no claims process or need to show proof of damage to receive a payment. Once the strength of a hurricane rises to approximately a category three or above with wind speeds reaching 74 mph, the customer is automatically paid. Payouts for customers begin at US$160 and go as high as US$10,000.
Many homeowners have found that they are unable to buy home insurance because local insurers are not taking new customers. Others have seen the cost of home insurance go up well past their ability to pay. This product is designed to be an affordable policy for those who are unable to get or afford home insurance. It can also act as an add-on to an existing homeowner’s policy or cover for renters who want their belongings protected.
Managing director of BCIC, Peter Levy, is excited for the potential of the product to help Jamaicans feel like they won’t be ‘left out in the cold’, this hurricane season.
“Hurricanes can strike with unimaginable force, leaving behind a trail of destruction and wreaking havoc on homes and properties. Having your home damaged, which for most people is the greatest monetary investment they will make in their lifetime, is very scary. In the event that someone’s home is damaged, the stress of having to deal with that, compounded by the stress of what can sometimes be a lengthy claims process, we think, is too much to place on the shoulders of our customers” he said.
Levy believes that with property insurance becoming increasingly expensive, protection for one’s home or belongings is less accessible. He said this is an inclusive product that helps to ‘cushion the blow’ of premiums in a property insurance market that is out of reach.
“Hurricanes are not an imagined threat in Jamaica. We have decades of evidence showing the consequences of being ill-prepared for hurricane season. Our approach to the market has led us to create a product that is for everyone, and we are proud to be able to have a product that puts the customer first,” said Levy.
Throughout history, the evolution of energy technologies has influenced the location of production.
At the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, factories were typically located near fast-moving rivers or under windmills because they needed to be near their energy source. The steam engine’s introduction enabled firms to establish their bases anywhere coal could be economically shipped.
Oil, which was even cheaper to transport, further loosened the ties between a firm’s location and its energy source. With the development of electricity, power could be easily distributed across vast areas and used wherever there was an electrical outlet, transforming the structure and layout of manufacturing plants.
So how will the clean-energy transition affect the location and design of future manufacturing? A key feature of most renewable sources is that the energy they produce is very costly to transport beyond the local electricity grid. At present, sunny regions can generate electricity for under US$20 per megawatt hour, which is equivalent to oil priced at US$34 per barrel – less than half the current market price of crude.
By contrast, the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, US President Joe Biden’s signature climate-change bill, provides subsidies for companies converting renewable energy into green hydrogen at US$3 per kilogramme of hydrogen, which is equivalent to US$142.2 per barrel of oil – double the current oil price. In other words, storing solar energy in transportable molecules is very expensive. Consequently, it is more efficient to use it where it is produced.
Given these high transportation costs, an effective global decarbonisation process would position energy-intensive industries near cheap sources of green energy. Installing solar panels in sunny areas, and windmills in places with strong and consistent winds, could significantly reduce global demand for land and materials. A recent paper, for example, finds that the steel industry’s future may lie in sunny tropical locations with strong onshore winds and near iron ore deposits.
But energy-intensive industries are currently located far from these ideal spots. To facilitate efficient decarbonisation, it is essential to relocate them. But where? It would take countries several decades to decarbonise their electrical grids, and even countries with abundant renewable resources would find it very costly to decommission their existing fossil-fuel capacity because that investment must be paid for, whether or not the facilities remain operational.
These costs will likely slow down the energy transition in the manufacturing sector. But the process could be accelerated if countries with abundant, cheap clean-energy sources develop green industrial parks. This would offer a viable alternative for industries seeking to reduce their emissions through relocation. These parks would complement measures designed to discourage emissions, such as cap and trade schemes, carbon pricing, and the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. While these policy interventions aim to lower emissions by increasing costs, green industrial parks would provide a more affordable path.
To be sure, as with all regulations, countries and companies might try to game the system by reallocating their existing clean energies to green industrial parks while increasing the share of non-renewable energy elsewhere in the economy, resulting in no net emissions reductions. Given this risk, green industrial parks must meet certain criteria.
First, their establishment must be based on new sources of clean energy, not merely repurposing existing capacity. Second, to prevent non-emission-reducing reallocations, every country must still abide by its previously announced nationally determined contributions under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Third, for the sake of efficiency and stability, it would be useful to connect the new green zones to national electricity grids. But this should be conditional on the zones becoming significant net exporters of clean energy to the grid to ensure that any grey energy they might occasionally use for stability purposes would be offset by the export of clean energy.
Establishing green industrial parks and their clean-energy resources would not necessarily require government funding. Such real estate and energy investments should be profitable and thus privately financed.
But this does not mean that governments should play no role in their establishment. On the contrary, to become competitive, these zones must also strive to compete on the availability of other production inputs, such as human resources, local supply chains, research and development capabilities, logistics, and more.
Governments could accelerate the process by introducing effective green-energy regulations, facilitating right-of-way provisions for transmission lines, adjusting zoning regulations, building arterial infrastructure, and investing in urban development and human resources.
Green industrial parks would facilitate the global relocation of energy-intensive industries, hasten the development of renewable energy in resource-rich regions, and encourage governments to go beyond their individual decarbonisation targets. They would also expedite the global reduction of emissions in manufacturing by making it financially viable to relocate early to regions that can produce cheap green energy. Lastly, they could spare the world millions of tons of solar panels, wind turbines, cables, and batteries by placing these capital goods in locations where, thanks to natural conditions, they can be most productive.
A net-zero world cannot be achieved by relying on efforts by industries in each country to reduce emissions on their own. Current industrial locations reflect our carbon-based energy system and its low transportation costs.
Relocating those activities is crucial to completing the energy transition, and green industrial zones could serve as a practical way of getting it done.
– Ricardo Hausmann, a former minister of planning of Venezuela and former chief economist at the Inter-American Development Bank, is a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Harvard Growth Lab.
Summers are getting hotter than ever, shattering all-time high temperature records, straining the energy grid and damaging critical infrastructure.
Heat waves also are coming to include another increasingly dangerous element: overnight temperatures that don’t cool down enough to offer sufficient reprieve from oppressive heat, particularly for people without access to air conditioning.
“Most people don’t realize that hot nighttime temperatures have been outpacing daytime temperature increases across most populated regions worldwide in recent decades,” Columbia University’s Data Science Institute postdoctoral research scientist Kelton Minor told CNN.
“We think it’s because as the days grow warmer, there is more moisture in the air that traps the heat,” the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s executive director, Lisa Patel, told CNN. “During the day, that moisture reflects the heat, but at night, it traps the heat in.”
Increasing nighttime heat is even more common in cities because of the urban heat island effect, in which metro areas are significantly hotter than their surroundings.
Places with a lot of asphalt, concrete, buildings and freeways absorb more of the sun’s heat than areas with ample parks, rivers and tree-lined streets. At night, when temperatures are supposed to cool down, the retained heat is released back into the air, said University of Washington climate and health expert Kristie Ebi.
Areas with a lot of green space – with grass and trees that reflect sunlight and create shade – are cooler on summer’s hottest days, she said.
“Many cities put together cooling shelters, but people have to know where they are, how to get to them and what hours they operate,” Ebi told CNN, noting city officials must rethink urban planning to consider climate change.
“It’s going to take a while for trees to grow, but we need tree-planting programs focusing on places that are particularly vulnerable, making sure that city planning takes into account that we’re heading into a much warmer future.”
Nighttime should be when our bodies get a break from the heat, Patel said. But with the climate crisis, it’s becoming less likely to happen. Heat-related deaths could increase sixfold by the end of the century due to warmer nighttime temperatures, unless planet-warming pollution is significantly curbed, a 2022 study in the Lancet Planetary Health found.
The climate crisis is already affecting people’s ability to sleep, said Minor, co-author of a study that found people living in warmer climates lose more sleep for each degree of temperature increase. It was published in May in the journal One Earth.
“We all know what it’s like to try to fall asleep on a hot night – it’s uncomfortable,” Patel said. “We often lose sleep. It is estimated that by the end of the century, we could lose about two days of sleep per year, and it will be worse for people without access to air conditioning.”
At its most extreme, when a human body does not get the chance to recover – typically at night – heat stress can progress to heat stroke, which is associated with confusion, dizziness and passing out, Patel explained.
People around the world are already losing roughly 44 hours of sleep every year on average due to warm nighttime temperatures during just the first part of the 21st century, Minor’s study estimated. He calls this “sleep erosion,” noting each person may lose up to 58 hours of sleep by the end of the century.
“People in our study did not appear to make up for lost sleep on hotter nights by napping during the day or by sleeping more during the days or weeks after,” Minor said. “In fact, they lost additional sleep over these periods due to a delayed temperature effect, possibly due to ambient heat being trapped indoors.”
And much like other social issues, the impacts don’t fall equally across communities, he said.
“For every degree of nighttime temperature rise, we found that the elderly lost over twice as much sleep as middle-aged adults, females lost slightly more sleep than males, and critically, residents of lower-middle-income countries lost three times as much sleep compared to people living in higher income countries,” Minor said.
Heat waves that go on for several days tend to be associated with more deaths as the body can no longer keep itself cool, Patel said.
And unless planet-warming pollution is curbed, the climate crisis is set to increase exposure to dangerous heat index levels by 50% to 100% in much of the tropics and by up to 10 times across much of the globe, according to a 2022 study published in Communications Earth & Environment.
“Living through a heat wave during the day can be like running a race,” Patel said. “We need a cool break to recover and recuperate, and when nighttime temperatures don’t drop, we don’t get that critical time we need to relieve the stress on our bodies from being overheated during the day.”
UN sec-gen bemoans ‘developed world’s’ unfulfilled promise of US$100b to tackle climate change
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media at a press conference at Jamaica House Media Centre in Kingston yesterday.
UNITED NATIONS (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described as “absolutely regrettable” the unfulfilled promises by developed countries to provide US$100 billion annually since 2020, in support of developing countries impacted by climate change.
He bemoaned that the failure by the developed world to make good on their commitment that would assist developing states hit by the effects of climate change was indicative of an injustice of the world system.
“As it is not yet clear that the commitment that was made to double the finance for adaptation will be met, and this has been a huge cause of frustration in the developing world and a pretext for some emerging economies not to do what they also need to do in relation to the reduction of emission,” Guterres argued, during a press briefing at the media centre, Jamaica House in St Andrew.
According to the UN, the Adaptation Fund finances projects and programmes that help vulnerable communities in developing countries to adapt to climate change.
The UN and environmental groups around the world have pressed for urgent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impacts of climate change on vulnerable small island developing states, among others.
Guterres made a strong appeal yesterday to the international community, in particular the developed world, “to make sure that we do not wait one minute more to ensure that these two promises are quickly implemented”.
The UN boss was on a two-day visit to Jamaica where he held talks with Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
He also praised Holness for being “a champion in relation to climate action and a champion in relation to an effective reformed multilateral financial architecture in the world”.
The prime minister told Guterres that Jamaica has been experiencing one of its worst droughts in the last six months. He also highlighted that in a matter of weeks the 2023 hurricane season will begin.
According to Holness, the country understands in real ways the impacts of climate change.
He said it is a moral imperative that more developed countries seek to ensure that countries like Jamaica, small-island developing states, who are vulnerable to climate impacts are put in a position where they can adapt to the changing climate.
He argued that there should be some form of reparation for loss and damage caused by the effects of climate change and that these impacted countries also benefit from technologies that could mitigate the impact.
