Bertrand Piccard, the explorer and environmentalist, has called for renewed focus when it comes to cutting energy waste, saying that it is hopeless to go ahead and shift to renewables sans enhancing efficiency.
Almost three-quarters of the world’s energy happens to be wasted. Piccard happened to be on a panel on Powering the Digital Economy, which was moderated by CNBC.
This estimate happens to be on waste because of inappropriate behavior as well as inefficient systems or infrastructure.
Piccard, the founder and chairman of the environmental non-profit organization Solar Impulse Foundation, has no second thoughts in saying that one will live in a world of waste.
So if we go ahead and try to replace fossil energy with renewables sans being efficient or reducing consumption, it is indeed going to be kind of hopeless.
Another issue that Piccard went on to highlight was that some nations only consider wind and solar as alternative renewable energy sources.
Biogas, which is produced by way of breakdown of organic matter like food, has been excluded from the taxonomy across Europe, and people also happen to forget about geothermal energy, which makes use of heat from the earth.
A report that was published in October 2023 by the European Commission demonstrated that while bioenergy happened to be the main source when it comes to renewable energy in the EU in 2021, at around 60%, biogas made up only 10% of this share. Geothermal energy comprised just 2.7% of renewable energy consumption, while wind power was 13.2% and solar energy was 7.2%.
He added that hence one has to focus on producing more, rather than consuming less, and in the production that one ought to do, it is forgotten that a lot of different kinds of renewable energies are not taken into consideration.
Because of these issues, Piccard said there is indeed a risk that green energy objectives could be missed, as well as the opportunity to produce cheaper energy locally.
The fact is that every country looks forward to having energy independence, more competitiveness, but they forget that there happens to be just one way to reach it, and that’s by having energy efficiency, and renewables.
Paradox when it comes to China’s solar panel oversupply
Piccard also went on to discuss the ongoing concerns when it comes to the potential oversupply of solar panels from China to the European market.
As per him, it is indeed a bit of a paradox since the Chinese have killed the European solar sector; however, they have at the same time saved the world by way of showing that solar energy can actually be so much cheaper than anything else.
There happen to be growing concerns in Europe as well as the U.S. that a surplus of subsidized clean energy products, such as solar panels, from China happens to be making it all the more difficult for their domestic industries to compete.
Earlier in April 2024, the European Commission went ahead and launched two investigations into Chinese solar panel manufacturers that, according to it, could have benefited from potentially market distortive subsidies.
Apart from this, Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, said that she would not rule out possible tariffs when it comes to China’s green energy exports.
The fact is that it was also important to consider the potential advantages of Chinese solar panels across Europe. For instance, these panels could be made use of so as to generate cheaper electricity across the region, which could then be used to produce hydrogen locally.
The fact is that rather than fighting against the obstacle, one indeed needs to make use of the situation so as to see how there will be results on the side of the problem, which can indeed be beneficial.
It is well to be noted that Piccard added that when he initiated the Solar Impulse project more than 20 years ago, solar energy was 40 times more costly than what it is today. Solar Impulse 2 happened to be the first solar-powered electric airplane that circumnavigated the globe in 2016.
