Gaza's Solar Lifeline; Paint-On Solar Cells; Energy Transition is Making Cable Makers Rich
And more about the real costs of renewable energy and digital tech, and how we can do better.
Gaza’s Solar Lifeline
I know, last issue’s lead story was also about Gaza, but I was fascinated by this report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies about how solar power is keeping critical services going in the beleaguered Strip. Nutshell: Most of Gaza’s conventional power grid has been destroyed in the fighting, but decentralized rooftop solar installations are still providing a trickle of electricity to hospitals and homes.
To me, this highlights one of the most exciting aspects of solar: the way it can function independently of power grids, generating electricity right at the spot where it’s needed. Small-scale local solar installations aren’t vulnerable to grid-wide blackouts, trees falling on transmission cables, or fuel imports being blockaded (or power stations getting bombed). Solar panels can be set up as stand-alone power sources anywhere there’s sunshine.
That’s one reason solar is exploding across Africa. Rather than wait around for their governments to build dams or power plants and the cables to distribute the electricity they generate, millions of people are just setting up their own personal power plants, drawing electricity from a source that provides it for free. Talk about energy independence!
Gazans recognized these benefits years ago. “In fact,” says the CSIS report, “they have installed so much solar energy for critical infrastructure, businesses, and domestic usage that the authors estimate that Gaza likely now has the highest density of rooftop solar systems in the world.”
Of course, many of Gaza’s solar installations have by now been destroyed or damaged. At least they’re easier to repair than conventional systems. Another concern: The same solar electricity that is keeping the lights on in a hospital could also be keeping Hamas fighters comfortable in their underground tunnels. An IDF spokesperson told CNN that’s exactly what’s happening. As with so much else in Gaza, it’s impossible to completely separate the civilian from the military.
Paint-On Solar Cells?
What if you could generate solar power even closer to the cars, phones and other machines that need it—by putting solar panels right on the machines themselves? Researchers at Oxford University say they’ve taken a significant step toward that goal, by creating a type of super-thin solar cell that can applied as a coating onto almost any surface.
The technique uses lab-grown crystals called perovskites. Researchers have been fiddling with using them to generate solar power for years, but among the hurdles was their low efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. The Oxford team says their new technique, which involves stacking ultra-thin layers of perovskites to create a flexible material much thinner than a human hair, hits a new high of 27 per cent conversion. That matches the performance of some conventional solar panels.
“This is important because it promises more solar power without the need for silicon-based panels or specially-built solar farms,” one of the scientists said. It would be great to lessen that need, since conventional solar installations take up a lot of space and also require loads of silicon as well as critical metals including silver and copper. Plus, how great would it be if you could recharge your phone just by setting it out in the sun?
Cable Makers Are Getting Fat From the Energy Transition
What product weighs more than 50 pickup trucks, is so long it has to be manufactured hanging inside a 50-story building, and is making a ton of money for the tiny number of companies that make it? High-voltage subsea electric cables, reports Bloomberg.
Cables are the underappreciated but essential hardware that will make the shift from fossil fuels to renewable power possible. They’re the nerve system of the grid. Whether electricity is generated at wind turbines, dams, or big solar farms, it needs to be transported through metal wires. As a result, grid operators are clamoring for cable. Orders have risen more than tenfold in the last few years. Here’s just one example Bloomberg cites that gives a sense of the scale we’re talking about: “UK utility National Grid Plc announced a plan to spend $27 billion on roughly 14,000 kilometers of high-voltage cables. Over the next decade, Britain’s growing offshore wind industry will use them to transport electricity from the far-flung, windiest parts of the country to the energy-hungry cities in the south of England.” No surprise that the stock prices of some companies that manufacture the gigantic cables have doubled, tripled or even sextupled.
Electric cables are made mostly from copper, the critical metal we’ll need the most of to pull off the energy transition. By 2035, the cable industry could be consuming nearly 9 million tons of copper per year—nearly twice as much as it does today. Miners and cable makers alike look set to make lots of money in the coming year—though perhaps not as much as they’d like. European authorities are investigating several cable companies for price-fixing.
More News Worth Knowing
🐓 Thousands of Chickens Killed in Blackout Caused by Copper Theft
🚗 Uber Teams Up With China’s Biggest EV Maker
✊🏾 Workers Strike at World’s Biggest Copper Mine
🤑 India to Fund Research Into Critical Metal Extraction
And once more, I’m taking next week off. Sorry, but I’m getting my summer in while the getting’s good! Next issue will be August 29. Meanwhile, see that Like button, the one with the little heart, a little way down and on the left? Please click it! Helps other folks find me. Thanks, and see you soon.