Publication date: 25 June
Press contacts
Ruth Killick, Profile Books 90207 841 6307 / ruth.killick@profilebooks.co.uk)
or Charlotte Webster 0207 803 0148/ 07990 583307
(charlotte.Webster@solarcentury.com)
Launch event: 13 July, Portcullis House
‘[Leggett has] done more to change attitudes towards the (solar) resource
than almost any other individual’ Financial Times
The future’s bright; the future’s solar
The Solar Century
edited by Jeremy Leggett
Clean, silent, renewable and climate-friendly solar power is the holy grail
of energy. And there’s no shortage of daylight out there: enough falls on the
surface of the planet each day to power human society many thousands of
times over.
Yet there are still many myths about solar – especially the ideas that it’s
prohibitively expensive, impractical for countries with cloudy skies, and will
always require fossil-fuel stations on standby.
In the first definitive book on the subject, Jeremy Leggett (founder and
Executive Chairman of the UK’s leading solar company, Solarcentury*)
debunks these myths. More importantly, he shows how solar energy can be
the backbone of a renaissance in which, after the current credit crunch and
the impending energy crunch, the world economy will be run on renewable
energy, and the worst effects of global warming staved off as a
consequence.
The Solar Century – The past, present and future of world changing
energy, published on 25 June 09, showcases solar applications from the
household scale through to great public architecture; from giant solar power
stations planned for the world’s deserts, to the most up-to-the-minute
technologies such as panels thin enough to be delivered ‘by the roll’, to the
potential of solar as a force for good in developing countries.
Above all, the book provides a positive set of visions which extend well
beyond the provision of electricity, heat, and water for anyone with a
curiosity about solar power and an interest in our planet’s future.
Nine Visions of a solar revolution and their progress.
Vision 1: Carbon armies rebuilding economies after the great financial
crisis
We’re already seeing progress - Deutsche Bank has produced a report
calling for the creation of up to 25 million ‘green’ jobs, many in solar
energy.
Vision 2: Transforming buildings, old and new, into solar power plants
This isn’t a pipe dream. The UK’s first solar street is in Yorkshire, where
the South Yorkshire Housing Association has installed solar photovoltaic and
solar thermal roof tiles on each of its 23 new, affordable homes (the tiles
look exactly like traditional roof tiles).
Vision 3: Glittering fields of steel and silicon generating power for cities
far away
Already near Seville the 11 megawatt PS10 plan, a power tower project,
has been active for two years now; the PS20 power tower will contain more
than a thousand mirrors, each half the size of a tennis court, will focus the
sun’s rays on the tower, generating enough electricity to power 11,000
homes.
Vision 4: Solar photovoltaics at grid parity [ie as cheap as conventional
energy] everywhere, years earlier than most expected
In some markets such as California grid parity for crystalline solar PV is
nearing and has already arrived for thin film solar PV; in the UK it could be
reached as early as 2013.
Vision 5: Smart grids for energy storage and electric vehicles
Later this year Japanese drivers will be the first in the world to be offered
plug-in cars by the major car makers – in 2009 by Mitsubishi Motors and
Subaru and 2010 by Toyota and Renault-Nissan – with charging and batteryswap facilities in public places such as supermarkets.
Vision 6: Solar farms side by side with food farms on arid coastal plains
Abu Dhabi is building its first solar city, Masdar, designed by Foster and
Partners, which will house 50,000 living in a car free zero waste
environment with solar powered cooling and water desalinization; this
being the case, it’s easy to imagine solar-powered desalinisation – with the
water being allocated to civil projects like food cultivation – throughout
the Gulf coast.
Vision 7: The rural poor reading at night
Ethiopia now has its first solar-powered village: Rema, with 1,100 homes
‘shining in the dark evenings like white beads on a string’ as one British
newspaper put it, set up with help from investment firm Good Energies.
Vision 8: Solar mobilising a new class of responsible investors
A survey by the Euro Social Investment Forum records more than 500 billion
Euros of rich people’s money in social investment in 2007 and forecasts a
doubling to more than a trillion by 2012; they’re a new generation of
entrepreneurs increasingly interested in sustainable investments.
Vision 9: More ambitious UN development goals – made possible by solar.
China is already leading the world in solar hot water heaters – with over 40
million – and pioneering projects such as Rizhao (which means City of
Sunshine in Chinese) in which 99% of households in the central districts
using solar water heaters (it’s also among China’s top ten cities for air
quality).
Jeremy Leggett is one of the world’s foremost experts on renewable power,
energy policy and climate change – he’s also ‘the UK’s most respected green
energy boss.‘Formerly an oil geologist he became an environmental
campaigner for Greenpeace, before founding Solarcentury, the UK’s leading
solar company in 1997 and SolarAid, for the developing world, in 2005. He is
a founding director of the world’s first private equity fund for renewable
energy and author of The Carbon War and Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and
the Global Energy Crisis (titled Empty Tank in the US).
* Voted a 'Best company to work for' by The Sunday Times
The Solar Century will be published by Profile books on 25 June 2009
£15, ISBN 9781846688737 paperback.
Launch: 13 July, Portcullis House
For more information please contact Ruth Killick, Profile Books 90207 841
6307 / ruth.killick@profilebooks.co.uk) or Charlotte Webster T +44 (0)20
7803 0148 / +44 (0)7990 583307 (Charlotte.Webster@solarcentury.com)