India plans to build a hundred cities. However, if we continue to plan cities in the same manner, environmental scientists foresee that by 2040, the planet could pollute and heat up, resulting in a dangerous rise of more than 2 degree C in temperature. “Each city, each town, and each citizen would have to play an active role in controlling urban and industrial pollution,” says Monica Ridgway, a researcher in Berlin.
How can Chennai shift to clean renewable solar energy? What will its economic impact be on the future of the city? How can each citizen participate in this process? Most often, the long-term consequences of environmental issues are difficult to understand. The Indian Institute of Architects and the Council of Architecture intend to set new standards to build sustainable cities.
The fact is that buildings today consume over fifty per cent of the electricity produced. They are responsible for about thirty per cent of polluting carbon dioxide emissions. With rapid urban demands, Chennai is investing in large-scale infrastructure, such as the new towns of Mahindra World City, the Metro Rail, and the Oragadam Industrial belt. Besides pollution and traffic congestion, the unbridled growth is making heavy demands on the electricity board.
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Hence, it becomes imperative that each home and office gradually shifts to solar energy. But with solar technologies being more expensive than subsidised electricity, why would the residents make the shift?
It is in this context that the German Energiewende (energy transition) provides an innovative framework for a gradual transformation to cleaner cities. Without compromising on industrial growth, Germany has increased its power generation, with clean renewable energies. Probably, no other legislation has been replicated worldwide as Germany’s Renewable Energy Act.
The law specifies that homes which invest in solar (or wind) powered technologies to generate their own electricity will receive compensation that can provide a fixed return on their entire investment, irrespective of electricity prices. The incentivised process is simple and transparent.
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Hence, more homes in Germany are now inspired to shift to solar energy. It is a decentralised system and reduces pollution. If actively adopted in Chennai, it could drastically reduce the burden on TNEB. Every Rs. 1,000 saved in electricity by citizens and industry could save the government Rs. 2,000 for investing in new power plants.
Civil society, architects, policy makers and builders in Chennai have to make a collective choice — to continue in the same manner or make significant changes to build more energy efficient buildings and install solar and wind generation plants in each home and office.
The German Energiewende policies have shown that such an overall change, with specific financial incentives, can generate cleaner cities and is more cost-effective, says researcher Eike Karola Velten of the Ecologic Institute in Berlin. This is a particular challenge in rapidly growing cities with informal settlements (or slums), whose migrant residents have to unjustly pay high costs for electricity. With abundant sunshine and wind, Chennai urgently has to adopt an equitable and sustainable growth path and provide sustained incentives to its citizens to shift to renewable energy.
The writer is an environmental architect and a member of the Climate Policy 2050 initiative