Looking back, 2021 has been a year full of extreme weather events ranging from intense rains and flooding to extreme heat waves and drought spread all over the world, largely fueled by climate change. In fact, a study by the World Weather Attribution Initiative found that the extremity of events such as flooding were about five times more due to human-caused climate change. As far as global temperature rise, 2021 was more than 0.4 degrees celsius hotter than 2000 indicating continuous temperature rise over the last 150 years caused by global warming.
The 26th Conference of Parties (COP) international climate negotiations held in Glasgow in November 2021 was an important climate-related event this year. In the summit, India has pledged to power 50% of its electricity from renewables (currently it’s at 20%) and reduce carbon emissions by 45% by the year 2030 in addition to a few other longer term goals.
As of 2021, India is one of the top greenhouse gas emitters, third after China and the U.S. This makes it even more imperative for each of us to take immediate action.
Considering that the residential sector alone is responsible for 25% of the total electricity consumption, and the continuing need for housing in the country, one of the factors we can each look into is to reduce our electricity use and switch to renewable energy in order to help meet India’s COP26 goals.
Due to the immense solar potential in India, solar energy is relatively easy to harness. Technology has evolved and is now available at a reasonable cost. Market growth has also ensured a variety of solar panel variants, manufacturers and dealers, giving us options to choose from.
There are two primary ways to integrate solar energy into our homes - conventional roof top installation and ‘building integrated solar voltaics’ (BIPV) which essentially replaces a building material such as roofing tile, window glass and skylights with solar modules. Although most BIPV systems need to be integrated in the initial design and construction, one way to incorporate this into existing homes is to use solar modules as roof cover for parking spaces and add small solar gazebos on our terraces and gardens.
A solar gazebo is a stand-alone structure with a roof of solar panels that act as a cover for the space below. Such gazebos provide a shaded space for multiple uses. Incorporated with roof gardens on terraces, a solar gazebo could become an interesting aesthetic feature, generating energy and providing additional usable space.
2022 will be another consequential year for Earth’s climate, as will be every year hereinafter. It is imperative that we all understand this and play our part to at least help alleviate the catastrophic effects of impending global warming and climate change.
The author is the founder of Green Evolution, a sustainable architecture firm.
