The world is too dependent on coal, but zero-carbon electricity is within our reach. Solar photovoltaic can be massively installed on buildings, and is already cost-competitive in large-scale projects. Large companies such as Google, Walmart or Apple are installing large arrays of solar-photovoltaic panels on their facilities, all without any state subsidies.
Homes and other buildings are, in a way, the key element for a successful decarbonization of our energy and economy systems. Buildings are responsible for about 43% of global energy consumption and greenhouse gases, ahead of the transportation sector or industry.
And it doesn't have to be this way any more. New buildings can be zero-energy without any technological breakthrough (the EU Directive 2010/31/EU determines that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings will be nearly zero-energy-consumption buildings, and that public buildings should comply with the same criteria by 2018); properly insulated, designed and oriented to the sun, and equipped with solar-photovoltaic systems and energy-efficient windows, buildings can produce all the energy they consume, freeing up huge amounts of electricity for the industry and the future electric-vehicle grid.
Zero-carbon electricity is within our reach, and that makes the reversing of CO2 emissions possible. The changes aren't primarily technological, in the short term. The most important changes are behavioral, political and regulatory.
A message that should not be forgotten by the negotiators of the United Nations
Climate Change Conference, to be held in Paris, in 2015. We need to quickly
reverse carbon emissions, to prevent the catastrophe described in the House-Energy infographic
shown below.
