InnoBlog: The Rising Tide

In my opinion, mitigating global warming will be humanity's single biggest challenge this century. We can combat this global crisis by rapidly decarbonising our power and transport sector.

Here are some of my thoughts on the future of the power sector. On the bright side, modern society has successfully catered to the rising demand of electricity across our towns and cities. We have setup massive power plants and extensive power lines ensuring every home has access to electricity every second of the day.

However, this progress has come at a cost. Today, the  over 60 % of the global carbon emissions growth is a result of activities around electrification and its sources In fact, 30 % of the global carbon emissions are caused primarily due to coal power plants. Majority of the climate scientists today have confirmed the direct link between increased carbon emissions and global warming which is fueling the global nemesis, Climate Change.

This nemesis is further strengthened by the inevitable wave of electricity growth we face in the coming decades.  As per IEA, we are going to see the world's electricity consumption grow by almost 50 % in the next 20 years. 90% of this growth will come from emerging economies like India, China and other developing countries owing to rapid urbanisation and an increased standard of living.

This might sound alarming, but I find this piece of data very exciting. I  had the opportunity of studying a Master's  in Europe at EIT InnoEnergy Master Schooland working in United States, Canada, India and the Philippines.  When I travelled to the villages in East India, I saw large pockets of the country with no access to electricity living in poverty because of the limited economic activity they could participate in. This experience made me realise that the deveopment of any country   depends heavily on its citizen's access to electricity.

My realisation was validated while travelling across Europe during my studies and North America after graduating where I saw a substantial improvement in people's standard of living, income and life expectancy owing to a perpetual access to electricity. It solidified my belief that access to electricity is a pathway to a better life and a fundamental right that every global citizen deserves.

But these growth projections come with grave consequences if we continue our current trajectory. IPCC anticipates that using our current mix of power generation technologies to meet the global electricity demand will result in a rise in global temperature of 1.5ᵒ C above pre-industrial levels by 2040 and above 2ᵒ C before the end of the century.

The impact of this rise in temperature can have a devastating effect for almost a billion people living in coastal cities across the globe owing to the rising sea levels.

It's clear that the wave of electricity growth is inevitable and at our doorstep. Our biggest challenge over the coming decades will revolve around catering to this rapid growth in electricity demand while substantially reducing carbon emissions to win the war against Climate Change.  This has been my guiding principle over the last decade.

I decided to pursue my Master's in Sustainable Energy Systems because of my passion to provide electricity access to every individual on this planet using clean energy. I knew that renewable energy technologies could compliment our grid infrastructure and solve the last mile connectivity challenge. But witnessing the unprecedented race to renewables over the last decade has strengthened my belief that renewable energy will not only fix the last mile connectivity puzzle but also transform our ever expanding energy systems.   

I was fortunate to find the EIT InnoEnergy Master School which served as an excellent platform for me to dive into the world of Renewable Energy. The Program I followed helped me specialize in Solar and Wind Power which helped me grow rapidly as an industry expert. Curious to learn about  my role in the evolution of Renewable Energy ? Read all about it in my next blog post.

By Arjun Gupta,EIT InnoEnergy Master School alumni and Top 30 under 30 Sustainability Leader 2019