Renewable energy needs public support

Countries that have managed to go for days solely on renewables can share strategies

As Costa Rica, Portugal and the UAE have shown, for renewable energy to work requires a basket of measures. Scott Eisen / Getty Images

As Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week begins, attention is turning to how to create a cleaner, greener world. The UAE already invests heavily in renewable energy, particularly through its flagship Shams solar power plant and the research carried out at Masdar Institute. The new target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 70 per cent by 2050 is further evidence of our commitment.

One of the speakers at ADSW will be the president of Costa Rica, a country that achieved a significant green energy milestone in 2016: for 250 days, including one continuous 110-day stretch over the summer, the country produced all its electricity needs from renewable energy.

Other countries attempted similar feats last year. Portugal managed it for four days straight, while Europe’s largest country, Germany, managed just one day in May – still significant for a nation of 80 million. But Costa Rica’s achievement stands apart and Luis Guillermo Solis will be explaining to the audience how he did it and in particular how renewable energy can be a growth and job creation strategy.

Both governments and citizens can agree that renewable energy is important. Yet the reality of renewable energy doesn’t always translate easily to the public. The exact details of how many gigawatts of energy are produced and from which sources is not easy to understand. That’s why events such as Earth Day and projects such as Solar Impulse matter so much: they fire up the public’s imagination.

Everyone can understand famous landmarks going dark for an hour, or an airplane flying day and night around the world only on solar power. Earth Hour, for example, may be a small step, but it is something everyone can join in with, and therefore it focuses minds on how everyone can play a part in moving towards a renewable future.

With that in mind, posing the question of whether a UAE city could run completely on renewables is an intriguing one. It is the sort of idea that has the potential to excite the public and create a concrete goal. But for that to happen, many of the strategies and technologies that will be discussed next week will have to work. As Costa Rica, Portugal and the UAE have shown, for renewable energy to work it requires a basket of measures. It is not something that can achieved through one technology alone, nor indeed by one country alone.