Governments at COP24 should focus on building a global electricity grid — Prof. Damien Ernst

‘Let’s be honest, all the plans that nations have put forward to decarbonise the economy are not working because if you look at the recent numbers, our CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions have risen (by 2.7%) in 2018. I would suggest at the next COP (UN climate change conference) they move away from their old recipes and focus on building the global electricity grid.

Prof. Damien Ernst believes a global energy
grid would put fossil fuels out of business.

‘Why is it the right way to decarbonise electricity? Because with such an infrastructure renewable energy would be so cheap they would put fossil fuels out of business. Once this infrastructure is built, you would lose money if you still use fossil fuels so the global grid would accelerate the decarbonisation of our economy.’

How would it make renewable energy so cheap?

‘Let’s take PV (solar) energy as an example. When you look at the price of electricity between 11am-3pm, prices are very low because it is when PV produces a lot of electricity. In a global grid they (energy producers) could sell the excess to other parts of the world at higher prices. It would really force the building of renewable energy (infrastructure) in many parts of the world because they could access a global market.’

Read the Medium story by Steve Gillman - “Governments at COP24 should focus on building a global electricity grid — Prof. Damien Ernst.”