Photovoltaics Jeremy LeggetT

Jeremy Leggett was a consultant to the oil and has many heroes, gas industry. Then he became aware of the dra- matic consequences of global warming – and but few have been quite so hard- changed sides. Photos (4): solarcentury.uk.com working and influential as Jeremy Leggett, a geologist and fearless campaigner. The founder of Solarcentury, a British solar company, and SolarAid, a charity, has inevitably raised his carbon footprint by flying around the world to persuade political and financial leaders that global warming is a reality.

hese days, many people are coming into the re- newable sector from oil and gas. But in 1989, Twhen Leggett, then a professor of earth scienc- es at Imperial College, London, and a consultant to the oil and gas industry, began to worry about climate change, he was very much a pioneer – in fact, a prophet. Like all prophets, he suffered scorn and rid- icule, especially when he left the industry, for a frac- tion of his former income, for a campaigning job with Greenpeace International. Today many people see the increasing number of tsunamis, hurricanes and tornados, as well as sus- tained droughts in many parts of the world, as evi- dence that human activity has had a disastrous effect on nature. But back in 1992, Leggett, fresh from the Earth Summit in Rio, was one of the first to view nat- ural catastrophes as a sign of global warming. As a re- sult, he decided to take early steps to convince first the insurance and then the banking industry to see that business as usual was not sustainable. Calling for a solar revolution

“In the heart of the Amazon rainforest,” he wrote in (1999), “I daydreamed about the flight of capital from carbon to solar, and schemed of ways to make that come about.” He called for a “so- lar revolution”. The book did not go unnoticed: the Sunday Times called it “the best book yet on the pol- itics of global warming.” A green warrior in grey flannel

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Unfortunately, as every renewable entrepreneur knows, these early efforts did not bear fruit. So today, almost 20 years on from Rio, we see pin-striped offic- ers of the insurance and banking sectors show up at renewable energy conferences, talking of the oppor- tunities in a green economy, but still reluctant to fund renewables, seeing “technology risk” as a step too ® far for their shareholders. AKASOL In a nutshell, Leggett has been out-lobbied. The Weather-resistant solar materials for Carbon War described the enormous efforts by well- funded oil and gas industry lobbyists, employed by PV modules. With fluoropolymer films organisations with deceptive names like the Global KYNAR® or TEDLAR®. Climate Coalition, to combat the idea of global warm- ing – and to delay and water down all negotiations. His position at Greenpeace was Scientific Direc- tor, Climate Campaign. In this role, he became active in international climate negotiations, including the ModuleModule andand backsheet.backsheet. World Climate Conference (1990), the Rio Earth Sum- mit (1992), the Berlin Climate Summit (1995), and the Kyoto Climate Summit (1997). As a speaker, he PairedPaired forfor lifelife.. shared platforms with, among others, Al Gore, oil and insurance company CEOs, and ministers from low-ly- ing Pacific and Caribbean island nations, threatened by rising seas. Business Week called him “a green warrior in grey flannel”. Getting the financial world involved

While an activist, he remained above all a scientist. In 1996 he won the US Climate Institute’s Award for Ad- vancing Understanding. And in 1997 he founded So- Moscone Center, West Hall, larcentury which was, for its first two years, a non- Level 3, Booth 9339 griesshaber-werbeagentur.de

BM_13_EN_Parrot PV modules on a roof of a school in Tanzania. SolarAid “solarised” more than 100 schools in four different countries in Africa Details see: www.krempel-group.com/backsheet

KREMPEL GmbH · Papierfabrikstr. 4 · 71665 Vaihingen / Enz · Germany Contact: Phone +49 (0) 7042 915-0 · E-Mail: [email protected] Sun & Wind Energy 7/2011

06303004_AZ_akasol_SWE_intersolar_07/11_102x297_gb.indd 1 06.06.2011 9:47:41 Uhr Jeremy LeggetT

profit solar-energy advocacy organisation. “We tial. The next major infusion of money came in 2005, sought to broker marriages between financial institu- with £1 million from Scottish and Southern Energy for tions concerned about climate change, and solar 7.5% of shares. At that point Solarcentury entered companies,” Leggett says. His efforts led to the the Sunday Times Microsoft Techtrack 100 index of founding of Bank Sarasin’s New Energies Invest AG in the 100 fastest growing UK tech companies – in 25th 2000, the world’s first private-equity renewable-­ place, based on growth in 2002-04. energy fund. After struggling for finance, in 2000 Solarcentury Urgent need for contingency plans raised £6 million in equity, on top of £1m in 1999, just as tech stocks were collapsing. Clients by now in- In the same year, Leggett published “Half Gone: oil, cluded Sainsbury and Texaco in the commercial solar gas, hot air and the global ” (Portobello PV market and Laing Homes and Bovis in the residen- Books). The book was published by Random House in the US under the title “The Empty Tank”. The book, which Bookseller magazine voted one of the top 50 environmental books ever written, deals with the threat: how the global oil industry has over- estimated both its reserves and its resources assess- ment – and how peak oil intersects with climate change. Why does Leggett worry so much about peak oil? Quite simply, though his critics say that he is merely pushing , he sees an urgent need for con- tingency planning. “We are entering a time of conse- quences,” he said. “Nobody – whether individual, household, community, city, government or business – can responsibly afford simply to hope for a comfort- able outcome on the peak oil risk issue any longer. We all need to be drawing up contingency plans, and taking whatever proactive measures we can.” Rather than warn of the dangers of the earth warming to more than 2 °C, as does Lord Nicholas Stern, Leggett, who is on the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, warns business of a much high oil price: “For businesses, there is now no longer any excuse for following ‘business as usual’”, he said, “given the pervasive direct and indirect role of affordable energy costs in those plans. Your board cannot responsibly assume that conventional energy prices are going to be in historical brackets over that period.” He currently writes a “Triple-Crunch” log, refer- ring to three crises: energy, climate and financial. Ac- cording to Leggett, a growing number of whistleblow- ers in and around the oil industry have warned of the risk – and the impact – of the oil running out, but their views have not been recognised. As Leggett said in “Half Gone”, “They were warning of the great glo- bal energy crisis that looms before us – so of course they were ignored.” SolarAid – “solarising” Africa

In 2006, Leggett set up a charity to bring solar ener- gy to the developing world, using 5% of Solarcentu- ry’s operating profit. Formally launched in the UK in 2007, SolarAid raised more than a million dollars in its first year. One early project, launched with the help of grant money from Christian Aid, taught young people in Malawi to wire solar cells to charge lan- Solarcentury designed and installed the solar energy roof of the Eden Project in Corn- terns. wall. The roof is arranged in a ‘Fibonacci Series’ with solar glazing as a weatherproof Today SolarAid has raised almost £7 million, canopy in the central ring. mainly from corporations including Vodafone, Bar-

156 Sun & Wind Energy 7/2011 clays and the Man Group, as well as the US and Dutch governments. It is active in four African countries, training African entrepreneurs to make and sell solar- powered devices for light at night. More than 100 schools have been “solarised” and thousands of so- lar lighting devices have been sold. Earlier this year, when the UK’s coalition govern- ment called an early review of Britain’s feed-in tariff for solar projects above 50 kW, Leggett went into bat- tle again, on radio and TV, defending investment in large-scale solar. He also opposes investment in nu- clear energy. “If we are to meet our targets, we need to encourage large-scale development of renewa- bles,” he said. And what of Solarcentury, where Leggett is now Executive Chairman, leaving the day to day leader- ship to CEO Derry Newman? The company, which has £50 million in turnover, has expanded to France, Ita- ly and Spain. In the UK, amid increasing competition in the solar PV sector, the company is attempting to stay on the cutting edge by installing solar panels in Apart from its activities abroad Wadebridge, North Cornwall, a town that aspires to most solar possible. However, in Britain, cuts in the SolarAid tries to raise the become the UK’s first solar powered town. The aim is feed-in tariff may preclude any trophies. The current awareness of the global dimen- to generate at least a third of all electricity from solar UK government, though promising to be “the green- sion of the energy problem at and wind power by 2015, the equivalent of est government ever,” has baffled renewable energy home: SolarAid volunteers, 15,000 MWh a year, and to make significant cash observers by setting tough emissions targets while including many Solarcentury contributions to local community projects. retrenching on tax breaks for large-scale solar. staff at 2010’s Big Chill Festi- Such a municipal effort could lead to a competi- Will Jeremy Leggett see his solar revolution in his val in Eastnor. tion, such as Germany’s “Solarbundesliga”, which lifetime? Not at the current pace. awards an annual trophy to the city that installs the Elizabeth Block