Embracing Renewable Energy Options For Sustainable Cities

Urbanization has continued to increase over the years.Urban centres attract people because they are the economic engines that drives economic growth.The United Nations projects that urban areas are home to about 55% of the world population and generates about 80% of the GDP(UN DESA 2018).The increasing urban populations means an even higher demand for energy. Energy prices have been rising globally based on global geopolitical shocks and uncertainties.

Urbanisation has greatly improved societies and communities be expanding businesses and opening up more business opportunities.However, urbanisation has also contributed significantly to environmental distraction and and increased climate change related challenges.Most Urban socio-economic activities run on fossil fuels (UNDP, 2017; Keirstead and Shad, 2013).The Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) Project that cities contribute to about 71% of global energy related CO2 emissions.Fossil fuels and other emissions contribute to serious air pollution problems in urban centres.The WHO estimates about 7 million premature deaths are related to diseases such as lung cancer,strokes and asthma which are linked to air pollution(WHO 2018)

Urbanisation is still growing with an estimated 2.5 billion people projected to migrate into towns in the next three decades(UN DESA 2018).We need to start thinking of sustainability in ou cities.Sustainability and reduced ecological footprint will be largely reduced if we adjust the energy mix to embrace more renewable energy options.The cost of renewable energy has been declining in recent years and this provides a needed incentive in supporting the energy needs in urban centers.The legal framework on use of renewable energy in most countries have been made easy with even less bureaucratic restrictions.

Cities present an opportunity for mitigation and adaptation because of the high contribution to global warming. Generally, urban areas have a huge ecological footprint and contribute to more pollution and environmental damage.The earth ecological footprint is already at 2.7 global hectares and 60% is attributed to the carbon footprint(Global footprint network 2023)

It is possible to build climate resilient infrastructure that will be able to acomodate about two thirds of the world population. It is possible to intergate renewable energy technologies into our energy systems to form part of a transformative action to address sustainability in cities.Drastic action call for initiation of proper governance and political will.The transformation in embracing clean renewable energy solutions also means creating of new business opportunities,Creating employments and generating more income for the urban population. It will also mean the general reduction in the cost of doing business since energy is a key factor of production in most economic processes.

Some cities are already making significant progress in embracing renewable energy options.

Setting renewable targets

It is important that cities set the targets they aim to achieve in their quest to embrace renewable energy technologies. This will boos the efforts and initiative invested in deploying renewable energy. It is important that this targets be based on realistic available alternatives that guarantee a just transition without upsetting the energy supply. and demand chain in urban areas.Most cities in the developed countries in North America and Europe have already set renewable energy targets but Africa and Asia are still lagging behind.However cities in developed countries have only been able to attain a modest share of renewables in their energy mix

Renewable Energy options being embraced in cities include hydropower,bioenergy and waste energy.The use of solar has been rising exponentially as urban centres aim to tap the potential in the solar PV and reducing the effects related to the urban heat Island.Wind power can be tapped in other areas and be supplied to cities.Biomass and waste energy can be tapped from the waste products being emitted by the huge populations in cities.This is reference to a continued push to have cities embrace a circular economy.Tapping wind power remain a challenge especially in regard to scaling up .Solar PV are being embraced in most building in cities.

Urban planning and designing of infrastructure need to modelled alongside a smart technology.The challenge of the battery technology is also a major concern for renewables.Considering that the battery technology is critical it is important to have renewable based decentralized energy system,This should incorporate smart charging of electric vehicles, digital technology and intelligent real time energy management systems.Advancement in energy technologies are already providing solution using innovative business models such as energy-as-a service, aggregators, peer-to-peer electricity trading, community-ownership models, pay-as-you-go and urban energy planning, with the coupling of different sectors such as buildings, transport and industry (IRENA, 2019a).

Urban energy systems are always connected to the National grid.Cities and urban centres face the most challenges when challenges arise from the national grid .It is upon urban centres to develop alternatives that can cushion them from the vulnerabilities of the national grid.This is why renewable alternatives should come in hand and alleviate some of this problems. It is worthy appreciating the challenge of intermittency in renewable energy supply. As the technologies around renewable continue improving,It would be better to use well established renewable options such as Hydropower to guarantee supply in cities and urban areas.