The document discusses the intersection of the climate crisis and the COVID-19 crisis, highlighting the potential for a once-in-a-century opportunity to reshape society towards a sustainable future, while also warning of the risks of entrenching existing harmful practices. It emphasizes the need for a global green new deal focused on decarbonizing economies, recarbonizing land use, and pressuring firms to reduce carbon emissions. The role of solar energy as a leader in this transition is underscored, with calls for companies to adopt sustainable practices post-COVID to create a better future.

1. Climate crisis
+
Covid 19 crisis
= ?
Some early thoughts on the implications of the few months
since Solarcentury’s last company review

2. 7th Jan
2016
25th Mar
2020
7th Jan
2016
20th Jan
2020
This curve wasn’t in anybody’s plan
635,000
22 25 1 6 11 16 21 27 1 7 12 17 22 27
March Source:
WHO
FebruaryJanuary
mid March
Tipping point
GlobalCovid-19infections
Contrast the response to an immediate danger that can kill x millions
with the response to a longer-term danger that can kill billions
24 March
UK Covid
lockdown

3. 7th Jan
2016
25th Mar
2020
7th Jan
2016
20th Jan
2020
Headlines since 26 March illustrating just how fast the world has turned on its axis
….and foreshadowing the battles to come over the routes to reconstruction
22 25 1 6 11 16 21 27 1 7 12 17 22 27
March Source:
WHO
FebruaryJanuary
GlobalCovid-19infections
As for the global economy post-depression, some are arguing that the pandemic is a once-in-a-century chance to
remake society for a liveable future. Others fear it may only entrench and amplify existing suicidal tendencies.
In solar’s case:
• Tesla’s shuttered solar facility to become COVID-19 ventilator factory
• Currency fallout to ‘wipe out’ global momentum of PV, wind in 2020
• Renewables faces battle for hearts and minds when shocked Europe
rebuilds after Covid-19
• Solar asks for key role as EU embeds green principles into COVID-19
pushback

4. Not what most climate scientists and campaigners expected so soon….January
2020

5. Lessons and Hope
From the Front Lines
Cambridge Climate
Lecture Series
Jeremy Leggett
5 March 2020
2013 - 2015
˚C average global temperature upon doubling CO2
“Climate Models Are Running Red Hot, and Scientists
Don’t Know Why”
1.5˚C
3rd February
2020
“The simulators used to forecast warming have suddenly started giving us less time.”

6. 7th Jan
2016
20th Jan
2020
Executive Director Fatih Birol: “For the moment, there are few signs of a major change in
company investment spending … …doing nothing is not an option.”
2.5%
2.0%
1.0%
1.5%
0.5%
0%
0.7%
The year of the
Paris Agreement
2.5
2.0
$ billion
capital
expenditure
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
% of
total capital
expenditure
Solar PV
Onshore wind
CCUS
Biofuels
Offshore wind
2015
Yet still the single biggest originator of emissions blasts on. At Davos,
the IEA exposes the full extent of oil-and-gas industry foot-dragging
20th January
2020
2016 2017 2018 2019

7. Laurence Fink, CEO managing c. $7 trillion of funds: because of global heating we are
“on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance”.
The oil and gas industry may believe they have a future, but
increasingly major players in the capital markets disagree
14th January
2020

8. “The world has changed
….new kinds of managers who want to appease
young people …..its going to be a parade”
….They (the oil giants) are tobacco”
“Exxon could produce an upside surprise and I
don’t think it would matter … Chevron just
bought back $5bn of stock, and no-one cares”
”This is the reverse side of Tesla”
Top Wall Street analyst says oil and gas are
“in the death knell phase”
31st January
2020

9. 7th Jan
2016
20th Jan
2020
And then…. 1. Covid 19 hits the oil price, and 2. Saudi Arabia elects
to increase oil production during an oil-price collapse
Feb - March
2020
24%
24%
9.3The biggest single-day Brent price drop ever….

10. 7th Jan
2016
25th Mar
2020
“Sun sets on dreams of energy self-sufficiency as drillers
slash capex after oil price collapse.”
7th Jan
2016
20th Jan
2020
Among the many severe and ongoing impacts:
“US shale bust wrecks hopes for energy independence”
25th March
2020

11. 7th Jan
2016
25th Mar
2020
7th Jan
2016
20th Jan
2020
But are hopes for energy independence really wrecked, when for example
200+ companies target 100% renewable electricity, by 2028 on average?
2nd Dec
2019
30 RE100 member companies have already reached 100% renewable electricity
and one in three members are now at over 75%. Many more plans are in train.

12. 100% is possible for all energy: e.g. LUT’s global energy simulation stays below the 1.5˚C ceiling
with zero-GHG energy from power, heat, transport & desalination sectors before 2050
Source: Lapeenranta University of Technology / Energy Watch
12th April 2019
€54 MWh
(excl. externalities)
€53 MWh
7.2 billion people
9.7 bn people
63,400
GW PV
19%
78,000 GW total renewables capacity • A 100% renewable global
energy system - modelled
hourly with real weather data
for the first time – is lower
cost than a fossil-based system
• It uses real economics, off-the-
shelf technologies, and
assumes no innovation
• Solar PV sums to 69% by 2050
• Renewables meet >50% global
energy demand by 2030
• Global energy emissions are
halved by 2030

13. 7th Jan
2016
25th Mar
2020
7th Jan
2016
20th Jan
2020
Many in our industry seems to agree that
100% renewable energy is possible
18th February
2020
More than half the attendees at the SPE Energy Summit in Brussels concur. On the panel after
the vote, Enel, Vestas and Solarcentury all argue “its not if, its when.”

14. In search of hope amid
the uncertainties

15. Fossil fuels
CarbonsourcesCarbonsinks
Land-use change
Oceans
Land
Atmosphere
1954 2018….the year I was born
Source: Global Carbon Project
We know exactly what is fuelling the climate crisis

16. Fossil fuels
CarbonsourcesCarbonsinks
Land-use change
Oceans
Land
Atmosphere
1954 2018….the year I was born
Source: Global Carbon Project
We know exactly what the solution is ….and it is also outstandingly the best option
for rebuilding the global economy post Covid crisis
2018
2030 2050
A common
target
(e.g. UK)
Science-
based
target
…Hope …Too
late
The science tells us that hope lives
in a zero carbon world by 2030
….and maybe by 2040
but not by 2050
A global green new deal will be
needed to build that zero-carbon
world ….and to reconstruct after
the Covid recession / depression

17. Fossil fuels
CarbonsourcesCarbonsinks
Land-use change
Oceans
Land
Atmosphere
1954 2018….the year I was born
Source: Global Carbon Project
Three vital tasks leap out at us
2018
2030 2050
A common
target
(e.g. UK)
Science-
based
target
…Hope …Too
late
1. Decarbonising
economies
2. Recarbonising
land use
3. Pressuring
those who persist
with carbon emissions

18. Task 1: Decarbonization. Solar is one of the most potent tools available
….and Solarcentury is a leader in the international use of it
Solarcentury installation on a Sainsbury store
22 square metres of solar PV typically displaces
a tonne of carbon dioxide in the UK

19. We have ridden the wave of solar PV’s amazing exponential global growth. We will continue to
do so, whilst inspiring other survival companies and industries to such growth
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
0.1
1
10
100
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
GlobalcapacityGW
PVmoduleprice$/W Solar PV price and installed capacity, 1976-2019
Global installed capacity GW PV module price $/W (2018 real)
SolarPVmoduleprice$/W(log)
100
10
1
0.1
Solarcentury installed capacity
doubles >11x 2000 – 2019 to 1GW
SolarPVglobalinstalledcapacityGW
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Global installed capacity doubles >8x
2000 – 2019 to 600 GW1976
1980
1990
2000
2010
2019
1985
1995
2005
2015

20. Task 2: Recarbonization. Not directly relevant to Solarcentury’s mission, but more than ten of
our long-term supporters have backed the founder in a bio-economy project in Scotland
Bunloit: a holistic rewilding carbon sink

21. “The long-term health of
free-enterprise capitalism
will depend on delivering
profit with purpose.”
“ ….At times it is necessary
to reform in order to
preserve.”
Lionel Barber, then FT Editor
16th September 2019
Task 3: Pressure. After the Covid crisis comes a broader context to pressuring the carbonistas:
companies will need to lead reconstruction both with their products, and their purpose

22. We know how to play here. We have long confronted the suicidal defence of fossil fuels, both in
the markets and in society. We will now have the opportunity to do more, more broadly, at scale.
2011: Solarcentury staff protest solar sabotage by a civil service stacked
with oil-industry secondees prior to taking the government to the High
Court …and winning ….three times including appeals.
Even as concerns about global warming grow,
energy firms are planning to increase
fossil-fuel production

24. Imagine this: a company able to rise from the ruins being created by climate criminality and the
virus, yet be a place where Greta and her friends might want to work. We could be that company.

25. The world will never return to “normal” now. The challenge will be to rebound into a (much)
better place. SC has a big chance to be an exemplar in this wider post-Covid fight back.