This summer has been too hot. This won’t be news to you: clues include the proliferation of handheld fans on public transport, men braving the outside world shirtless and the deluge of online heatwave “life hacks”, including putting a wet towel in the freezer to create a makeshift cooling device (beware: we tried this in 2022 and broke both our freezer and fridge). UK temperatures peaked at 35.8°C in Kent on 1 July, but that figure didn’t include the heat generated by the furious discourse on air-conditioning, and whether Britain should have more of it, given temperatures like those felt this summer are becoming the norm.
One set of commentators like to point out that Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore, attributed his country’s economic success to widespread aircon resulting in higher productivity, and think Britain might want to consider following his lead. The others note the link between rising global temperatures and the vast quantities of fossil fuels being burned, and suggest doing more of the latter to make the former mildly less uncomfortable isn’t going to fix the problem.
Both are right, of course – and going down the rabbit hole of parsing the class indicators, cultural norms and political alignments that put you on one side of the fence or the other is fascinating. But in-between diversions into moral philosophy (should we care more about an elderly person in the UK dying of heat exhaustion than a young person in another country losing their home to rising sea levels?) there is an obvious question. If the problem is blazing temperatures making us all overheat, why can’t we convert some of that sunlight into energy to keep us cool?
The answer, as I found out while blearily doomscrolling during another night of heat-induced sleeplessness, is: we can. In fact, we are. Anyone searching for some good news amid the non-stop stories of civil unrest, economic precarity and geopolitical turmoil should read Bill McKibben’s recent long read in the New Yorker about the solar power revolution. “It took from the invention of the photovoltaic solar cell, in 1954, until 2022 for the world to install a terawatt of solar power,” McKibben writes. “The second terawatt came just two years later, and the third will arrive either later this year or early next.”
Across the world, a gigawatt’s worth of solar panels is installed every 15 hours. Battery technology is improving at a rate that would impress Gordon Moore (of Moore’s Law fame), and the majority of renewable energy is now cheaper to produce than energy from fossil fuels. China is leading the charge, having worked out early that the first countries to figure out the switch to renewable electricity will be the superpowers of tomorrow. And from Pakistan to Eswatini, people in rural areas are leap-frogging connection to the grid by setting up personal solar farms.
All well and good for countries that enjoy lots of sunlight, but is there any positive news for the overcast UK? Surprisingly, yes. In a week dominated by the government’s failure to get its welfare reforms through parliament, you may have missed the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s announcement of its “Solar Roadmap”, in which Ed Miliband rejoices at the opportunities ahead. “Solar offers huge potential to boost our energy independence, bring down bills and tackle the climate crisis,” writes the Energy Secretary. “It also presents a significant economy and industrial opportunity. We estimate that the solar sector could support around 35,000 jobs by 2030, double the number it supports today.”
He points out that in the past year the government “has consented almost 3GW of nationally significant solar projects – nearly three times as much as the previous 14 years combined”. For context, that’s enough to power one million homes for a year. Oh, and the government reckons installing rooftop solar panels will reduce a household’s annual energy bill by £500.
As for renters, or anyone living in a flat that doesn’t come with its own private roof space, the “Solar Roadmap” also includes an intriguing line about “plug-in solar”, a small, portable solar-power system that can be plugged in to a household power socket. It is estimated that around 1.5 million people in Germany have installed such systems – which cost €400-€800 and cut 30 per cent from their electricity bill – on their balconies. “Currently, UK regulations do not allow plug-in solar to be used in the UK but the government is working to explore its potential.”
“Explore its potential” is often used as government-speak for “we’d like to do this but it’s too difficult”. (The safety concerns relate to the way British sockets and connections to the UK grid work, apparently.) But think of the political win if hundreds of thousands of renters suddenly got access to free electricity. This is exactly the kind of policy a government focused on improving living standards and increasing energy security should have at the top of its list.
The “Solar Roadmap” was published on a day when temperatures in Westminster hit 32°C. It doesn’t actually mention air-conditioning – which is, incidentally, far less energy-intensive than heating a home during winter – but just imagine a British heatwave without the annual flame-war over whether it’s morally acceptable to cool down your house, because your rooftop or balcony solar panels are generating clean electricity guilt-free. The debate we should be having isn’t yes or no. It’s how – and, more importantly, how fast.
[See also: Labour’s summer of discontent]
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This article appears in the 30 Jul 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Summer of Discontent
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