World Environment Day 2025: Can AI Fix the Energy Problem It Helped Create?
"Without skilled workers to maintain these systems, long-term gains are harder to secure. AI offers clear efficiency boosts, but it's not a plug-and-play solution; it requires system-wide adaptation," says Pratik Mandvia, Solar Business Head, Mufin Green Finance
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
The enormous energy appetite behind artificial intelligence (AI) loudly raises concerns about the massive electricity consumption powering the everyday AI-driven innovations dominating headlines.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity demand from data centres could double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours (TWh), slightly more than Japan's entire electricity consumption today. That's both shocking and real. But experts believe AI might be both the problem and the solution.
AI's Play in Solar
India's solar capacity has grown exponentially, with a 3,450 per cent increase over the past decade from just over 2.82 GW in 2014 to nearly 100 GW in 2025, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The government's goal is to reach 500 GW by 2030, contributing significantly to its broader non-fossil energy target.
According to Pratik Mandvia, Solar Business Head, Mufin Green Finance, "AI in solar now goes beyond weather forecasting. It helps optimise panel tilt, detect faults, predict shading, and manage grid loads in real time."
He added that AI-led project planning has slashed construction timelines by 30 per cent and improved energy yield predictions by as much as 30 per cent. "However, limitations remain. Data quality and access are inconsistent, particularly in rural or legacy systems. Also, integrating AI into outdated infrastructure is also challenging," Mandvia explained.
Meanwhile, Anand Jain, Founder of Aerem, believes that AI use cases within solar are still developing such as Energy Management Systems (EMS) and predictive maintenance solutions. However, he noted, "The quality of data and consistency remain major hurdles."
Startups are the solutions
Despite solar's clean image, environmental trade-offs are starting to emerge. Jain said that India already generated 100 kilotonnes of solar waste in 2024, a number expected to grow to 600 kilotonnes by 2030 and a staggering 19 million tonnes by 2050. Much of this is due to the absence of a proper end-of-life (EoL) policy for solar panels.
Adding to this, Subhradeep Das, Development & Policy Economist, noted, "India must create a regulatory framework for the recycling and disposal of PV waste, similar to the EU's WEEE directive. Otherwise, we risk trading one crisis for another."
He also warned that much of the upstream manufacturing is heavily dependent on Chinese polysilicon, embedding both carbon and geopolitical vulnerabilities into the supply chain.
Mandvia echoed this sentiment and believes startups and small manufacturers can help in the long run. "India imports over 60 per cent of its solar modules from China, creating vulnerabilities in pricing and supply chains. While this has helped rapidly scale capacity, long-term resilience depends on local manufacturing. The government's PLI schemes and customs duties aim to boost domestic production. Startups and small manufacturers are gradually filling gaps, especially in modules, inverters, and battery packs," he said.
But he concludes on the note of the skilled workforce challenge. AI could become a major game-changer, but it requires widespread adoption. "Without skilled workers to maintain these systems, long-term gains are harder to secure. AI offers clear efficiency boosts, but it's not a plug-and-play solution; it requires system-wide adaptation."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
U.S.-China trade war on hold as talks reboot in London
Top trade officials from the U.S. and China were meeting in London on Monday, the second such meeting in the past month and one aiming to quell rising tensions between the two superpowers over tariffs and other trade policies. The meeting kicked off just days after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping engaged in an extended phone conversation, after which Trump offered an upbeat download on the conversation. 'I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal,' Trump said on Truth Social last Friday. 'The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries. There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined.' U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer are leading the U.S. delegation and early reports on the talks were optimistic. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Monday told CNBC's 'Squawk Box' that the U.S. was seeking confirmation China would restore the flows of critical minerals. 'The purpose of the meeting today is to make sure that they're serious, but to literally get handshakes ... and get this thing behind us,' Hassett said. He added that he expected it 'to be a short meeting with a big, strong handshake.' While White House officials were signaling expectations for a positive outcome from the latest round of talks, some trade experts predicted the road to a new U.S.-China agreement could be a long one. Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist of Pinpoint Asset Management, told CNBC that it could take months for trade tensions to be resolved. 'I don't really have very high expectations for these trade talks ... I doubt they will reach an agreement very soon,' he told CNBC on Monday. 'There could be some resolution on specific issues, like a rare earths, for instance, China already announced that they will give some permits to foreign firms applying for imports. Now, those kind of a temporary solution, we might see some of that come out. But I doubt we will have a complete solution coming from this dialogue in the U.K.,' Zhang added. In spite of a temporary U.S.-China trade agreement coming out of talks held on May 12 in Geneva, Switzerland, tensions arose earlier this month after Trump accused China of breaching terms of the deal. 'The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!' Trump wrote on Truth Social. Last week, ahead of the call between Trump and Xi, China hit back on Trump's claims the Asian country was in breach of a new trade agreement, countering that the U.S. itself was undermining the deal with new sanctions. A statement from China's Ministry of Commerce released last Monday said Trump administration actions 'seriously undermine the existing consensus reached at the Geneva economic and trade talks, and seriously damage China's legitimate rights and interests.' Chinese officials also pointed to recent signaling from the U.S. about potential new regulations for advanced microchips and the revocation of U.S. visas for Chinese students, per CBS News, as evidence that the U.S. was acting in bad faith following the trade deal. Trump's complaint stemmed from his concerns over China's export rules on rare earth minerals. China controls 90% of the world's rare earth elements production capacity and, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the minerals play a critical role in U.S. national security, energy independence and economic growth. Many advanced technologies have components made from rare earth materials such as magnets, batteries, phosphors and catalysts.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Minnesota factories see orders tank on continued trade uncertainty
President Donald Trump said his tariff policy is expected to drive more business to U.S. manufacturing plants. But many Minnesota factory heads have yet to see it, and instead are juggling budgets as orders dry up while their own costs continue to rise. "The tariffs have just caused us havoc. Complete and utter havoc," said Dave Wedge, who manages Minnesota Twist Drill's Chisholm and Hibbing drill bit factories. Trump's latest tariff increases went into effect Wednesday as levies on steel and aluminum imports went from 25% to 50%. Todd Olson , co-owner of Twin Cities Die Castings in Minneapolis, said the tariff increases create another round of the uncertainty that has plagued his metal parts components factory since Trump's trade war began. In the past few months, supply costs surged while sales flattened. His aerospace and ag component orders have slowed. And his car-making customers are once again putting off redesigning vehicle models because of the metal tariffs, Olson said. "It's like oil," he said. "Just the uncertainty of this world market with the tariffs has raised prices." Last year, Olson added 25 workers, boosting his staff to 175. Over the past few months, he froze hiring and terminated 10 contract workers. The company also had to increase prices twice in the last 90 days, even though the thousands of tons of aluminum and magnesium he buys are all domestically sourced. On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department released monthly jobs data that showed a slowing in hiring nationwide. With Trump's frequently changing tariff policies, customers are constantly calling to learn Twin Cities Die Castings' latest prices. "We've got an absolute glut of request for quotations. But nobody, nobody's doing anything. It's just been in a total holding pattern," Olson said. "Nobody's making any decisions until they can kind of see the mid- to long-term path. And that's pretty consistent across not only in our industry, but for other CEOs I talked to." At Twist Drill, Wedge said he expects sales to be flat for the year if he's lucky. Without knowing what was ahead, Twist Drill closed its heat-treating operation in Chisholm six months ago and started importing 100% of its steel blanks from China, instead of the prior level of 25%. So the company was suddenly shelling out tens of thousands of dollars in unexpected trade taxes after Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods. Worse, the tariffs kept changing. Twist Drill then had to spend more money because of new retaliatory tariffs stemming from Trump's trade war with Canada. Twist Drill ships most of its finished machined drill bits from Chisholm to its parent company in Canada. Now, Wedge needs to factor in the doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs. "This is having a negative effect on us," Wedge said. "It's just not a good situation. And I never imagined this. I figured, you know, they'd throw these tariffs out, and there would be some back and forth, and then it would be over. But everybody's really sticking to their guns." In two months, the company increased prices twice. It is cutting costs, putting off new supply orders and considering opening its machining shop to third-party customers, Wedge said. That would bring in revenue not subject to tariffs. Twist Drill also is considering buying specialty equipment so it can make specialty drill bits for U.S. customers, he said. "I'm hoping that we can still make our budgeted sales. But of course, you know, our profits will be less," Wedge said. "Right now it's all so volatile. ... We can't plan anything, which is the frustrating part." Trump believes the tariffs, especially the aluminum and steel levies, will bring business back to U.S. companies. He also has said it is for national security reasons. So far, economic data has not shown definitively whether the policies have worked. The trade deficit fell 16.3% from March to April, the biggest month-to-month decrease on record, the government said Thursday. But much of that plunge was from companies stocking up in the early months of the year before tariffs increased, economists said. They also pointed to the fact that any change of that magnitude means a reduction in economic activity. The Fed's latest Beige Book report Wednesday also indicated economic activity has declined in recent weeks. Another report this week, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said its research shows that half of tariff expenses will be passed to customers. That's less than when Trump raised tariffs in his first term. But it also means many customers won't be able to continue absorbing higher costs after years of sticky inflation. So either profits will go down, or companies will need to cut costs. Many on the Iron Range, though, support the higher steel and aluminum tariffs, even as they acknowledge the volatile nature of the results of Trump's policies. "It's a complex issue and we recognize that at the IMA because of the various ways tariffs impact our vast membership," said Kristen Vake, executive director of the Iron Mining Association of Minnesotac, in an email. "The big picture [is] we need fair trade," she said. "In order for the iron mining [and taconite] industry to continue thriving, we need a healthy domestic steel market." Still, not everyone is convinced 50% steel and aluminum tariffs or steeply higher levies on China are the way to go. In Congress, U.S. Rep. Kelly Morrison, the DFLer who represents west and northwest Twin Cities suburbs, said she worries the tariffs will hurt small companies. "I've heard from so many small-business owners who are in disbelief, frustrated, and scared that everything they've worked so hard to build is being taken away from them," Morrison said in an email. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hapag-Lloyd Bookings Double on China-US Route in Weeks After Tariff Truce
After the temporary tariff relief on Chinese imports into the U.S. resulted in a 50-percent one-week surge in bookings for Hapag-Lloyd on the trade route between countries, container flow accelerated even further in the weeks after. Bookings out of China more than doubled in the three weeks after the 90-day trade truce was put into effect, according to CEO Rolf Habben Jansen. More from Sourcing Journal Guess Limits Tariff Impact to Less Than $10M, Adjusts Sourcing and Buying Strategies Panama Canal Sees Post-Drought Spike in Container Shipping Transits US Trade Deficit Contracted in April Amid Tariff-Driven Import Paralysis 'We now need to see over the upcoming couple of weeks what is going to happen, and how much of that cargo rush is going to remain,' said Habben Jansen in a recent online panel discussion hosted by the ocean carrier. Despite various projections calling for a contraction in global container volumes for the year, Hapag-Lloyd revised its outlook upward from its previous flat growth forecast on the back of the recent uptick, projecting global container demand to increase 4 percent. 'I would still expect us to see decent growth in the second quarter,' said Habben Jansen. While China-to-U.S. volumes account for roughly 5 percent of Hapag-Lloyd's total business, the U.S. overall represents 27 percent of its volumes, Habben Jansen said. Approximately 22 percent of global container flows at the company go through American ports. With the U.S. remaining a sizable chunk of the liner's business, the concerns of volatility stemming from the stop-and-start nature of President Donald Trump's tariff decisions makes it challenging to plan for. Case in point, in the company's earnings call in mid-May, the CEO said Hapag-Lloyd saw bookings decrease 20 percent on average in the period after the Liberation Day tariffs were applied and ahead of the tariff rollback. But the China-to-U.S. demand picked up so quickly that Hapag-Lloyd and Gemini Cooperation partner Maersk introduced a new direct trans-Pacific service with a rotation of Xiamen, China; Busan, South Korea; and Long Beach, Calif.. The first sailing will take place out of Xiamen on June 24. The 'WC6' service will connect Busan and Long Beach with a transit time of 14 days, and a competitive direct Xiamen service into Long Beach in 18 days. Hapag-Lloyd's move reflects the industry at large, which has sought to add more capacity on the trans-Pacific trade lane to capitalize on shippers' rush to get cargo space ahead of tariff deadlines in July and August. As the Gemini alliance partners prep to start their new service offering, the carriers still lead the pack when it comes to schedule reliability, keeping their 90 percent schedule reliability goal intact across March and April. The alliance expects to be fully 'phased in' by July, meaning that all shared vessels will sail on Gemini schedules. 'Only then will it be possible to truly evaluate their performance,' said Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, in the monthly update. Gemini Cooperation officially came in with 90.7 percent reliability, with MSC following suit far behind at 69.8 percent. The Premier Alliance of Ocean Network Express (ONE), HMM and Yang Ming recorded 53 percent reliability in the two-month stretch. Habben Jansen said he was encouraged by the alliance's ability to ensure Hapag-Lloyd's first-quarter volumes surpassed the wider market with 9 percent growth, ahead of the 4.2 percent global growth experienced by the wider container shipping sector. 'That was the intention when we started [the partnership]. We knew that we needed to attract more volumes to fill those ships, also because we lose fewer sailings as we don't do blank sailings, as we used to do,' Habben Jansen said. 'And we sail on time, which basically means that we can use the ships more often. It's very nice to see that also reflected in the numbers, and hopefully we'll see more of that as we move into Q2.' Although competitor CMA CGM has introduced another service line back on the Suez Canal route, Hapag-Lloyd does not have intentions of following suit—the attitude still taken by most major container shipping firms. According to Habben Jansen, the story remains the same. There must be a clear indication that vessels and crew will be safe from potential Houthi attacks. 'If we go back then we will have to do that step by step, as we would like to avoid chaos in the Mediterranean and in Europe in particular, and to a lesser extent, on the East Coast of the U.S.,' said Habben Jansen. 'Right now, we do not see any signs that it is going to be and remain safe in the near future.' Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
