“£1B with a b”: turning waste into clean air, cheap power, and a self‑building future
We put up Clean Air signs while bankrolling pollution; we talk about progress while permitting and procurement hit pause. Here’s a straight, visual, funny‑because‑it’s‑true audit of the nonsense—then a practical plan for how a single billion pounds can unlock gigawatt‑scale solar, save lives, and build the tools that build everything else.
Tone check: occasionally spicy, occasionally silly. Evidence‑driven throughout.
TL;DR in three numbers
People who died from air pollution in 2021—largely from fine particulates and ozone produced by burning fossil fuels. “Clean air” signs don’t clean air; switching fuels does. [SOGA 2024]
FOB China price for mainstream n‑type utility solar modules (mid‑2025)—about 6.4–7.6 pence per watt. That’s roughly £64–£76 million for a full gigawatt of panels. Assumes $1≈£0.80.
£1 > $1.25 [OPIS, pv‑mag]
Buys ~13–16 GW of panels, or roughly ~1.8 GW fully built at recent global installed costs. One crisp billion can move mountains if we let it. [IRENA]
The Garbage: why progress feels paused
We subsidise the problem while posting “no smoking” signs on the planet. Governments poured $1.2T+ in explicit fossil consumption subsidies in 2022–23 (and $7T if you include unpriced pollution and climate damages). That’s like lighting money on fire and then buying fancier smoke alarms. [IEA, IMF]
Dirty air still kills people—today. WHO and the State of Global Air report show around 7–8 million deaths each year are attributable to air pollution. That’s heart disease, stroke, COPD, cancer—the whole silent‑killer list. [WHO, SOGA 2024]
Heat amplified by rising CO₂ is already lethal. In Europe’s summer 2025, an estimated 24,400 heat‑related deaths occurred across 854 cities; long‑term analyses show heat mortality among older adults has jumped triple‑digits since the 1990s. We keep calling it “unseasonable.” It’s actually physics. [Guardian, Lancet]
And we still plan to extract more fossil fuel than climate goals allow. Multiple major producers intend to expand extraction to 2030, putting 1.5 °C out of reach unless plans change. [SEI/IISD/CA review]
Meanwhile, utility solar is the cheapest new power in most places—but permitting and grid bottlenecks slow build‑out. (Yes, the queue to connect is longer than the line for free donuts.) [IEA Solar]
EV comedy interlude: Some city‑centre rapid chargers are priced like artisan espresso—call it “£1 per kWh” on the very day you’re late. Don’t go EV and you pay clean‑air/congestion charges; do go EV and—surprise!—there are still road levies, parking fees and “green” surcharges waving from the kerb. Policy plot twist: make clean cheap, not just dirty expensive. (Yes, tariffs vary wildly; it’s a joke—but we’ve all seen the scary screen.)
The Math: clean power is absurdly cheap now
1) Panel prices are in the bargain bin
Spot and forward indications for mainstream utility‑grade n‑type TOPCon modules have hovered around £0.064–£0.076/W (FOB China) in mid‑2025—6.4–7.6 pence per watt. That’s £64–£76 million for an entire gigawatt of panels—roughly 1.6–1.7 million modules in the 600–670 W class. [OPIS & pv‑mag price indices; Trina/Jinko/LONGi]
2) “Installed” still beats everything else
Beyond panels, the all‑in installed global weighted average for utility‑scale PV in 2024 was about ~£553/kW (≈$691/kW). That’s ~£0.553 billion for a gigawatt fully built (modules + inverters + racking + EPC + balance‑of‑system). [IRENA 2024 costs]
3) Just for scale, compare with a modern mega‑nuclear build
Hinkley Point C (UK)—still under construction—now carries a cost estimate of £41.6–47.9 billion for ~3.26 GW. That’s roughly £12.8–14.7 billion per GW. [EDF/Reuters]
Relative cost per GW (bigger bar = more expensive):
Not an apples‑to‑apples tech comparison on services (dispatchability, etc.), but it is an apples‑to‑apples comparison on what building a new GW of nameplate costs in real money. And it shows how much “room” we have to overbuild solar + storage where needed.
The Billion‑Pound Thought Experiment (a.k.a. “£1B with a b”)
Option A — Buy panels like there’s no tomorrow
- At £0.064–£0.076/W, £1B buys roughly ~13–16 GW of utility‑grade modules. Yes, about fifteen gigawatts of glass & silicon. You’ll still need inverters, racking, labour, and grid—this is the “skin,” not the skeleton. [OPIS, pv‑mag]
- Area planning: utility PV often plans at ~5–7 acres per MW (site‑dependent). That’s ~5,000–7,000 acres per GW. Dual‑use (sheep, biodiversity corridors) is common. [UK Parliament Library; SEIA]
Option B — Fully build utility PV
Using IRENA’s global installed cost (~£553/kW), £1B can fully build roughly ~1.8 GW of utility solar (location‑specific; higher in some markets, lower in others). [IRENA]
Option C — Split the atom of progress (no reactor required)
£500M — Giga‑Foundry
Robotics, racking/trackers, prefab skids, power electronics assembly, and quality labs. Use it to manufacture the things that manufacture clean power. Feedstock: steel, aluminium, glass, silicon. Output: speed.
£350M — PV build
Target ~600–900 MW fully built (depending on market). Bundle community ownership where possible to flip NIMBY to NIMBYE (“Yes, In My Back Yard, Electric”).
£150M — Storage & grid
Batteries, grid interconnects, transformers, protection, and control systems. 4‑hour BESS now widely under ~£150–£160/kWh (global average); site specifics rule. [IRENA storage]
Joke interlude: If “innovation” meetings emitted electricity, the grid would be decarbonised already. Unfortunately, they mostly emit muffins.
Lives & Air: what actually changes for people?
Air that doesn’t hurt to breathe. Air pollution kills millions annually; reversing that is not abstract. Replace combustion with electrons, and health outcomes change. [WHO, SOGA 2024]
Carbon that never reaches the sky. Suppose you direct £1B to ~13–16 GW of panels in sunny locations. With a modest ~20% capacity factor, that’s roughly ~23–28 TWh/year. If it displaces average grid power at ~400–480 gCO₂/kWh, you avoid roughly ~9–13 million tonnes of CO₂ every year—compounding for decades. [Ember global intensity]
Heat deaths don’t have to climb forever. Better grids + electrified cooling + efficient buildings + urban shade = fewer people dying in future summers. We can’t negotiate with thermodynamics, but we can build for it. [Lancet; Guardian rapid analysis]
“That’s basically free” isn’t hyperbole. Compared to mega‑projects priced at £13–15B per GW, a ~£0.55B/GW utility solar build (and ~£0.064–0.076B/GW for panels alone) is pocket change. The delta is not a rounding error. It’s a policy choice. [EDF/Reuters; IRENA; OPIS/pv‑mag]
FAQ & Pushback
“But the sun sets.”
Yes. That’s why we design systems, not slogans: overbuild solar, add batteries, use grids, and pair with wind and firm low‑carbon as needed. Today’s storage is radically cheaper (‑93% since 2010), and portfolios beat any single technology. [IRENA]
“Permitting and grids are slow.”
True—and solvable. Standardise interconnects, pre‑permit zones, expand transmission, and run rolling auctions that accept mature projects. The IEA literally calls out permitting as a top throttle on large‑scale solar today. [IEA Solar]
“Isn’t this all too optimistic?”
It’s the opposite: it’s arithmetic. Module prices are public. Installed costs are tracked. Health impacts are measured. If anything, the optimistic take is believing we can keep doing the same thing and get different outcomes.
History‑hack note: The easiest way to “rewrite future history” is to build things that make the future undeniable. Imagine the chapter title: “In 2026 they bought cheap sunlight and accidentally fixed everything.” Future historians will be furious they can’t milk a three‑season docuseries out of a spreadsheet and a purchase order.
Closing note
Call it yeet if you like—but the serious idea is a self‑accelerating loop: clean power → machines → more clean power → more machines. We don’t need a moonshot to start; we need to stop setting money on fire and start building. One billion pounds, properly aimed, is not a lot. It’s a starter pistol.
Rise & Shine
So trilions money.... milions died....
And only one tiny dust of air, just number 1 with a b would build the space age fur us all
From moms hands to the casher, to the guy who invented internet
We all did it
Rise and shine humans
Sources & notes
- Module prices: OPIS Solar Weekly (mid‑2025) and pv‑magazine spot/forward assessments show TOPCon module FOB China around $0.080–0.095/W. Converted here at $1≈£0.80 → £0.064–£0.076/W. OPIS; pv‑mag (Jul 25, 2025); pv‑mag USA (Aug 29, 2025).
- Typical module wattage: manufacturer datasheets in the 600–670 W class. Trina 670 W; Jinko Tiger Neo 610–635 W; LONGi Hi‑MO 7.
- Installed cost: IRENA, Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024, global weighted average TIC for utility PV ≈ $691/kW (used ≈£553/kW here). IRENA (2025).
- Nuclear cost comparator: Hinkley Point C revised to £41.6–47.9 bn (2024 prices); ≈3.26 GW. Reuters; HPC summary.
- Fossil‑fuel subsidies: IEA topic page (consumption subsidies ≥$1T in 2022; ~$620B in 2023); IMF total (explicit+implicit) ≈ $7T in 2022. IEA; IMF.
- Air pollution mortality: WHO fact sheets (ambient + household ≈6.7–7 M/yr); State of Global Air 2024 (8.1 M in 2021). WHO; SOGA 2024.
- Heat mortality trend & 2025 Europe: Lancet Countdown 2024 (heat deaths among 65+ up ~167% vs 1990s); rapid analysis for summer 2025 Europe (~24,400 heat‑related deaths; ~⅔ attributable to climate change). Lancet Countdown 2024; The Guardian, 17 Sep 2025.
- Extraction plans vs 1.5 °C: SEI/Climate Analytics/IISD production gap analysis coverage. Coverage, 22 Sep 2025.
- Global grid carbon intensity: Ember Global Electricity Review 2024 (~480 gCO₂/kWh; falling). Ember.
- Permitting is the bottleneck: IEA solar brief on falling costs and rising permitting constraints. IEA Solar PV.
- Land use heuristics: UK House of Commons Library cites ~6 acres per MW; SEIA 5–7 acres/MW. UK Parliament Library; SEIA.
- Storage costs: IRENA 2024 indicates utility‑scale battery costs around ~$192/kWh (‑93% vs 2010); converted ≈£150/kWh. IRENA.
Currency note: for readability, we convert USD→GBP at $1≈£0.80 (rounded), consistent with mid‑2025 ballparks. Exchange rates move; adjust for your chosen spot rate.