- Essays··8 min read
What Sonepat Took Off India's Peak
HUL's Sonepat site entered the WEF Global Lighthouse Network in June 2026 with a 29 per cent energy-efficiency gain — an achievement that changes rather less about India's grid than the headline implies. Industrial electricity demand is rising at seven per cent a year, so per-site improvements are banked and spent almost simultaneously. India has roughly 1.59 crore registered manufacturing MSMEs and approximately fifteen Lighthouse sites — one per million.
indian-manufacturingindustrial-aiglobal-lighthouse-networkenergy-efficiencyRead - Essays··8 min read
The 10% Nobody Budgeted For
Germany's Energy Efficiency Act requires datacentres commissioned after July 2026 to redirect at least 10% of their waste heat, a rule public since 2023 that arrived before the offtaker ecosystem could support it. Operators now completing fit-out are engineering around the exemption clause rather than meeting the target, because the district heating networks the law assumes do not exist at the required density. The 20% mandate in 2028 will not permit the same approach.
data-centresenergy-efficiencywaste-heatdistrict-heatingRead