One Trillion Watts of Wind and Solar

Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Tech News, Environment, Sustainability, Innovation, Renewable Energy, Technology, Alternative Energy, Energy, News, Cleantech, Wind Energy, Business, Climate Change, Solar Energy

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2018

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There are now one trillion watts of wind and solar installed around the world, according to new figures from BNEF.

It took a few decades to get here, but it’ll only take five years to do it again — and nearly 50 percent cheaper. Now that we’ve reached the terawatt scale, the true acceleration begins.

This week on the podcast, we'll contextualize that landmark for renewables.

Then, we'll discuss Tesla’s privatization debacle. Musk claimed on twitter that he has a plan to take Tesla private. Insiders said he didn’t. The board said it was never notified. Securities lawyers said Musk is flirting with the law. We’ll explain what’s going on.

We end in Germany, where a new commission is planning an end to coal in the country. Can it be a model for other industrialized countries?

The Energy Gang is brought to you by Mission Solar Energy, a solar module manufacturer based in San Antonio, Texas. Mission Solar's high-performance solar panels have the highest testing ratings among any North American manufacturer in the market. Learn more about Mission's high-efficiency modules.

Transcript

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0:00.0	A trillion watts. I can't even wrap my head around a trillion. Do you guys know how big a trillion is?
0:06.0	Yes, it's the market cap of Apple. That's true. I did some rough calculations right before we got on and I think you could circle the globe at the
0:13.4	equator with a trillion solar panels. I hate those analogies. No one can
0:18.3	envision what wrapping the globe of anything actually is. I could wrap the globe
0:22.2	with the old iPhones in my daughter's
0:24.1	drawer. That's why Apple has the trillion dollar cap. How about 10 280
0:30.5	watt solar panels for every single American.
0:33.0	That's terrible.
0:34.0	That's like Hillary.
0:35.8	That's Hillary Clinton land.
0:38.8	That's like the better way of saying it is something like that's that's like powering the entire
0:44.0	United States residential sector with 100% clean energy. There you go. I
0:48.0	promise to try a little harder to contextualize this. The one terawatt mark for wind and solar coming up.
0:56.2	But first a quick word about our sponsor Mission Solar Energy.
0:59.7	Speaking of solar panels, Mission Solar makes them,
1:02.8	they make them with the highest quality standards,
1:05.1	and they make them right here in the United States.
1:07.8	Mission Solar operates a 200 megawatt facility in Texas,
1:12.4	making logistics easier for developers. Mission Solar also has the
1:16.3	highest quality standards. They have the highest PTC ratings of any
1:20.9	North American manufacturer in the market and they are soon going to roll out a higher performing
1:26.2	module later this year.
	...

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