Superpower: How Renewables are Transforming America’s Energy Future

Climate One

News, News Commentary, Science, Social Sciences, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What’s new in renewable energy? In April, 23 percent of America’s electricity came from renewables, surpassing coal for the first time. Ten states, and Puerto Rico and Washington DC, have policies in place to run on 100 percent clean power in coming decades. Achieving that presents a host of challenges, from updating an aging electricity grid to financing energy innovation to figuring out how to transport and store the renewable power. Fortunately, says author Russell Gold, we have the talent to take those challenges on. “There's a lot of creativity in the space right now,” says Gold. “There's creativity on reducing demand, there's creativity in how we aggregate solar… and frankly, given what's going on with the climate, we sort of need to be trying them all -- simultaneously.” And if we succeed, we stand to gain a lot more than just cleaner air, a stable planet and lower electricity bills. Guests: Russell Gold, Reporter, the Wall Street Journal; Author, Superpower: One Man's Quest to Transform American Energy (Simon & Schuster, 2019) Jigar Shah, Founder, SunEdison; Co-Host, The Energy Gang podcast Lynn Doan, Team Leader, Power and Gas-Americas, Bloomberg News This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on August 5, 2019. For full show notes, visit our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Because you bought your robot vacuum on your Barclay card, you got zero percent interest for up to 24 months, which makes watching it, hypnotically sweeping up your crumbs, even more satisfying. Oh, Mr. Bit? What you buy is your business. Helping you pay less interest is ours. Barkley Card, make money work for you. Subject to financial status, new customers only.
0:22.4	Representative example, 24.9% APR representative variable,
0:25.6	24.9% purchase rate per annum based on £1,200 credit limit tis and see supply.
0:33.0	What's next in the transition from fossil fuels to renewables?
0:37.8	Climate One Conversations feature oil companies and environmentalists,
0:41.7	Republicans and Democrats, the exciting and the scary aspects of the climate challenge.
0:47.0	I'm Greg Dalton.
0:53.0	In April, 23% of America's electricity came from renewables, surpassing coal for the first time.
1:02.5	Ten states and Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have policies in place to run on 100% clean power in coming decades.
1:10.2	Achieving that will require updating an aging electricity grid,
1:13.6	financing energy innovation, and figuring out how to transport and store the renewable power.
1:18.6	The good news, there's a lot to be excited about.
1:22.6	I'm super excited about geothermal heat pumps and air source heat pumps, right? Because I think that air conditioning
1:28.8	to me is the big challenge as we make sure that people are comfortable through climate change
1:35.5	around the world. I think batteries are something that people should definitely be paying attention
1:41.1	to. The lithium ion boom is something to watch. Offshore wind
1:46.0	is completely taking off. East coast of the United States will have probably three or four
1:52.4	gigawatts, so think about that as like two medium-sized nuclear power plants within the next few years.
1:59.1	On today's program, we'll hear the story of one entrepreneur who tried to sell renewable
2:03.8	energy at a bargain price to one of the country's biggest power buyers.
2:08.0	We'll also learn about clean energy's dirty little secret.
2:11.8	My guests are Linduwan, team leader for power and gas at Bloomberg News, Jigger Shah,
	...

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