Name: Insights: Energy Innovation CEO - Saving the Earth is Cheaper Than Ruining It
Uploaded: 2020-01-13
Duration: 8 min 58 s
Description: He presents what he thinks really needs to be done to fight climate change.

[MUSIC PLAYING] I have studied the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere for far too long. And one of the things that teaches you very quickly is that we have to do all the right things, and we have to do them promptly. There's no more room for error. We have, as a world, squandered the possibility. So what I want to talk to you today about is what I call the four zeros. How do we get to a zero-carbon grid, zero-emissions vehicles, zero-net energy buildings, and zero-waste manufacturing? Before I do that I need to mention just a couple words about US-China relations as part of this. This is a picture that I like a lot. It's our governor of California, Jerry Brown together with the leader of China, Xi Jinping. This is important, because when China and the US work together, we get a whole lot done. One of the reasons Paris was successful was because prior to Paris, China and the United States sat down and hammered out an agreement that other countries could live with, and they made enormous commitments themselves. I've had the fortune-- I think I've made 70 trips to China over 20 years working with Chinese experts. When our countries work together on the global commons, we solve things. I know that US-China relations are fraught right now. That's all the more reason in this realm to join arms and stay together, so I don't want to forget that. Why do we have to stay together? Because there's no way that one of our countries can solve this problem without the other. The two giants in the energy world are China and the United States. And it's impossible to keep New York from flooding unless China does its part on climate change. And it's impossible to keep the Greater Bay Area and Shanghai from flooding unless the United States does its part. There's no way to separate the solution here. All right, this is common sense, perhaps, not practiced as well as it should be. So first, some slides you'll be very familiar with. The key to magic in climate change solutions is the learning curves. When we drive down the price of zero-carbon technology to incredibly low levels, a whole vast array of solutions becomes possible. And it no longer becomes an economic choice to do the right-- political choice to do the right thing but also, an economic choice. This is solar PV prices dropping down over time and the volume rising. I sometimes say there was an unwritten agreement between Germany and China. Germany agreed to overpay, and China agreed to overproduce. And together, they achieved a relative miracle. The same thing happened with wind, offshore wind. Watch this space. Offshore wind prices have dropped by half in the last four years, and they make an incredible contribution to a clean energy system. Batteries powering electric vehicles, staggering price drops. And we're by no means done, and there many more. And these have come again because of subsidized demand in the early days, overproduction, and the China price helps us all. So how do we get to the four zeros? Start with the electrical grid. This is the easiest and the fastest sector to decarbonize. And it also enables all the other three to decarbonize. So this is a crucial step we have to make. I've showed that electricity from wind and solar is incredibly cheap already, but what are the policies that we require to get us as far as we need to go? The first policy is a mandate to drive to 100% carbon-free electricity on the grid. Soft targets won't do it. Long-term signals are required. It's now cheaper to move to solar and wind than to continue. We analyzed every single coal plant in America and discovered that 75% of them cost more just to operate than if we replace them with brand new solar and wind farms. But that doesn't make it happen automatically, because incumbent industries fight back, and they fight back hard. And this is why we need good policy. So the first one is a 100% clean energy standard phased in over time, over the next 10, 20, 30 years depending on the state of the economy. Second, we have to align power markets with the carbon market. China is developing a carbon ETS, its Emissions Trading System. It needs to help accelerate the transformation of the grid. I should've put a third one on. We need better strategies to balance the grid. Intermittent sources of energy are not that difficult to manage if you have a good strategy that includes demand response, and more transmission, and heterogeneous electricity sources hooked together, and occasional use of peakers. I spoke last week to the man, Steve Berberich, who runs the California grid. And he told me he can get to 80% decarbonized electricity without worrying, 80% in the fifth largest economy on the planet. That's impressive. How do we get to zero-emission vehicles? Go to Shenzhen. They have 18,000 electric buses. All the taxes are soon to be electric. DD will be electric. The price drop is making this feasible. And if you have a solar system driving your energy grid, an electric vehicle, you've accomplished two things with one. You also, as an incredible bonus, cut out noise and air quality problems. What are the requirements? Ever stricter efficiency and pollution standards for internal combustion engines combined with a steadily increasing mandate for electric vehicles. You'll note that I have very few bullets on what we need to do with policies. And the reason I've reduce this so much-- as it turns out, with energy policy, there's a small number of things that make a huge difference. And most energy policies are not that important. We have to focus our energy on a small number that really drive change. We don't have time to waste. We can't do the wrong things. And this is the list for cars. It's not the entire list, but it's the core elements. If we do these two things, we come out OK. Buildings. My first job was construction, building buildings. And then I started at a construction company with my brother back in the 1980s. And we designed and built solar homes, and it was not difficult. You put in insulation, you put in great windows, you put in super efficient appliances and air handling system, you put overhangs over the windows and voila, your energy goes down by 80%. A well insulated, well-designed building is a 100 year asset because operating costs are so low. A poorly designed or poorly insulated building is 100 year liability, because you are condemned for the entire life of that building to pay utility prices and to emit carbon emissions you don't need. What makes for good buildings? Only two policies deliver great buildings-- A very strong building code that's well enforced, really important, and appliance and equipment standards so that we do not put bad air conditioners into good buildings. So those are the two that drive the zero net energy building. The last and the most difficult is industry. Industry because it's complicated. It has huge capital investments, and because steel is different from cement, is different from chemicals. But Tanaka-san mentioned the hydrogen economy. We need to reinvent chemistry so it's not powered by hydrocarbons but by hydrogen, which is entirely feasible. There is a company in New Jersey that makes cement that's called Solidia that's 60% less carbon than the best conventional cement power plants. We need concentrated, extensive research on each of the principal energy-consuming sectors of industry. And when we have that, we will come up with these solutions. Also, we can electrify much of industry. And again, if you have a low carbon or a zero-carbon grid, then electrification of industry is pretty dramatic. So those are the four zeros. Zero-carbon grid, zero-emission vehicles, zero-net energy buildings, and zero-waste manufacturing. Every one of them as possible. Every one of them can become cost effective if we take advantage of the learning curves that I mentioned. Learning curves don't just happen. They require much more vigorous R&D than we have in either China or the United States. They require early support when technologies are out of the price range but still promising. And then they require commercialization. The strategies I pointed out here will induce so much demand, they will create a vast amount of innovation. And that's what will really deliver the goods. It's when saving the Earth is cheaper than ruining the Earth, not just cheaper counting externalities, but cheaper in the narrowest possible sense. It's already happening with the grid. [MUSIC PLAYING] 

Insights: Energy Innovation CEO - Saving the Earth is Cheaper Than Ruining It

Uncategorized

Energy Innovation CEO on what needs to be done.

Saving the Earth is Cheaper Than Ruining It

He presents what he thinks really needs to be done to fight climate change.

I have studied the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere for far too long, and one of the things that teaches you very quickly is that we have to do all the right things and we have to do them promptly. There's no more room for error. We have a zoo world wandered the possibility. So what I want to talk to you today about is what I call the four zeros. How do we get to a zero carbon grid zero emissions vehicles, zero net energy buildings and zero waste manufacturing? Before I do that, I need to mention just a couple words about US China relations. As part of this. This is, Ah, picture that I like a lot. It's our governor of California, Jerry Brown, together with the leader of China teaching Ping. This is important because when China and the US work together, we get a whole lot done. One of the reasons Paris was successful is because prior to Paris, China and the United States sat down and hammered out an agreement that other countries could live with, and they made enormous commitments themselves. I've had the fortune. I think I've made 70 trips to China over 20 years working with Chinese experts. When our country's work together on the global Commons, we solve things. I know that U. S China relations air fraught. Right now that's all the more reason in this realm to join arms and stay together. So I don't want to forget that. Why do we have to stay together? Because there's no way that one of our country's Consol, this problem without the other, the two giants in the energy world or China and the United States. And it's impossible to keep New York from flooding unless China does this part on climate change. And it's impossible to keep the greater Bay Area and Shanghai from flooding unless the United States does its part. There's no way to separate the solution here. This is common sense, perhaps not practices well as it should be. So first, some slides you'll be very familiar with the key to magic in climate change solutions is the learning curves. When we drive down the price of zero carbon technology to incredibly low levels, the whole vast array of solutions becomes possible, and it no longer becomes an economic choice to do the right political choice do everything but also an economic choice. This is solar PV prices dropping down over time and the volume rising. I sometimes say there was an unwritten agreement between Germany and China. Germany agreed to over pay and China agreed to overproduce and together they achieved a relative miracle. The same thing happened with wind offshore wind. Watch this space. Offshore wind prices have dropped by half in the last four years and they make an incredible contribution to a clean energy system. Batteries powering electric vehicles, staggering price drops and we're by no means done. And there many more. And these have come again because of subsidized demand in the early days, overproduction and the China price helps us all. So how do we get to the four zeros? Start with the electrical grid. This is the easiest and the fastest sector to de carbonized, and it also enables all the other three to de carbonized. So this is a crucial step we have to make. I showed that electricity from wind and solar is incredibly cheap already, but one of the policies that were required to get us a ce faras we need to go the first policy is a mandate to drive to 100% carbon free electricity on the grid. Soft targets won't do it. Long term signals are required. It's now cheaper to move to solar and wind than to continue. We analyzed every single coal plant in America and discovered that 75% of them cost more just to operate. Then if we replace them with brand new solar and wind farms. But that doesn't make it happen automatically because incumbent industries fight back and they fight back hard. And this is why we need good policy. So the 1st 1 is 100% clean energy standard phased in over time over the next 10 2030 years, depending on the state of the economy. Second, we have to align power markets with the carbon market. China is developing a carbon E. T s emissions trading system. It needs to help accelerate the transformation of the grid. I should have put 1/3 1 on. We need better strategies to balance the grid. Intermittent sources of energy are not that difficult to manage if you have a good strategy that includes demand response and more transmission and had a rich genius electricity sources hook together and occasional use of speakers. I spoke last week to the man, Steve Barbara, who runs the California Grid, and he told me he could get 80% de carbonized electricity without worrying 80% in the fifth largest economy on the planet. That's impressive. How do we get to zero emission vehicles? Go to Shenzhen. They have 18,000 electric buses, all the taxis there soon to be electric. Dede will be electric. The price drop is making this feasible. And if you have a solar system driving your energy grid and electric vehicle, you've accomplished two things with one. You also as an incredible bonus, cut out noise and air quality problems. What are the requirements? Ever stricter efficiency and pollution standards for internal combustion engines combined with the steadily increasing mandate for electric vehicles, you'll note that I have very few bullets on what we need to do with policies, and the reason I've reduced this so much is, it turns out, with energy policy. There's a small number of things that make a huge difference, and most energy policies are not that important. We have to focus our energy on a small number that really drive change. We don't have time to waste. We cannot do the wrong things. And this is the list for cars. It's not the entire list, but it's the core elements. If we do these two things, we come out okay. Buildings. My first job was construction building buildings, and then I started a construction company with my brother back in the 19 eighties, and we designed and built solar homes, and it was not difficult. You put in insulation. You put in great windows. You put in super efficient appliances and air handling system you put over hangs over the windows and voila! Your energy goes down by 80%. A well insulated, well designed building is a 100 year asset because operating costs are so low. A poorly designed or poorly insulated building is 100 year liability because you're condemned for the entire life of that building. To pay utility prices and to emit carbon emissions, you don't need what makes for good buildings on Lee to policies, deliver great buildings, a very strong building code that's well enforced, really important, and appliance and equipment standards so that we do not put bad air conditioners into good buildings, so those are the two that drive the zero net energy building. The last and the most difficult is industry industry because it's complicated, it has huge capital investments and because steel is different from cement is different from chemicals. But the knock Assan mentioned the hydrogen economy. We need to reinvent chemistry so it's not powered by hydrocarbons, but by hydrogen, which is entirely feasible. There's a company in New Jersey that makes cement is called Lydia, the 60% less carbon than the best conventional cement power plants. We need concentrated, extensive research on each of the principal into energy consuming sectors of industry, and when we have that, we will come up with these solutions. Also, we can electrify much of industry and again if you have a low carbon or zero. Carbon grids and electrification of industry is pretty dramatic. So those are the four zeros. Zero carbon grid zero emission vehicles, zero net energy buildings, zero waste manufacturing. Every one of them is possible. Every one of them can become cost effective if we take advantage of the learning curves that I mentioned. Learning curves don't just happen. They require much more vigorous R and D than we have in either China or the United States. They require early support when technologies air out of out of the price range, but still promising. And then they require commercialization. The strategies I pointed out here will induce so much demand they will create a vast amount of innovation, and that's what will really deliver the goods. It's when saving the earth is cheaper, been ruining the earth, not just cheaper counting externalities, but cheaper in the narrowest possible sense. It's already happening with the grip.