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The BIGGEST problem with clean energy - YouTube
Channel: Physics Girl
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we've been driving now for five days
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across california talking to some of the
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lead researchers in renewables so what
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do you think is the biggest challenge
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for moving towards
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zero emissions or a renewable future
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accessibility to an energy source as the
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energy comes from different places yes
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we're going to have to adapt the grid so
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those are good guesses but i would argue
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that the biggest challenge is actually
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energy storage we all kind of know the
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the problem with solar and wind is that
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we still need electricity after the sun
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goes down we still need electricity when
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it's not windy for three days in a row
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how we store energy for when renewable
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sources are intermittent is the biggest
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problem we're gonna need to solve
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hey i'm diana and you're watching
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physics girl and if you've been
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following along with this series we've
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been driving across california in a
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hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric car
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learning all about renewable energy
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[Music]
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so thank you to toyota for sponsoring
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this series we are moving toward a 100
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renewable future and there are road maps
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for getting there by 2050. but the
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energy sector has a problem when you
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plug in your tv your dishwasher your
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particle collider the grid producing
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your electricity is most likely on
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demand oh people need more energy like
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turn another gas plant on but if we're
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really going to move to a fully
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decarbonized future we won't have those
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gas plants anymore we actually visited a
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solar power plant that has to slow down
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their plant sometimes because they're
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like we'll be charged money if we
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provide too much electricity the grid
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was not built to stockpile energy so it
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doesn't so the next step must be to add
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energy storage to the grid when i think
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about energy storage my mind immediately
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goes to a warehouse full of lithium-ion
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batteries we realize lithium-ion can't
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do everything a hour battery will cost
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about 10 times as much as a 4 hour
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battery there are other drawbacks to
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lithium ion as well they catch fire they
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lose capacity over time the supply of
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lithium is estimated to run out by 2080
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and experts say the cost won't come down
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fast enough to keep up with our road
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maps but there are some promising
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complete alternatives to lithium-ion and
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to even batteries all together i got to
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go behind the scenes and i'm so excited
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to share with you what these other
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technologies look like how some of them
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work today and how others might work in
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the future
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this reservoir here is separate from the
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other one that was on the other side of
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the burning highway oh my gosh that's
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right someone had set fire to the
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entrances to the parks and we almost
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didn't get in there that day that was a
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weird day so this one's actually 300
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feet higher than the other one they pump
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water from over there up to this one and
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then they
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pump it back then they pump it up and
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they pump it back why do you think they
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do that gravity can fall and it can make
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power yes exactly there's one technology
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that comprises 98 of installed energy
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storage in california pumped storage
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hydroelectric we drove up into the
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mountains of the sierra national forest
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to visit the big creek hydroelectric
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project we are here
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at powerhouse number one a low pressure
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pipeline when it starts down this really
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steep hill it drops about 2000 feet in
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elevation the concept is simple energy
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in just pump the water uphill and then
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when there's demand energy out let the
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water fall and drive a turbine to create
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electricity and it's a twist on a
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technology that's been around for over a
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century so when they fire it up in 1913
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i think we just had three units going in
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powerhouse one that's where people lived
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over time yet it has really evolved into
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supporting the grid in the use of
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renewables solar and wind coming online
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a lot of times during the day i don't
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know if you've looked at the or know
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about the duct curve everyone we talked
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to mentioned the duct curve as
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illustrating the main point that we're
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talking about in this video if you chart
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electricity demand during the day it
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typically looks like this more demand in
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the evening and it peaks at sunset but
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as more solar energy is produced in the
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middle of the day and comes on the grid
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that effectively looks to the grid
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managers like a drop in demand and
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someone thought this looked like a duck
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not sure they've ever seen a duck hydro
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can step in and and compensate for those
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fluctuations on the grid who who makes
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that call is does somebody call you up
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like there's a lot of sun yes so there's
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actually a lot of market mechanisms in
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place say we're producing 100 megawatts
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at this particular plant they were
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forecasting it to be cloudy today and
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they didn't think we were going to have
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a bunch of solar come online well clouds
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go away the stun starts shining the
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solar fires up oh man that must take
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energy that's coming to the grid from
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solar panels on your rooftop they can't
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just turn that off and turn it away
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that's got to come on the grid well you
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can't put more megawatts on the grid
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than are being consumed so
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all right turn your generators down but
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the coolest part was seeing the turbines
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in action i cannot even describe it they
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were like oh yeah we'll take you in
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there to the pump house where the water
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is reaching 900 psi and spinning these
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turbines and then they're like it's
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gonna be a little loud you might not be
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able to hear anything so we put in our
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earplugs and see these turbines and you
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couldn't even make something big enough
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for a movie set they're just vibrating
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your chest cavity
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i never thought i would go into an
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energy production facility and feel like
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this is so powerful in so many senses of
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the word whether they knew it or not it
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you know in 1910 what they designed is
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incredibly flexible and incredibly
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adaptable if you're comparing to gas
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plants you've got the same benefit in
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that you can turn on the system really
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quickly plus if you compare to batteries
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the round trip efficiency is very high
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over 80 but it beats batteries and that
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you can store the energy indefinitely
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you just keep pumping up and pumping
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back down i'm really excited about this
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industry i think there's a ton of
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opportunity in hydro but there are some
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downfalls years of drought can actually
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affect the capacity this tech wouldn't
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fit in the middle of new york city so
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you need large swaths of land it can
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potentially disrupt the environment plus
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most people believe that this tech is
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pretty much built out as much as it's
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going to be
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other creative mechanical concepts have
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taken inspiration from pump storage
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hydro including using cranes to move
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around massive bricks or rocks up and
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down using say automated machine vision
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software so energy in raise the bricks
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up high energy out lower the bricks to
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convert your stored gravitational
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potential energy to electricity sounded
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to be like just really big jenga but
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some companies like energy vault and
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gravitricity claim 80 to 90 efficiency
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and decades of lifetime and if you're
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looking for indicators that this tech is
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going places they've already built out
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testing sites and they've raised
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millions from venture capital and crowd
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investing sites that's exciting another
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very promising mechanical base tech is
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compressed air energy storage where
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energy in you compress air in giant
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containers and then energy out you
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release the pressure later to drive a
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generator also air gets hot when you
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compress it so if you can extract that
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heat as well you can produce electricity
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with it and increase the efficiency
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overall of this technology the capacity
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of these facilities is staggering there
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are some sites going in in california
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soon built by the company hydro store
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with a total capacity of 10 gigawatt
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hours that's insane compare that to the
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capacity of this victorian big battery
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the proposed site in australia using
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tesla lithium ion batteries that has a
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450 megawatt hour capacity or about 22
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times smaller than this so for
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compressed air energy storage the large
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scale very long duration energy storage
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looks promising and then a slightly
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related technology other companies are
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looking to cryo-cool air down to such
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low temperatures that it turns into a
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liquid and then when it's heated back up
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it increases in volume by a thousand
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times and drives a turbine another
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related technology we learned a lot
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about driving around in the mirai is
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hydrogen but rather than the input of
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energy coming from compressing or
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cryo-cooling the hydrogen it comes from
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just producing the hydrogen the method
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that is primarily used to produce
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hydrogen is steam reformation but the
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goal is to produce hydrogen by renewable
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methods one such method is electrolysis
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or splitting water into hydrogen and
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oxygen using electricity the hydrogen
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stores energy because when you combine
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it back together with oxygen through a
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fuel cell you produce electricity so
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energy in separate hydrogen from oxygen
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or other molecules energy out allow the
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hydrogen to recombine with oxygen to
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produce electricity through a fuel cell
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you know all about this if you saw the
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first video in the series about the tech
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powering the car we drove on the whole
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road trip a hydrogen fuel cell electric
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vehicle so some benefits to hydrogen as
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most people will point out hydrogen is
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very abundant just look at all those
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oceans it's very scalable and modular
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hydrogen can be a core component of
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microgriding so one of the biggest
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problems that they've had in some of the
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hurricane related natural disasters is
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that people couldn't communicate phone
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towers have battery backup which is good
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for maybe eight hours but if you have a
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fuel cell backup produce hydrogen
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locally you can be operable for a week
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or longer but though hydrogen is readily
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available it's not readily available
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alone it's usually connected to oxygen
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and we have to put a lot of energy in to
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liberate it the round trip efficiency is
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looking like 25 to 45 one question
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though is storage where do you put it
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hydrogen fuel cells needs very very high
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purity so you need to find a storage
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medium that doesn't contaminate it i had
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no idea but we're already storing
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natural gas in large underground caverns
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like empty salt mines the us has been
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storing natural gas mostly in all sorts
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of geologic formations salt formations
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um depleted gas oil reservoirs and we're
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already looking at converting those plus
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all of the rest of the natural gas
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infrastructure to hydrogen it can double
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as a fuel which may end up being the
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more promising use for hydrogen
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we drove next up to fremont california
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to visit a company called antora
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developing a tech they're calling
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thermal batteries where the energy is
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stored as heat we would take that excess
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electricity and directly resistively
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heat these super cheap blocks of carbon
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very hot temperatures to the point where
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they are glowing and emitting light so
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energy in heat up blocks of carbon and
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then energy out is a little bit
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surprising they've decided to use
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photovoltaics the same technology that's
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in solar panels this is kind of the
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tricky part that has like plagued
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thermal energy storage for a while the
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most common heat engine you'd use for
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something like this is a steam turbo but
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they found that the efficiency of the
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steam turbines gets a lot worse when
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they get smaller so we use photovoltaics
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so energy out use a photovoltaic
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material to turn the radiated light from
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the hot block into electricity cool and
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they've decided to call this whole
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system a thermo photovoltaic system or a
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tpv the benefits are pretty easy to see
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we use carbon to store the heat that's a
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very very cheap material very abundant
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so it's a very easy thing to make a 40
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hour even 400 hour battery it's
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affordable it has a small footprint so
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high energy density it's easily scalable
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and it has a relatively high round trip
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efficiency at an estimated 50 due in
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part to the use of mirrors so any of the
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light that makes it through the
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photovoltaics and doesn't get absorbed
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gets reflected back on the other side
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back to the block and heats it up again
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but it's a very new technology and
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they're just in the early research phase
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although the exciting thing about
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companies like this is that the
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international energy agency forecasts
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that to meet our zero emissions goals by
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2050 almost half of our reductions are
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going to come from tech that's currently
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in the demonstration or prototype phase
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so this research is critical and it was
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really cool to see one of the
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technologies that might be one of our
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future solutions one final technology
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that i learned about on our journey is a
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battery technology but one that's
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further along in march 2021 a canadian
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company called vrb energy announced an
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upcoming 500 megawatt-hour battery
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storage facility going in in china so
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it's similar to the victorian big
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battery capacity but it's not
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lithium-ion batteries the tech that
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they're using is called flow batteries
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what are flow batteries well it's kind
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of like batteries but they take all of
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the elements of a battery and mix them
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up and then allow them to flow so in a
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typical battery cell you usually have
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two sides the anode and cathode the
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bread if you will and then the
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electrolyte filling to make a bigger
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battery then you have to add more of
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these cells and that can get expensive
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in a flow battery you take the anode and
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cathode materials dissolve them in
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electrolytes and then store them in
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tanks and then you allow those mixtures
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to flow near each other with a membrane
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separating them and they do their
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chemical reaction thing and produce
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electricity to scale this up you just
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need to increase the size of the tanks
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so it's more cheaply scalable than
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lithium ion it doesn't generally have
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the same fire risk and it doesn't have
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nearly the capacity fade of lithium ion
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one of the concerns with flow batteries
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though is that vanadium is one of the
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most common elements used in flow
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batteries and the price is rising so
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other companies are looking to use
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different chemistries for example primus
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power is using zinc bromide and they're
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a california based company that's
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received 100 million dollars in funding
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from the department of energy and the
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california energy commission and there
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are other companies looking at iron
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chromium chemistries there are lots of
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companies with big investments and sites
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installed form energy vision primus
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power flow batteries look promising but
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they're not looking at the days to weak
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storage that's where some of these other
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technologies we talked about will come
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in and that's a sentiment that we heard
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over and over it's not that these
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companies will necessarily compete but
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they're going to complement each other
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for different uses for example right now
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for personal storage one of the only
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options is the tesla power wall but as
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time goes on other technologies are
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going to look more enticing as they can
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last longer capacity doesn't degrade and
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they're cheaper so at the beginning of
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this video i came in hot saying that
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energy storage is the biggest issue that
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we need to solve but i didn't even know
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that when we started this series as soon
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as you start talking to people in the
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industry though and you see this
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research and development that's
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happening you realize how important all
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of this is plus i came across a
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prediction of the growth in the energy
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storage industry to 574 billion dollars
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by 2027 up from 360 billion in 2019. so
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this is where the need is and where the
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investments are going to be in our
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previous video i mentioned a portfolio
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approach as our best option at getting
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to net zero emissions and that was
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definitely reflected here as they say in
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the energy industry many juices for many
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uses they don't say that but they should
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in the final video of this series we're
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going to take a look at a solar
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technology that incorporates energy
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storage as one possibility for the
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future of energy hit subscribe if you
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want to come back for that one and thank
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you so much for watching happy
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physicsing
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