We live in Colorado. Installed 24 panels on our barn roof. Leased them so our cost was $8,000. These panels produced all the energy needed for our home. In the daytime, we generated more electricity than needed which was fed to the grid. At night, when the sun went down, we drew from the grid. Used a solar panel rake when it snowed to keep the panels clear which worked perfectly. Solar is not just for Africa. We had all the appliances, a hot tub, etc. Right now the US offers a 30% tax breaks and solar companies offer payment plans that allow the consumer to pay a monthly payment similar to what it costs for their electricity. Combining solar with energy efficiency, e.g. insulation, LED lights, turning off things like computers when not in use, etc., we can all enjoy low cost, renewable options that will enhance our lives rather than continuing down the road of assuming that non-renewable energy is the way to go. According to an IEA report, "China alone is responsible for over 40% of global renewable capacity growth, which is largely driven by concerns about air pollution and capacity targets that were outlined in the country’s 13th five-year plan to 2020." It's about time we become as progressive as other countries!
We do like clean air, but guess what, the plants that make that clean air need CO2 so we still need it and we still need to put it into the air for the plants. We need to find a way to do that without adding other known pollutants
i dont mean to be so offtopic but does any of you know a way to get back into an instagram account? I stupidly lost my password. I would love any help you can offer me!
@Evan Darwin Thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm in the hacking process now. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
Huge difference in consumption between Africa and USA. You show systems from $150-$300 while a typical off-grid system in the US would run about $25,000. The power demands in a typical US home come from AC/heat, water heater, stove/oven, well pump, refrigerator(s), freezers, TV's, computers, lights, fans, etc.
I spent about 26k just for the hardware and built my own DIY system. After the 30% tax refund, it came to about $18k. We still get about half our power from the grid but continue to reduce that going forward. The system will probably pay for itself in about 10 years.
if you live near a water source, a micro hydro system would be better.... solar is unreliable, water at the right place can provide 24/7 energy.. at a lower cost too..
Power companies and the politicians in their pocket make it difficult to use more eco-friendly technology like solar. They need to re-think and allow more consumer solar and they can focus on industry. That's where the bigger $ is for them anyway.
Lithium battery have better potential for off grid solar system.The cost benefit looks attractive.There are huge scope for such system in countries such as INDIA.
Problem is, Tesla batteries are slightly expensive at the moment for the African market, only when they start achieving massive production numbers and the prices come down will it be convenient and affordable for everyone else.
@@radhakrishnanvadakkepat8843 Indians have the opportunity to forgo the entire residential power grid and go straight to batteries and solar panels. Saving billions of power poles and millions of tonnes of copper, so much more efficient than letting the government run the power grid.
Solar energy and internet gives us, the people, total autonomy from the system and its corrupted politicians. This is a chance for Africa to make it right. I hope they see it
Energy independence on an individual level.. it's really exciting. Sure, at some point you want to connect to a smart grid. Find ways to save the energy for the night, power larger facilities with the energy of several individuals.. It's an interesting approach and totally different from the centralized energy production we know in the first world.
The reason solar goes so slowly is that it's correct implementation is basically this way for everyone. The smart grid is the solution created by industry to ensure central power control remains. Solar is inherently distributed, and making it part of a grid actually takes extra work/expense, and of course batteries are needed for high end self-sufficient solar needs.
Still people in this country that can't always make enough money to pay the light bill every month, and puerto rico in some places still doesn't have power in both electricity and political sway from the federal government.
marylj25 How is it free? Who is gonna pay for the mining of batteries, manufacturing costs of solar setups, labour costs with installation, and distribution costs in transmission?
Nice talk. And he addressed the biggest issues with the questions at the end. Really look forward to seeing where this goes in Africa. In place like the U.S., the government and private market doesn't want to lose the revenue and control an infrastructure grid provides. "We can shut you down if you don't pay us". If we were running on solar panels on our roof and batteries in our houses, that control is gone. Of course, the benefits of localized power generation far outweigh a large grid. Imagine being able to have power throughout natural disasters like hurricanes. Imagine not having to develop communities around power poles and burying wire in the ground. You can have power anywhere, with no regard to distance from power source. I really hope we have a power revolution in the next 10 years that gets power to those without it and cutting those with it off large grids at reasonable costs. Much better than fossil fuels and large wind and solar projects. Those types of facilities will still be needed for areas with less solar access, but drastically be reduced.
I want to move to Canada and build a off grid home in the future, I think living off grid makes you value what you have and a plus side is it’s cheaper too :)
For starters, most places in Canada won't allow you to go off grid. 2nd your pipe dream would end fairly quick when you can't heat your home when the sun isn't shining and it drops to 20 below zero.
Did we just watch the same video? What points did you find interesting? There were no novel ideas or concepts spoken about. It was basically a video made from a 2 page pamphlet's worth of information. It was so basic and discussed nothing new, or nothing that wasn't already obvious to 99% of people.. It was akin to saying... we can stop world hunger... by bringing food to people... OK..? How do you propose that? What are the specifics of the plan or technologies?
eric jones Hey it's Stefanie -- I got really freaked out about than man with his harassment and I couldn't sleep -- nothing -- I'm worried he's local. I just want to thank you so much for being our viewer for so long and giving us a lot of great ideas. I made the video just now to see if that would get rid of him? I'm worried about my job and Milo's -- Milo doesn't deserve to be brought down by my mistakes. I'm sorry to find you on this TED video I didn't know how else to contact you. I don't really know what to do and I haven't decided yet. I just want to let you know that Milo and I talk about "our fan" whenever we make our videos (meaning you!) even though we were able to get a lot more subscribers this year -- your comments and encouragement meant a lot -- more than you probably know. (lol ok, now I"m crying -- ugh.) Thank you so much for being there for us. (ok, it's more like sobbing) -- Anyway I guess we'll try to be back with more videos -- but I don't know what we're going to do yet -- I don't want you to feel like you're being jerked around by anyone's drama or anything. I just got really freaked out is all -- maybe if I look like I gave up he'll leave us alone and leave the crusade against us to do something else in his life? Either way we really appreciate you and are very grateful. Kindness seems to be getting rarer. You're the best.
Eric, I'm also wondering what you saw that was so interesting ? I've been watching the solar tech/industry since the 1970s and I can honestly say I had learned more about solar in 1975 as a child reading popular science, etc. than anything I saw in this particular video. I found it to be way behind the times as well as patronizing. Seemed like a pitch to sell a cheap Walmart toy solar setup at a grossly inflated price to a bunch of people would really don't need to be exploited further ! We use solar to power our home,two rental units and a campsite. All the necessities and all the luxuries and we still push excess power into our local grid every day. We actually use more power now than when we used to have utility bills and it's also nice to know we are helping to make the air a bit clearer. Don't give too much creedence to TED. I find it's usually a bunch of Hollywood types or journalists who are trying to ride the latest wave or sway public sentiment usually with some profit driven or socialist leaning agenda, or even worse. Much of what I've seen on Ted is inaccurate, outdated, over-hyped or outright decietful. If you really want accurate and interesting info, check out on CZcams - Potholer54. Funny name but he does his research and is dedicated to accuracy, integrity and providing good info to his viewers.
Or we can use Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs), Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFRs), Pebble Bedded Flouride salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (PB-FHRs), or any properly design Molten Salt-cooled Reactor (MSR).
The only problem I see is the crime. It is nigh impossible to steal grid and sell it, when standalone and standardized systems may run into this problem. Just imagine knocking from house to house and getting (~) 2 years worth of credit value, when still ending up with something that is relatively easy to carry and in high demand.
2:45 : "When it comes, it often doesn't come with sufficient robustness" ... I see, so coming robustly is the key... ... I am a child. That is what I took out of this Ted Talk, thanks.
If they could charge us for sunlight, we would have been solar decades ago. Same reason they went the route of internal combustion engines instead of electric motors in cars. We've effectively stood still in terms of energy technology for over 100 years simply because of the choice of greed of a few over what's best and cheapest for all. I'm glad we are finally getting somewhere, though!
The lack of any facts or figures is disconcerting. African insolation seems to be in the 4 to 8 kWh per square metre per day range, compared to the UK's 4.5kWh summer figure. The real advantage they have though is that the winter/summer variation is much less than here. So you might expect between 1x and 2x the UK summer output, but for most of the year. There is also the question of how to store solar energy until it's needed, which is usually when the sun isn't shining. Batteries are an extremely costly way of doing so, and this has to be factored in to the overall energy cost. Then, there is a huge difference though between powering a small TV and powering other household appliances. The major problems faced by Africans are not having any way to safely store or prepare food. Grid electricity provides power for a fridge and a cooker. When you're on a subsistence level, that's one helluva lot more use than a small TV set or a torch.
Batteries are following a similar price trajectory to solar panels and LED's, faster than expected even. Meaning in 5 years they will be 50% what they cost today. Africans will have the incredibly useful opportunity to not even build an electrical or hardwired internet grid, the Trillions of dollars other nations spend to build and maintain and electrical grid, and concentrating the power generation into the hands of a few consortiums.
Off gird and wireless energy is a way forward and it will be a future. However, people has to be united and there are so many ways to produce energy. Nature is wonderful.
@@pedrobrando4606 Actually it can. But it ain't cheap. My solar roof makes enough power to power my house and charge my electric car. But I rely on the power company to take my surplus during the day and give me energy at night. So 'how do you make electricity and not burn fossil fuels during the night' is still a challenge. Sure, there are some clever ways like lift things up during the day and then let them come down and make power as they do but these are still expensive and they do not scale very well. Batteries aren't cheap enough yet. But it's going to happen, eventually. Maybe figure out some super-efficient electrolysis to make hydrogen during the day, then burn it at night...?
@@arthdenton At this present time hydrogen must be manufactured from natural gas with high pressure steam if large quantities are desired.Germany has a highspeed train that runs on hydrogen.I would bet the hydrogen for the train came from Russia in the form of natural gas.If that is true a coal fired locomotive wold make better sense. I am for wind and solar energy,but the average Ametican home will have a 5 ton air conditioning unit with a electric cloths dryer and electric stove.The only solar panels you will see in the southern US are paid for with government subsidies.A private utility company is not in business to go broke. To have the ability to charge a phone and have led lighting is helpful for those that live where public utilities are not available. At present time large windmills or solar pannel manufacturing is not possible without fossil fuels or hydroelectric power.
Let's also for instance music ... Fantasy on Greensleeves is a very beautiful melody ... You can combine pleasant with the help and give yourself more fun and satisfaction ... The current original version is not always very easy to play. On the guitarist page I found a template in the form of a | G a | E (...) C | G a | E | and ... It's easy to play ... Look how many great hits are built in the style of e | D | e | Polish H (B) | and it turned out that it sounds very nice again ... The chorus can be played in a simple way, that is, G | D | e | H (7) (B7) e ... I do not want to take away pleasure, so I will focus only on a few of the potentially available possibilities to play a template of this majestic melody ... The possibility of d | C d A | d and refrain F | C d A | d, it's probably easier to just play the template a | G a | E | and ... Curiosity has urged you to check the template b Gis | b F with chorus Cis Gis | b F b ... Starting melodies from Fis molla immediately requires playing on crossbars ... The melody is just as cool as any other ... Standard fis template | E | fis | Cis fis and then A | E | fis | Cis fis ... I liked it ... So nice melody that it could not get away from C sound ... A logical "axiom" template for prelude and later melody is, for example, c | Bb (Polish B) C G C then Dis Bb (Polish B) C G C ... In order for something to remain for others, the last template will be g | F g D | g then Bb (Polish B) F g D | g ... We combine a very nice melody and simple chords ... Playing what you like is everything, you do not even need special motivation because it is immediately ...
This is a great opportunity. Combining this with 3D printing and cold chains in agriculture and you can have a circular economy driven by clean energy.
There are interesting projects that are at the verge of scaling up community solar like "Africa GreenTec" in Mali or "M-Kopa" in Kenya. I think also western people should start investing (the first one for example does crowd financing).
A thought I have currently. The third world countries where there arent any infrastructure already in place might just rise pretty fast. Think about it. In general they dont have a big grid system. A big portion of their land are greenfields. When the time reaches when centralised power e.g. coal, gas, etc. has become really obsolete, all those systems will only be a liability, and money needs to be spent to strip them down, or maybe they dont, and risk suffering for it. Like how copper cables for internet are still in use, and to switch to new fiber optic internet is cost prohibitive, hence the people who used to be the first people to have internet might just be the ones who are suffering now. The underdeveloped places can accept new technology with impunity. How funny it would be to think of a world where power is so localised that we only use DC appliances. Interesting thinking of the future
An opportunity, instead of broadcasting movies, soap operas and novelas, there can be a network to broadcast documentaries to these people, to educate, to have schools play these for children, Windmills are another choice. Battery technology needs to be advanced in order to buffer energy to night.
We have solar energy/ electricity, from our rooftop solar panels that we paid for unsubsidized, in Bangladesh village home. It has been useful for the last three years. So like the cell phones it is spreading globally.
It’s wonderful to see people gaining access to energy! Electricity is so important to human progression. However, we have to be realistic. As a step toward energy access, distributed solar is wonderful. But.... as a primary energy source for a fully developed economy, solar energy is just simply too diffuse and completely inadequate to scale without covering too much of the landscape. The environment is more than just CO2. We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to trade carbon intensity for environmental consumption. The kind of consumption that isn’t just a higher temperature but actually environmental displacement in favor of solar panels? If we are logical, the answer has to be “no!” So how can we allow these wonderful people in developing nations to achieve the same levels of life changing energy consumption that we enjoy in the developed world without CO2 and global warming? And without the environmental destruction of landscapes destroyed by intensive solar farming? We have to accept the only no carbon energy source that is dense. That is Nuclear Energy. I’m sorry, the grid is still a necessary component of the future. A grid based largely on nuclear energy providing base-load power.
My dream house isn’t a large standard house, my dream house is off grid. Solar panels, use a well for water, fruit trees, berries and land enough to farm my own food. I want an electric car, gas is expensive and unnecessary unless I’m cooking.
I'm not trying to be a downer, but the economics might not make sense for most Sub-Saharan Africans (perhaps I'm wrong). I grew up in Zambia, where money is really unfairly distributed (it's like America's wealthy 1% situation, but on steroids). So most people don't have money to spend. More than that, Zambia's GDP per capita is roughly $1170 (quick Google search based on the year 2016). So paying $500 for a basic solar power kit, representing just under 50% of their expected annual income is a crazy ask. Certainly, some people can afford these distributed technologies, and your market-potential might be as high, or higher, than you suggest, but it's unlikely -- in my opinion -- to really change entire populations. I've lived in the US for a few years now and have found that the cost of maintaining a home is excessive: you have to pay for your AC, heating, lighting, rent/mortgage, water, garbage disposal, cable, .... Best believe the cost of solar is far from trivial. I actually think distributed energy systems are the best way to go: more efficient because of much lower transmission losses, and improved resilience to external factors (it's harder to plunge an entire city into darkness if everyone's running a completely independent power station). I think solar will be part of the solution, but not in the way people assume. The key, it seems to me, is breakthrough battery technologies. Give me a battery that costs $250 to manufacture, about the size of a soccer ball, that can hold more energy than 60 Tesla Model S P100D Extended Batteries, that charges in no more than a few hours, and with more reliability than a solid state battery, and you've solved Earth's problems. I'd fly said batteries to space, charge them from a high-efficiency Gallium-Arsenide Solar Panel Station, and return large batches to Earth for use. Figure out how to get the operational costs (manufacturing, transportation, etc) down to $1500 per battery, all in delivered, and the grid wouldn't be able to compete. On a side note, I think space is key to solving many of our problems on Earth (in case that wasn't clear from the last paragraph). The main point is, we need economics that actually make sense coupled to technologies that are insensitive to variations in our environment. The future is coming. Disclaimer: I'm working on 2 core technologies related to the vision I described, above. Good luck Earth.
May I add "localised mini grid" on top of your "distributed energy system" suggestion.. That will allow other types of power generation as well as energy storage system to be tapped into the mini grid.. Just make sure the mini grid complies with the respective national power utilities standards.. P.s. A solar farm site can also be used as cattle feedlot, fish ponds, poultry coop, mushroom farm, etc underneath the installed solar PV modules.. By creating lasting employment opportunities, perhaps the local populace will have enough money to pay for their locally produced electricity..
@@pakngah1134 I like your thought process. When people talk about solar power, they tend to conveniently neglect the economics. Giving a solar farm multiple roles is certainly an interesting proposition! Best.
I like the idea of solar energy and the technology has certainly improved but it still has a long way to go for popular use in the US. For individual African home, yea, it is there.
Based on my experience operating a 180kW solar system in a tropical country, during the dry season, it can deliver up to almost 6 hours of effective sunlight while during the monsoon season, it drops to slightly less than 4 hours of effective sunlight.. That's 700-1000kWh per day..
Super concept, except, a huge huge percentage of people in rural areas can't afford food at cents on the dollar. Then there's politics. That on it's own creates huge issues.
Hmmm. . . You have a town where all the houses are producing their own power. Then a natural disaster hits such as a tornado, flood, etc. today, in the industrialized world the Power Companies work hard and get power back to homes still attached to the grid and repair the lines to those which have lost connectivity. If each house is independently producing their power, each building owner is responsible for fixing their own damage and paying for it right then. Think of having as few as 15,000 building owners trying to buy replacement parts all at once!
I've read that solar panels withstand hurricanes and hail pretty well. Some people with solar are the only ones with energy after a disaster. (We've had grid tied solar since 2003. Waiting for batteries to come down in price if electricity goes out from wild fires, etc.)
My thoughts are: Maybe because thermal is accessible only in limited regions & it's costly to transport the extracted energy to far-off places. Isn't that the cause?
Umm, yeah- maybe because every single geothermal system I've ever seen runs on electricity !!! You kinda need electricity to run all those little pumps and big compressors to take a little heat from a large volume of water, or alot of heat from a smaller but much hotter volume of water. Do you live on a volcano ? I don't so I can't get hot water and I'm on a mountain so I can't drill a well anyway. But I can and have put 30 solar panels on my roof with lithium batteries to store my sunshine. Works great, less filling, lol. All the power we could ever need and more. Air is a bit more breathable and I never have to give the utility company another dime ! No big oil, no smoke, no power outages, no headaches and all it cost me was $36,000.00. I am powering three full homes full time day and night and still push 10-20 KWH excess electricity back into our local grid. My initial investment will have been returned in just under five years. The next 25 years I will have saved somewhere between $200,000.00 to $300,000.00 and that's with conservative estimates on utility rate increases for the next three decades. Solar is relatively easy, clean, and I found it fun to install and operate. Geothermal is not cheap, not so easy to do, not quite as efficient and somewhat more costly to maintain. It's a great idea in the right location but those locations are limited. However a geothermal system powered by solar is a good match when practical.
when World governments won't let you do that any of that stuff you're talking about having free electricity or any other thing else for that matter just ask Nikola Tesla where he's at just think about it GP Morgan told him his people won't have nothing free referring to us at the time before we were even born this is what he told Nikola Tesla
The part that interests me is the fact that Susan and her kids are no longer breathing the fumes of the kerosene lamps. This has to give better long term lung benefits.
Funny thing. The guy is in Africa but the audience, from what I could see, was made up of European-Africans, some Asian-Africans and maybe 1 or 2 African-Africans. So... why weren't African-Africans there? Because they didn't care? Because this talk was not for 'them' and the guy was speaking to some do-gooders working hard at feeling good about themselves?
1. USD500 is too expensive for those with slightly above USD1000 GDP per capita.. Maybe not for the Top 20% crust of the countries' society who wants alternative source of reliable electricity.. 2. Someone here highlighted on theft issue.. How to guarantee someone won't steal those PV modules? 3. Solar PV technology is already commercially feasible.. With the right business model catering to the right target market, the solar business can become bankable..
Like the host said "it could happen here". That's what we call a crowd teasing free energy talk. Unknown company working somewhere on eastern Africa. Not very convincing!
A hydrogen driven economy could be quite sustainable. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in this universe. The by-product of a hydrogen fuel cell is basically pure water, and the world needs more pure water too, so, win-win.
I have A technology that makes batteries last for decades longer than expected. It also makes them have about ten percent better capacity. This technology could be used when making solar panels and it might help them become more efficient as well. My 20 year old battery is the proof that this technology works. Also have an eleven year old car battery as well. Regardless I need the equipment and resources to even attempt making solar cells more efficient.
Having a solar powered house, I am amazed at the pile of enflated words deployed in this presentation. Power democracy? To choose to keep the energy os sell it? Whaaat? The reality is mutch more trivial. Sunshine, electricity. No sunshine no electricity. You have no choice what so ever. You can sell the extra power you don't use only if and at the price the company wants. Show a poor black woman out of context and suddently no one speaks about costs, technical limitation but for 'energy democracy' bullshit.
… and what's the collection plan for these (very complex and expensive to recycle) lithium-ion batteries in 8 years time when they no longer harvest energy and are spread across these rural areas, numbering in the thousands?
Excellent - but dah!! Painful to watch this guy in more ways than one. Off-the-grid renewable energy is nothing new - it was envisaged and modeled by caring environmentalists, economists and scientists in the 70s. Earth Day is coming up for its half century anniversary! The questions are: where have you been? What has been holding you back? Have you been holding the pioneers back yourself? If you’re going to acknowledge the source of the sun, why not acknowledge the source of the renewable van guard and share the credits?
This was a good forward thinking video and I truly hope the business in it is run by people who want to progress more than they want to capitalize. _raises glass_ Cheers to eventually becoming a Type-2 Civilization!:D
you know these electric companies that we have here in the United States are very greedy right here usa. where I live in Florida power companies are very greedy they don't want us to have solar power and they don't want us to disconnect Off the Grid so they create laws so you can't do that so local municipalities constrict change laws in the counties that we live in. they want to put meters on people's private Wells on water right here in Florida in the United States so before anybody thinks that someone is going to get something free you better ask their local government first cuz they're going to want something from it and if they already have a system in place they're not going to let go of the money they're getting
They will - if this is the only thing that you are doing for the local industry. Theft and the lack of corporative value is a big problem in underdeveloped places - you need to work on everything simultaneously, otherwise, it won't last. This is the main reason why investors avoid them - you need politics, contract mentality, infrastructure, financial flows and much more for a stable investment.
This is one of the few Indians i can actually understand when they speak english. No offense but because of the accent i can hardly understand something.
There is plenty of room on the "Energy Generation Landscape" for all kinds of producers. No single type will fit every need, so don't put all of your eggs into one basket.
This is AWESOME! We talk about this stuff on our channel. Estamos basados en México, y en Invictus estamos buscando cambiar a la mayoría de los hogares e industrias a energía 100% renovable! Si te interesa este tema, pasa por nuestro canal!
das hasguns the problem with solar panels is that they are currently not efficient enough, also they cause problems with reflections and disposal. We'll get there. It'll just take some time.
We live in Colorado. Installed 24 panels on our barn roof. Leased them so our cost was $8,000. These panels produced all the energy needed for our home. In the daytime, we generated more electricity than needed which was fed to the grid. At night, when the sun went down, we drew from the grid. Used a solar panel rake when it snowed to keep the panels clear which worked perfectly. Solar is not just for Africa. We had all the appliances, a hot tub, etc. Right now the US offers a 30% tax breaks and solar companies offer payment plans that allow the consumer to pay a monthly payment similar to what it costs for their electricity. Combining solar with energy efficiency, e.g. insulation, LED lights, turning off things like computers when not in use, etc., we can all enjoy low cost, renewable options that will enhance our lives rather than continuing down the road of assuming that non-renewable energy is the way to go. According to an IEA report, "China alone is responsible for over 40% of global renewable capacity growth, which is largely driven by concerns about air pollution and capacity targets that were outlined in the country’s 13th five-year plan to 2020." It's about time we become as progressive as other countries!
Sue Schmidt problem is your still paying the grid! If there is no savings it’s a waste of time! And money!
india also is outgrowing China interms of solar and wind... so its not just china ok!!
Get yourself a Tesla power pack/battery to store that power so that you can use it at night instead of feeding off the grid at night.
t.co/jJLJDPZ75N?-EnergyfromWind-21
@@luism5514 IKEA makes a battery to.
Cleaner electrical power is good for all of us. We naturally like *clean air :-)*
This is great, can you provide the opportunity?
We do like clean air, but guess what, the plants that make that clean air need CO2 so we still need it and we still need to put it into the air for the plants. We need to find a way to do that without adding other known pollutants
Local energy production is the best idea.
Solar energy fits perfectly for African nations energy needs.
i dont mean to be so offtopic but does any of you know a way to get back into an instagram account?
I stupidly lost my password. I would love any help you can offer me!
@Aden Shane Instablaster ;)
@Evan Darwin Thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm in the hacking process now.
Takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
Huge difference in consumption between Africa and USA. You show systems from $150-$300 while a typical off-grid system in the US would run about $25,000. The power demands in a typical US home come from AC/heat, water heater, stove/oven, well pump, refrigerator(s), freezers, TV's, computers, lights, fans, etc.
David Armstrong Still reasonable for an American home, if financed.
I spent about 26k just for the hardware and built my own DIY system. After the 30% tax refund, it came to about $18k. We still get about half our power from the grid but continue to reduce that going forward. The system will probably pay for itself in about 10 years.
It's a video about energy for homes in Africa not the US.
nitelite78 then the guy should be speaking in swahili
if you live near a water source, a micro hydro system would be better.... solar is unreliable, water at the right place can provide 24/7 energy.. at a lower cost too..
Power companies and the politicians in their pocket make it difficult to use more eco-friendly technology like solar. They need to re-think and allow more consumer solar and they can focus on industry. That's where the bigger $ is for them anyway.
When solar panels are combined with batteries, then it becomes interesting.
Lithium battery have better potential for off grid solar system.The cost benefit looks attractive.There are huge scope for such system in countries such as INDIA.
Extra interesting if you can help the local people skip the need for an electrical grid and centralised generation all together
Problem is, Tesla batteries are slightly expensive at the moment for the African market, only when they start achieving massive production numbers and the prices come down will it be convenient and affordable for everyone else.
And out of reach expensive.The weathy are not going to pay for a Telsa home battery .
@@radhakrishnanvadakkepat8843 Indians have the opportunity to forgo the entire residential power grid and go straight to batteries and solar panels. Saving billions of power poles and millions of tonnes of copper, so much more efficient than letting the government run the power grid.
Solar energy and internet gives us, the people, total autonomy from the system and its corrupted politicians.
This is a chance for Africa to make it right. I hope they see it
They see it but the politicians or the corrupt leaders within Africa make it difficult
Energy independence on an individual level.. it's really exciting. Sure, at some point you want to connect to a smart grid. Find ways to save the energy for the night, power larger facilities with the energy of several individuals.. It's an interesting approach and totally different from the centralized energy production we know in the first world.
The reason solar goes so slowly is that it's correct implementation is basically this way for everyone. The smart grid is the solution created by industry to ensure central power control remains. Solar is inherently distributed, and making it part of a grid actually takes extra work/expense, and of course batteries are needed for high end self-sufficient solar needs.
I’ve been saying that for years...unfortunately we live in a world where greed seems to have more power than providing free energy to everyone’s home
Still people in this country that can't always make enough money to pay the light bill every month, and puerto rico in some places still doesn't have power in both electricity and political sway from the federal government.
marylj25 How is it free? Who is gonna pay for the mining of batteries, manufacturing costs of solar setups, labour costs with installation, and distribution costs in transmission?
Nice talk. And he addressed the biggest issues with the questions at the end. Really look forward to seeing where this goes in Africa. In place like the U.S., the government and private market doesn't want to lose the revenue and control an infrastructure grid provides. "We can shut you down if you don't pay us". If we were running on solar panels on our roof and batteries in our houses, that control is gone. Of course, the benefits of localized power generation far outweigh a large grid. Imagine being able to have power throughout natural disasters like hurricanes. Imagine not having to develop communities around power poles and burying wire in the ground. You can have power anywhere, with no regard to distance from power source. I really hope we have a power revolution in the next 10 years that gets power to those without it and cutting those with it off large grids at reasonable costs. Much better than fossil fuels and large wind and solar projects. Those types of facilities will still be needed for areas with less solar access, but drastically be reduced.
The "democracy of energy"..great thought...👍
I can't wait to see this near future 🙌
I want to move to Canada and build a off grid home in the future, I think living off grid makes you value what you have and a plus side is it’s cheaper too :)
get in touch
That'll be harder to do. Less usable sunlight in Canada.
Use wind and water too
Similar latitudes to the UK south of Hudson Bay and lots of solar panel installations, domestic and commercial, in the UK.
For starters, most places in Canada won't allow you to go off grid. 2nd your pipe dream would end fairly quick when you can't heat your home when the sun isn't shining and it drops to 20 below zero.
Such an interesting video I added it to my favorites account and I'm going to go watch it again
Did we just watch the same video? What points did you find interesting? There were no novel ideas or concepts spoken about. It was basically a video made from a 2 page pamphlet's worth of information. It was so basic and discussed nothing new, or nothing that wasn't already obvious to 99% of people.. It was akin to saying... we can stop world hunger... by bringing food to people... OK..? How do you propose that? What are the specifics of the plan or technologies?
eric jones Hey it's Stefanie -- I got really freaked out about than man with his harassment and I couldn't sleep -- nothing -- I'm worried he's local. I just want to thank you so much for being our viewer for so long and giving us a lot of great ideas. I made the video just now to see if that would get rid of him? I'm worried about my job and Milo's -- Milo doesn't deserve to be brought down by my mistakes. I'm sorry to find you on this TED video I didn't know how else to contact you. I don't really know what to do and I haven't decided yet. I just want to let you know that Milo and I talk about "our fan" whenever we make our videos (meaning you!) even though we were able to get a lot more subscribers this year -- your comments and encouragement meant a lot -- more than you probably know. (lol ok, now I"m crying -- ugh.) Thank you so much for being there for us. (ok, it's more like sobbing) -- Anyway I guess we'll try to be back with more videos -- but I don't know what we're going to do yet -- I don't want you to feel like you're being jerked around by anyone's drama or anything. I just got really freaked out is all -- maybe if I look like I gave up he'll leave us alone and leave the crusade against us to do something else in his life? Either way we really appreciate you and are very grateful. Kindness seems to be getting rarer. You're the best.
Eric, I'm also wondering what you saw that was so interesting ? I've been watching the solar tech/industry since the 1970s and I can honestly say I had learned more about solar in 1975 as a child reading popular science, etc. than anything I saw in this particular video. I found it to be way behind the times as well as patronizing. Seemed like a pitch to sell a cheap Walmart toy solar setup at a grossly inflated price to a bunch of people would really don't need to be exploited further ! We use solar to power our home,two rental units and a campsite. All the necessities and all the luxuries and we still push excess power into our local grid every day. We actually use more power now than when we used to have utility bills and it's also nice to know we are helping to make the air a bit clearer. Don't give too much creedence to TED.
I find it's usually a bunch of Hollywood types or journalists who are trying to ride the latest wave or sway public sentiment usually with some profit driven or socialist leaning agenda, or even worse.
Much of what I've seen on Ted is inaccurate, outdated, over-hyped or outright decietful. If you really want accurate and interesting info, check out on CZcams - Potholer54.
Funny name but he does his research and is dedicated to accuracy, integrity and providing good info to his viewers.
I want to contribute in solar tech company. I'm studying nanotechnology now. Hope I can have technological company in my home country soon 🙏
Where is home?
Empowering message.....the Sun is only going to get bigger and hotter..lol.....SOLAR is well and truly the future. Thank you
you made me laugh...
Or we can use Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs), Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFRs), Pebble Bedded Flouride salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (PB-FHRs), or any properly design Molten Salt-cooled Reactor (MSR).
Even old nuclear was pretty good. Accidents only from extreme
Negligence. but it's now a no-brainer.
The only problem I see is the crime. It is nigh impossible to steal grid and sell it, when standalone and standardized systems may run into this problem.
Just imagine knocking from house to house and getting (~) 2 years worth of credit value, when still ending up with something that is relatively easy to carry and in high demand.
2:45 : "When it comes, it often doesn't come with sufficient robustness"
...
I see, so coming robustly is the key...
...
I am a child.
That is what I took out of this Ted Talk, thanks.
I really wish people would learn the difference between democracy and liberty. This is not the democracy of electricity. It is about Liberty.
If they could charge us for sunlight, we would have been solar decades ago. Same reason they went the route of internal combustion engines instead of electric motors in cars. We've effectively stood still in terms of energy technology for over 100 years simply because of the choice of greed of a few over what's best and cheapest for all. I'm glad we are finally getting somewhere, though!
I highly doubt our govt made those choices based on one reason. if you think they have one reason for anything, you're the delusional one.
The lack of any facts or figures is disconcerting. African insolation seems to be in the 4 to 8 kWh per square metre per day range, compared to the UK's 4.5kWh summer figure. The real advantage they have though is that the winter/summer variation is much less than here. So you might expect between 1x and 2x the UK summer output, but for most of the year.
There is also the question of how to store solar energy until it's needed, which is usually when the sun isn't shining. Batteries are an extremely costly way of doing so, and this has to be factored in to the overall energy cost.
Then, there is a huge difference though between powering a small TV and powering other household appliances. The major problems faced by Africans are not having any way to safely store or prepare food. Grid electricity provides power for a fridge and a cooker. When you're on a subsistence level, that's one helluva lot more use than a small TV set or a torch.
Batteries are following a similar price trajectory to solar panels and LED's, faster than expected even. Meaning in 5 years they will be 50% what they cost today.
Africans will have the incredibly useful opportunity to not even build an electrical or hardwired internet grid, the Trillions of dollars other nations spend to build and maintain and electrical grid, and concentrating the power generation into the hands of a few consortiums.
Great to recognise your British-Kenyan accent - lovely! Good job on the energy revolution
Off gird and wireless energy is a way forward and it will be a future. However, people has to be united and there are so many ways to produce energy. Nature is wonderful.
No doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy. ... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago
Have you heard about Archemedes' burning mirror? Your logic makes no sense.
Do you believe that the apocryphal "Archimedean Laser Beam" was a commonly-manufactured WMD of its time?
we have harnessed coal's energy for a long time and yet I can't see a single coal powered missile
Or maybe it has something to do with the fact solar energy is far less efficient, and more costly than fossil fuels.
"What about clean, endless, beautiful coal?" ~standard TED comment
Apparently Trump can clean coal... A true comedic genius of a stupid president
Coal gasification makes coal cleaner.Solar can not provide the gigiwatts of power needed for a industrialized nation.
@@pedrobrando4606 Actually it can. But it ain't cheap. My solar roof makes enough power to power my house and charge my electric car. But I rely on the power company to take my surplus during the day and give me energy at night. So 'how do you make electricity and not burn fossil fuels during the night' is still a challenge. Sure, there are some clever ways like lift things up during the day and then let them come down and make power as they do but these are still expensive and they do not scale very well. Batteries aren't cheap enough yet. But it's going to happen, eventually. Maybe figure out some super-efficient electrolysis to make hydrogen during the day, then burn it at night...?
@@arthdenton At this present time hydrogen must be manufactured from natural gas with high pressure steam if large quantities are desired.Germany has a highspeed train that runs on hydrogen.I would bet the hydrogen for the train came from Russia in the form of natural gas.If that is true a coal fired locomotive wold make better sense.
I am for wind and solar energy,but the average Ametican home will have a 5 ton air conditioning unit with a electric cloths dryer and electric stove.The only solar panels you will see in the southern US are paid for with government subsidies.A private utility company is not in business to go broke.
To have the ability to charge a phone and have led lighting is helpful for those that live where public utilities are not available.
At present time large windmills or solar pannel manufacturing is not possible without fossil fuels or hydroelectric power.
@@LebogangRatsoana The more you use the internet the more coal you burn.
His speech summarized by one startup company in Australia called "Power Ledger"...
Another thing that makes me excited is seeing that this video already has 15 000 views. Excellent.
Let's also for instance music ... Fantasy on Greensleeves is a very beautiful melody ... You can combine pleasant with the help and give yourself more fun and satisfaction ... The current original version is not always very easy to play. On the guitarist page I found a template in the form of a | G a | E (...) C | G a | E | and ... It's easy to play ... Look how many great hits are built in the style of e | D | e | Polish H (B) | and it turned out that it sounds very nice again ... The chorus can be played in a simple way, that is, G | D | e | H (7) (B7) e ... I do not want to take away pleasure, so I will focus only on a few of the potentially available possibilities to play a template of this majestic melody ... The possibility of d | C d A | d and refrain F | C d A | d, it's probably easier to just play the template a | G a | E | and ... Curiosity has urged you to check the template b Gis | b F with chorus Cis Gis | b F b ... Starting melodies from Fis molla immediately requires playing on crossbars ... The melody is just as cool as any other ... Standard fis template | E | fis | Cis fis and then A | E | fis | Cis fis ... I liked it ... So nice melody that it could not get away from C sound ... A logical "axiom" template for prelude and later melody is, for example, c | Bb (Polish B) C G C then Dis Bb (Polish B) C G C ... In order for something to remain for others, the last template will be g | F g D | g then Bb (Polish B) F g D | g ... We combine a very nice melody and simple chords ... Playing what you like is everything, you do not even need special motivation because it is immediately ...
This is a great opportunity. Combining this with 3D printing and cold chains in agriculture and you can have a circular economy driven by clean energy.
Poor thing is he is missing power storage. Beyond maybe a light or radio you need a way to provide a steady power supply.
I wish that small private investors all over the world become able to invest these small business in remote areas.
How do you protect your investment as a family buying this, how do you protect it when you go to get water or food.
There are interesting projects that are at the verge of scaling up community solar like "Africa GreenTec" in Mali or "M-Kopa" in Kenya. I think also western people should start investing (the first one for example does crowd financing).
A thought I have currently. The third world countries where there arent any infrastructure already in place might just rise pretty fast. Think about it. In general they dont have a big grid system. A big portion of their land are greenfields. When the time reaches when centralised power e.g. coal, gas, etc. has become really obsolete, all those systems will only be a liability, and money needs to be spent to strip them down, or maybe they dont, and risk suffering for it. Like how copper cables for internet are still in use, and to switch to new fiber optic internet is cost prohibitive, hence the people who used to be the first people to have internet might just be the ones who are suffering now. The underdeveloped places can accept new technology with impunity.
How funny it would be to think of a world where power is so localised that we only use DC appliances. Interesting thinking of the future
An opportunity, instead of broadcasting movies, soap operas and novelas, there can be a network to broadcast documentaries to these people, to educate, to have schools play these for children, Windmills are another choice. Battery technology needs to be advanced in order to buffer energy to night.
Bravo! Hoping to be a small part of this journey!
I don't know what new information I got from this.
I got some. Look at the guy's audience. How many native Africans did you see there? And why?
We have solar energy/ electricity, from our rooftop solar panels that we paid for unsubsidized, in Bangladesh village home. It has been useful for the last three years. So like the cell phones it is spreading globally.
It’s wonderful to see people gaining access to energy! Electricity is so important to human progression. However, we have to be realistic. As a step toward energy access, distributed solar is wonderful. But.... as a primary energy source for a fully developed economy, solar energy is just simply too diffuse and completely inadequate to scale without covering too much of the landscape. The environment is more than just CO2. We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to trade carbon intensity for environmental consumption. The kind of consumption that isn’t just a higher temperature but actually environmental displacement in favor of solar panels? If we are logical, the answer has to be “no!” So how can we allow these wonderful people in developing nations to achieve the same levels of life changing energy consumption that we enjoy in the developed world without CO2 and global warming? And without the environmental destruction of landscapes destroyed by intensive solar farming? We have to accept the only no carbon energy source that is dense. That is Nuclear Energy. I’m sorry, the grid is still a necessary component of the future. A grid based largely on nuclear energy providing base-load power.
My dream house isn’t a large standard house, my dream house is off grid. Solar panels, use a well for water, fruit trees, berries and land enough to farm my own food. I want an electric car, gas is expensive and unnecessary unless I’m cooking.
Time for electricity to be a human right. WITHOUT Government interference.
Off-grid is like isolation. It is not too bad but not really something you want on purpose.
>.> you said 'you' and i think you meant 'I'. I do want it, on purpose.
If there is not grid available & will take 9 years to get; "off grid" with solar sounds pretty darn good.
@@tintersdepot4136 not to mention hundreds of million of US dollars..
I'm not trying to be a downer, but the economics might not make sense for most Sub-Saharan Africans (perhaps I'm wrong). I grew up in Zambia, where money is really unfairly distributed (it's like America's wealthy 1% situation, but on steroids). So most people don't have money to spend. More than that, Zambia's GDP per capita is roughly $1170 (quick Google search based on the year 2016). So paying $500 for a basic solar power kit, representing just under 50% of their expected annual income is a crazy ask. Certainly, some people can afford these distributed technologies, and your market-potential might be as high, or higher, than you suggest, but it's unlikely -- in my opinion -- to really change entire populations.
I've lived in the US for a few years now and have found that the cost of maintaining a home is excessive: you have to pay for your AC, heating, lighting, rent/mortgage, water, garbage disposal, cable, .... Best believe the cost of solar is far from trivial.
I actually think distributed energy systems are the best way to go: more efficient because of much lower transmission losses, and improved resilience to external factors (it's harder to plunge an entire city into darkness if everyone's running a completely independent power station). I think solar will be part of the solution, but not in the way people assume. The key, it seems to me, is breakthrough battery technologies. Give me a battery that costs $250 to manufacture, about the size of a soccer ball, that can hold more energy than 60 Tesla Model S P100D Extended Batteries, that charges in no more than a few hours, and with more reliability than a solid state battery, and you've solved Earth's problems. I'd fly said batteries to space, charge them from a high-efficiency Gallium-Arsenide Solar Panel Station, and return large batches to Earth for use. Figure out how to get the operational costs (manufacturing, transportation, etc) down to $1500 per battery, all in delivered, and the grid wouldn't be able to compete.
On a side note, I think space is key to solving many of our problems on Earth (in case that wasn't clear from the last paragraph).
The main point is, we need economics that actually make sense coupled to technologies that are insensitive to variations in our environment. The future is coming.
Disclaimer: I'm working on 2 core technologies related to the vision I described, above.
Good luck Earth.
Float Circuit Now THAT would be a TED talk!
@@christinearmington thanks, hopefully I can do a show-and-tell of functional tech within the next decade.
If you're interested: gefloat.com
Best.
May I add "localised mini grid" on top of your "distributed energy system" suggestion.. That will allow other types of power generation as well as energy storage system to be tapped into the mini grid.. Just make sure the mini grid complies with the respective national power utilities standards..
P.s. A solar farm site can also be used as cattle feedlot, fish ponds, poultry coop, mushroom farm, etc underneath the installed solar PV modules.. By creating lasting employment opportunities, perhaps the local populace will have enough money to pay for their locally produced electricity..
@@pakngah1134 I like your thought process. When people talk about solar power, they tend to conveniently neglect the economics. Giving a solar farm multiple roles is certainly an interesting proposition!
Best.
Quick question. Won't you burn more fossil fuels transporting batteries back and forth than you're trying to curb with cleaner energy?
Amazing TED, THX!!
In real estate its location, location, location.
In energy revolution it all storage, storage, storage...
I like the idea of solar energy and the technology has certainly improved but it still has a long way to go for popular use in the US. For individual African home, yea, it is there.
The problem in the U.S. is the power of corporate propaganda and ignorance and fear. Africa is leading the way.
If America needs this they have to get more energy saving appliances with a rating system in place.
The world need solar power revolution and battery revolution
30% tariff on solar panels. People gotta REALLY want solar power now.
Great. But what about rainy season when sun is not shining
Based on my experience operating a 180kW solar system in a tropical country, during the dry season, it can deliver up to almost 6 hours of effective sunlight while during the monsoon season, it drops to slightly less than 4 hours of effective sunlight.. That's 700-1000kWh per day..
Warms countries have big advantage of energy
the echo is annoying, I hear it even on my cell phone
I'm thinking if you have the BioLite light and battery you should have the BioLite Basecamp rocket stove that also generates electricity.
This is one of the greatest and most important TED talk I've ever seen.
Never thought I'd find Indian Jeremy Irons
Good info - but takes him until the 11th min to make his point => the Democracy of energy
reality. Neighbourhood with ca 20 solar roof. you can do it with co. neighbours - eff factor over 50% by now
I already knew everything presented here... 5yrs ago, in 2013.
Super concept, except, a huge huge percentage of people in rural areas can't afford food at cents on the dollar. Then there's politics. That on it's own creates huge issues.
Best way to conquer and defeat Africa demographically, give them electricity and TV.
Hmmm. . . You have a town where all the houses are producing their own power. Then a natural disaster hits such as a tornado, flood, etc. today, in the industrialized world the Power Companies work hard and get power back to homes still attached to the grid and repair the lines to those which have lost connectivity. If each house is independently producing their power, each building owner is responsible for fixing their own damage and paying for it right then. Think of having as few as 15,000 building owners trying to buy replacement parts all at once!
I've read that solar panels withstand hurricanes and hail pretty well. Some people with solar are the only ones with energy after a disaster. (We've had grid tied solar since 2003. Waiting for batteries to come down in price if electricity goes out from wild fires, etc.)
Great 👍 video!
Why is no one talking about Geothermal? The cleanest, cheapest and most sustainable form of energy known to man? Hmm, I wonder....
My thoughts are: Maybe because thermal is accessible only in limited regions & it's costly to transport the extracted energy to far-off places. Isn't that the cause?
Umm, yeah- maybe because every single geothermal system I've ever seen runs on electricity !!! You kinda need electricity to run all those little pumps and big compressors to take a little heat from a large volume of water, or alot of heat from a smaller but much hotter volume of water. Do you live on a volcano ? I don't so I can't get hot water and I'm on a mountain so I can't drill a well anyway. But I can and have put 30 solar panels on my roof with lithium batteries to store my sunshine. Works great, less filling, lol.
All the power we could ever need and more.
Air is a bit more breathable and I never have to give the utility company another dime !
No big oil, no smoke, no power outages, no headaches and all it cost me was $36,000.00. I am powering three full homes full time day and night and still push 10-20 KWH excess electricity back into our local grid.
My initial investment will have been returned in just under five years. The next 25 years I will have saved somewhere between $200,000.00 to $300,000.00 and that's with conservative estimates on utility rate increases for the next three decades. Solar is relatively easy, clean, and I found it fun to install and operate. Geothermal is not cheap, not so easy to do, not quite as efficient and somewhat more costly to maintain. It's a great idea in the right location but those locations are limited. However a geothermal system powered by solar is a good match when practical.
meanwhile in america we have tariffs, so we have that going for us, which is nice.
when World governments won't let you do that any of that stuff you're talking about having free electricity or any other thing else for that matter just ask Nikola Tesla where he's at just think about it GP Morgan told him his people won't have nothing free referring to us at the time before we were even born this is what he told Nikola Tesla
The part that interests me is the fact that Susan and her kids are no longer breathing the fumes of the kerosene lamps. This has to give better long term lung benefits.
Funny thing. The guy is in Africa but the audience, from what I could see, was made up of European-Africans, some Asian-Africans and maybe 1 or 2 African-Africans. So... why weren't African-Africans there? Because they didn't care? Because this talk was not for 'them' and the guy was speaking to some do-gooders working hard at feeling good about themselves?
Arth Denton , Morocco is actually implementing this in rural areas - it’s happening now!
It’s happening in Morocco now!
I hope energy Democracy will come sooner. 👌👌👌❤️❤️❤️👌👌👌
Not the best speaker, but wow what a speech.
Working on this business model...
1. USD500 is too expensive for those with slightly above USD1000 GDP per capita.. Maybe not for the Top 20% crust of the countries' society who wants alternative source of reliable electricity..
2. Someone here highlighted on theft issue.. How to guarantee someone won't steal those PV modules?
3. Solar PV technology is already commercially feasible.. With the right business model catering to the right target market, the solar business can become bankable..
Like the host said "it could happen here". That's what we call a crowd teasing free energy talk. Unknown company working somewhere on eastern Africa. Not very convincing!
unknown 'we' trying to sow dissent. that's what we call "terrorists"
Can you elaborate further how you conclude your apprehension of "terrorists"? As I find it a bit misleading. Please do.
How can i purchase the $100.00 kit 3 lights + Radio + torch for a one parent family in a village in Thailand please Paul.
How many do you want. $80 now with TV $200.
A hydrogen driven economy could be quite sustainable. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in this universe. The by-product of a hydrogen fuel cell is basically pure water, and the world needs more pure water too, so, win-win.
Poor people will poison their environment with discarded PV panels. They have no culture of toxic waste disposal.
I have A technology that makes batteries last for decades longer than expected. It also makes them have about ten percent better capacity.
This technology could be used when making solar panels and it might help them become more efficient as well.
My 20 year old battery is the proof that this technology works. Also have an eleven year old car battery as well.
Regardless I need the equipment and resources to even attempt making solar cells more efficient.
Having a solar powered house, I am amazed at the pile of enflated words deployed in this presentation. Power democracy? To choose to keep the energy os sell it? Whaaat? The reality is mutch more trivial. Sunshine, electricity. No sunshine no electricity. You have no choice what so ever. You can sell the extra power you don't use only if and at the price the company wants.
Show a poor black woman out of context and suddently no one speaks about costs, technical limitation but for 'energy democracy' bullshit.
Screw you and your ignorance
We still need coal or nuclear to blend with green energy at this point in time
There is no point of having a solar system & the battery prices are sky high,
… and what's the collection plan for these (very complex and expensive to recycle) lithium-ion batteries in 8 years time when they no longer harvest energy and are spread across these rural areas, numbering in the thousands?
There's always a wet blanket in the group
Good point.
Excellent - but dah!! Painful to watch this guy in more ways than one.
Off-the-grid renewable energy is nothing new - it was envisaged and modeled by caring environmentalists, economists and scientists in the 70s.
Earth Day is coming up for its half century anniversary!
The questions are: where have you been? What has been holding you back? Have you been holding the pioneers back yourself? If you’re going to acknowledge the source of the sun, why not acknowledge the source of the renewable van guard and share the credits?
This was a good forward thinking video and I truly hope the business in it is run by people who want to progress more than they want to capitalize.
_raises glass_
Cheers to eventually becoming a Type-2 Civilization!:D
Zombielijah Yelloh we need to become a type one civilization first
Cause I’m pretty sure we aren’t able to harness all of our planets energy
Enphase IQ8 with ensemble microgrid technology!!
We need better battery's li-ion are OK but we need a much longer life.
you know these electric companies that we have here in the United States are very greedy right here usa. where I live in Florida power companies are very greedy they don't want us to have solar power and they don't want us to disconnect Off the Grid so they create laws so you can't do that so local municipalities constrict change laws in the counties that we live in. they want to put meters on people's private Wells on water right here in Florida in the United States so before anybody thinks that someone is going to get something free you better ask their local government first cuz they're going to want something from it and if they already have a system in place they're not going to let go of the money they're getting
work goes much faster with Avasva plans.
Why wouldn't people steal solar panels
They will - if this is the only thing that you are doing for the local industry.
Theft and the lack of corporative value is a big problem in underdeveloped places - you need to work on everything simultaneously, otherwise, it won't last.
This is the main reason why investors avoid them - you need politics, contract mentality, infrastructure, financial flows and much more for a stable investment.
They are useless if you don't know how to install them or have the infrastructure to convert the energy into electricity (for use or storage).
The same thing that is making solar panels cheaper all the time is making security systems cheaper, and better, all the time.
Excellent point. It's important to work on the whole picture.
(for MetallicReg)
Solar power is the future
1500$ per household to connect to the gird?
O.o?
Gravity batteries?
He expected that they clap 9:09
This is one of the few Indians i can actually understand when they speak english. No offense but because of the accent i can hardly understand something.
You are useless
There is plenty of room on the "Energy Generation Landscape" for all kinds of producers. No single type will fit every need, so don't put all of your eggs into one basket.
M.I.T. just had a big Graphene breakthrough this past week. Solar Will be Huge sooner rather than later. Bank on it
This is AWESOME! We talk about this stuff on our channel.
Estamos basados en México, y en Invictus estamos buscando cambiar a la mayoría de los hogares e industrias a energía 100% renovable!
Si te interesa este tema, pasa por nuestro canal!
Charmin Ultra Less is More!
how old is this?
To bad solar is illegal to install on our homes here.
das hasguns the problem with solar panels is that they are currently not efficient enough, also they cause problems with reflections and disposal.
We'll get there. It'll just take some time.
Where is that?