Welcome to the Era of Energy Disruption | Gerard Reid | TEDxBerlinSalon

Great presentation, this is whats going happend nowadays, if USA and EU build walls, China will till down than. The read giant is walking to the future fast.

Thanks Gerard! I totally agree with you on the energy disruption. At the same time AI and Robotics disruption are happening at relentless speed. Share your concerns. Europe utmost challenged by Electrification (China) AND AI/Robotics (US) at the same time.

China EV Cost parity to I.C.E vehicles mentioned here is disingenuous when skewed by not taking into account China Government buying down the true cost of Chinese E.V. units being produced. China's E.V. low price is not the true cost to build the E.V.

Love this keynote! Gives me hope 🙏❤️

Yall should spend less energy though..

Great talk, do you think batteries can make up for the intermitting problem of renewable of solar and wind given the huge growth of electricity needs? What about the carbon footprint of batteries and solar panels and windmills?

Not much to disagree with there.

Great presentation.
China is taking the opportunity. The US and Germany have to follow or will fail.

His three are all spot on but there's a fourth. Energy conservation here in the US the waste is astounding I'm an electrician and it's painful to see all the waste.

#3 is @LumenCache. The best part is builders like it, so they're choosing to install it. No longer an aftermarket add-on. Smart Energy for Everyone.

I used a generous 'spacebar' activity on the presentations, also copied on the facebook wall, to do "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested” is a quote by Francis Bacon" kind of job!

Who paid you for this propaganda presentation??

Energy is NOT the only industry that China leads the world in so many areas and technologies..
There's too many to name here..

Although green energy (solar & wind) availability is increasing (percentage of total energy use) fossil fuel use continues to grow - green energy is NOT displacing fossil fuel use. Additionally, although recycling is often mentioned there IS NOT enough raw material or recycling material available to convert our energy use to electricity. Finally, the manufacturing of semiconductor related solar panels is dependent on fossil fuels. Mining is dependent on fossil fuel. Transportation depends on fossil fuels. Plastics,
fertilizer, building materials…all fossil fuels -

A technical illiterate not able to grasp the difference between kW and kWh and heard of electricity grid stability.
Typical finance guy.

Hi

Growing influence of China is a threat to democratic world

how its true that most of scooters are electric in Asia? ive been there,its all engine

What about the elephant in the room? I have just spent 2 months deep diving a domestic solar installation. Long story short, I can easily generate more energy than I know what to do with, and store enough to keep me going for a day or two in summer. BUT, in autumn/winter I will have many days when I generate virtually nothing. I am in the UK, its November, and in the past few weeks we have had high pressure sat over the whole country, and much of Europe. UK wind power production dropped from c40%v to c7% due to lack of wind, Solar has produced virtually nothing as we have had heavy cloud for weeks. Storage is absolutely key to the success of renewables but will we ever have enough storage to keep the country, including charging EV's etc, running for weeks when the weather isn't cooperating? As far as I can see the answer is no, at least given current technology. So, how do we get around this issue. As far as I can see, it means we have to continue to have traditional Nuclear, Oil, Gas etc on standby to plug the gap when renewable power is not available. And if this is the answer, at least for the foreseeable future, the cost of maintaining these systems needs to be factored in and will have to be passed on to consumers.

Europe needs to skip ahead to flying cars perhaps using fuel cells? Although batteries are already almost ready for that too. Maybe start colonising other planets? the Car industry is now as saturated as the smartphone industry

Wind... you left out wind. In Texas right now real time Wind is producing 21% (9.49 Gigawatts) of the Total Ercot Grid power. And we're having a slow wind day. On a good wind day Ercot Wind can generate 39.5 Gigawatts per hour. And this is with a Government that is completely against all forms of renewable energy and is PRO using the dirtiest fossil fuels and would rip Catalytic Converters from trucks and cars given a chance, which they have in Congress and Trump right NOW.

... And lose a little bit of arogance. ;-)

super interesting!

This guy is wrong. Not a little bit wrong, a lot wrong. He's pointing to Germany as a positive example for solar. Without going into too much detail, energy in Germany is expensive, regardless of solar build out which has historically received subsidies. German industry is no longer competitive and is going into a crisis mode. One of the primary reasons for that are their energy costs.

Meanwhile China continues to add dozens of gigawatts of coal generation every single year, because it is the cheapest form of base load energy (a task that solar can. not. perform.).

If this gentleman reads comments at all, I'd discuss the actual numbers with him and show him some critical flaws in his narrative. There are also significant flaws in, not just the way he views the world today, but in the way he projects it in the future.

He did not mention sodium-ion batteries. I thought he would speak on it after Lithium-ion.

If not nuclear then what?

In conclusion, the video presents an ideologically-driven optimism for renewables, supported by selective scientific evidence and incomplete economic analysis. It champions renewables as inevitable victors, while avoiding a balanced discussion about the inherent complexities of transitioning global energy systems. Such an approach risks glossing over the practical realities that need careful planning, diversified strategies, and ongoing innovation across a wide range of technologies.

The arguement on the copper is wrong. Look at investment in mines and known reserves. Secondly great recycle so who will give up their current EV to be recycled for another EVbasically the amount of copper that needs to be repurposed to the EV rev is greater than in society

Brilliant.

I get heartburn when people claim electricity costs just so and so many cents per kWh and cite just the cost for their PV and battery. God damn no, be honest please, that's not the whole cost, you nitwit! You still need to pay for the whole system you're connected to, and which you draw power from as backup in the dark season. Germany is not California, we're at 54° north, you will never be able to power this country just with PV in winter. We have almost 100 GW of nominal PV capacity and in winter it has a capacity utilization of maybe 5-6%. You need the backup systems only part of the year but have to pay for them all year round. Please figure that into your optimistic TED talk next time.

Europe is going to Freeze and Boil in the same year when The AMOC shuts down within the next 20 to 40 years. And the rest of The Earth's inhabitants for that matter. I'm 60 now, so I may or may not be around by then to find out, but most of you will be.

Lithium batteries dont do it for the grid, between fire risk, short lifespan and short duration, take Smud example In california where Iron flow batteries are being used . They Can be cycled daily, for 12 hours, no fire risk , last for 25 years, and if you want more larger charges just add more iron salt electrolyte and most importantly, it's cheaper than lithium, 100% made in the 🇺🇸

The grid capacity is very real limitation for green electricity.
$TRILLIONS infrastructure investment as is, more is impossible.
Rooftop PV and EV oversized battery is perfect.

Wind, hydrogen, geothermal, valorization, and recycling are also worth considering.

Right, right... well?
Not quite right.

Old unsubstantiated nonsense, heard all this 10years ago.
Wishful thinking.
😂😂😂😂

loose little bit of arrongance

4000 total employees vs 18000 R&D team..

Upgrade the grid: As grid operators across the United States plan new transmission lines to keep up with surging investment in renewable energy, electric vehicles and heat pumps, many are neglecting an easier solution: stringing a new set of wires on their existing lines. In fact, such ‘reconductoring’ could provide the bulk of the extra transmission capacity the United States will need through 2035, according to grid modeling research published this weekin the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

What many in the comments section are missing is most people on this planet live in areas that are suitable for a transition to renewable energy with relatively small battery or other forms of backup. For example I live in norther New Mexico. I have been completely off grid with an almost fully electric house for the past two years. I haven't even had to use a generator though I have one. I still use a small amount of propane but that would end with bigger batteries. I only have 60 kWh of batteries which really isn't enough. Most of the world's population such as people in Africa can transition without difficulty. But that is not true for Europe and parts of the US. You can either build nuclear or power lines. But I suspect that industry will follow cheap energy and move south into the sun belt.

When comparing solar energy to nuclear energy you need to remember that thanks to the red tape and bureaucracy nuclear technology is more then a half century old and reluctant to change. China 🇨🇳 is the exception here! China void of red tape and bureaucracy in regards to nuclear advancement, they have a functioning prototype of a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor that would give your solar energy a run for its money💴💶💰 especially during extreme weather. Unlike uranium China has all the thorium it needs for thousands of years. In the western countries building such a reactor has seen nothing but road blocks over the decades, the bureaucrats has basically allowed China to take the whole Thorium Molten Salt Reactor market for themselves. So guess where the superior nuclear reactor will be coming from🇨🇳

Absolutely spot on - this is well worth a watch!

This talk is wrong and dangerously naive. Finance people should do more research before commenting on complex engineering topics.

1. Solar + batteries cannot power a system through extended daunkleflaute events. Solar is unreliable even with large amounts of battery backup.
2. Distributed solar is subsidized by the utility and the ratepayers by providing backup power when solar + batteries are unavailable. This is a hidden cost that solar owners are not currently paying.
3. Solar does have the lowest LCOE, but it is far from the lowest system cost. Solar becomes quite expensive when you add transmission, distribution, and backup.
4. Solar panels have a 25yr life expectancy and are an environmental hazard due to the heavy metals with which they are made. Recycling them is expensive and difficult. We will have landfills full of these chemical hazards.

Germany has invested 2x the cost of the French Nuclear fleet on their renewable buildout (Energiewende) and they have nothing to show for it. Their CO2 emissions are routinely 5 to 10x those of France.

stop saying "right" / "okay" / "alright"

who allowed this fella onto a TED stage.. have they given up their standards?!

Wait did he just say that solar took 10 years to achieve the buildout of the current solar capacity and nuclear needed 50? That's incorrect. Nuclear buildout stopped in the early 90s, while solar buildout (in large numbers) began in the 90s. It's kinda sad to hear someone speak about clean energy and then totally disregard nuclear. I get it 's expensive (in the west), but it's still a great technology. The problem is in his own words "no one has build one in the west on time or on budget in the last 15 years", great then let's go and build a load of them so we can learn how to build them again like we did in the 70s and 80s.

Go to China. That's not sage advice.

China is building 300 more coal plants. They will not decrease their emissions anytime soon.
China is not the country we want to rely on for our energy future.
This guy is smoking dope

Peak carbon in China this year?.. Gerard want to take that bet. I will take the opposite side. Just not based in facts. China is the world's top producer and consumer of coal. In 2023, China approved at least 106 gigawatts of coal power capacity and started construction on 70 gigawatts. This is equivalent to two new coal power plants per week. Energy demand is going up faster than renewables. Ted talks should be fact based. I think the slides that are being shown lack sources and context.