❓ What Are Issues With Renewable Energy?

[@Grim821]

this channel is underrated and underviewed

[@wasd3108]

y

[@Jabrils]

Grim, sincerely thank you for the praise. I look forward to making you all proud as we all continue feed our curiosities. - Jabril

[@bicyclist2]

I agree.

[@MrFindX]

Grim821 +

[@steevf]

Why don't you have more subscribers? This is one of the better science channels on KZbin!

[@seanld444]

(And software channels)

[@Jabrils]

To everyone demanding Nuclear, I first want to say that this episode was meant to serve focusing on Renewable Energy, however, I have begun producing an episode focusing solely on the pros & cons of Nuclear! 👍 But no ETA on the episode, sorry. 😀 - Jabril

[@DoclightmegamanX]

Mike Feur no Mike feur. no. bad mike. bad.

[@tom_ad9343]

Nuclear pairs well with hydro, allowing for a high grid penetration that is very low in emissions. France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ontario Canada all have achieved low emission grids, that support high energy, large scale industrial economies through the use of nuclear and hydro. Renewable rich grids that exclude nuclear will require large amounts of fossil fuel backup to deal with some issues mentioned.

[@snugglyhugs8698]

When you do the nuclear thing, make sure you don't just focus on current nuclear power (which isn't that great) but include other nuclear sources such as Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors, and what General Fusion is trying to make which looks credible and possible in the near future.

[@callidusj]

SEFD Science The LFTR reactor design is promising for future nuclear plants.

[@DAndyLord]

I'd love if you could add combustion power plants (coal, biomass, gasfire) compared to rocket engines, vs. nuclear power and nuclear (NERVA) rocket engines. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA

[@conjecturemm]

Dude you mix up the format so much I feel like I'm watching a bill nye show or something. This is awesome!

[@conjecturemm]

lol at "that dam mystery"

[@JustAChannel_13]

The Bill Nye of this generation

[@somebodyelse9219]

I'm glad you had enough energy to cover everything you did in this video.

[@Avavenger]

Not only did I learn more about renewable energy sources, but I learned about Cities Skylines, which I am now loving!! Thanks!!

[@ValseInstrumentalist]

KZbin needs more Bill Nye-like creators like this guy.

[@TheMagnay]

yes, youtube needs more creators like this guy but not more like bill nye, bill pushing his own beliefs onto others in his videos and refused to listen if someone tells him he's wrong. that is not what science is about, science is about learning new things and exploring the world and you can't do that if you're closed to arguments.

[@ValseInstrumentalist]

Aww, I think Bill is great. Perhaps a little pushy sometimes, but fair in my experience. Except for that "if I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong" meme :)

[@kaido2262]

This channel gonna blow up

[@Jabrils]

thanks for the faith kaido, I hope that you continue to support SEFD Science ;D - Jabril

[@c0gfx]

this is the only channel I watch on KZbin that I actually learn stuff

[@GrasponReality]

Good video... A few things... The biggest issue with the grid is that each state regulates power individually and while there are regional grids to an extent in the US every new power sharing agreement needs to be approved by each state's public utility commission. There is significant political pressure on most of those state PUC's to maintain the status quo by incumbent power producers and fossil fuel producers. Look at decisions made in the last year or two by both the Nevada and Arizona PUC's regarding solar power. There are many ways to balance the indeterminacy of renewables. Grid integration is just one of them. Storage is another option which is far more than just batteries, Pumped water, large scale compressed air and other sorts of mechanical storage are either in use or under development. There is a cool app for your phone called the California ISO which actually shows supply and demand for the state's electricity as well as how much we're getting from renewables... I have it for iOS but I'm pretty sure there is an Android version too.. As for algae fuels, I think they are destined to be a niche player at best. At $50 a barrel oil prices they can't compete. The difficulty is internal combustion engines are just inherently inefficient... They could play a role in jet fuel production but that's only a few % of global emissions so could end up just staying on fossil fuels until a carbon free alternative comes along. The future of transportation is electric.. Electric vehicles are inherently 4X as efficient at converting energy into motion. I strongly recommend you check out the work of Amory Lovins and the Rocky mountain Institute. They have published a peer reviewed study called Reinventing Fire which shows how the US can get almost entirely off fossil fuels by 2050 at lower cost than the status quo and supporting a much larger economy. If you search him on You Tube you can see his presentations, well worth your time.. There are tons of other issues as well... Kyle alluded to it discussing efficiency... Some things are relatively easy to fix... LED bulbs are 10X as efficient at incandescents and easy to swap out... Far worse are a huge inventory of poorly built buildings that suck energy to keep them heated and air conditioned. As for your unpowered dams... Just a few thoughts...There probably isn't a single smoking gun answer. I suspect at the time they were built they were considered too small to warrant the expense of hydroelectric power. Others aren't really designed for water flow. There is one just south of me that forms Crystal Springs Reservoir part of the San Francisco water storage system. It's just there to allow the lake behind it to be the size that it is and the water doesn't actually flow through the dam. Then even those that could produce power are likely owned and maintained by hundreds if not thousands of different entities, each one would have to go to the expense of retrofitting the dam with hydroelectric and then maintaining them. Nearly always retrofitting is far more expensive than new construction and it would likely be far more cost effective to use the money to build more renewables. Though there are emerging technologies for inline hydroelectric that can be used just in the flow of water of a river or other tidal area...

[@Jabrils]

Incredible comment, I am honored that you have shared your insight with this community, I will look into some of your suggestions when I get time! :D - Jabril

[@GrasponReality]

SEFD Science no worries... you make awesome videos and should be way more subscribed than you are.. I teach some in this field so I'm pretty passionate about it though keeping up with it all is really really difficult, it's a constantly changing topic.. which in and of itself is a really good thing... It's good to see someone making solid videos on the topic. It's clear you work to try and be as accurate as you can. Anything by Lovins is worth watching... He has an earlier Ted Talk called winning the oil endgame which will give you some insight into IC engines, it's a little out of date now but still pretty interesting.. I'm pretty envious of your video skills as mine are pretty well nonexistent.. but feel free to shoot me a message if you think I can help...

[@Jabrils]

thanks a bunch Grasp, I am seriously honored to have the support from so many great people like yourself, & yes for sure, do you mind dropping me a quick line via email? I'd love to add you to my archives! scienceATsefdstuffDOTcom - Jabril

[@GrasponReality]

SEFD Science I shot you an email from my yahoo account...

[@spikes1529]

I really like your show! I'd like to help answer some of your questions about energy, dams and other items. I am an electrical engineer at a steel mill in Nashville TN. TN has a lot of hydro and nuclear power. As the engineer for a steel mill i get to talk with, and about utilities all the time. Our facility draws 55 MWs almost 24/7. Kyle stated about regulations and power sharing. I see this as the hardest items to over come. First regulations are what make our power the one of most reliable in the world. Generation stations have to have a reserve spinning at all time to cover a loss at any plant. Also you simply can not put more power on the grid than it is using, they must be in balance. With out perfect balance you create instabilities in the grid. The grid also can have harmonics and other issues, think of a car with shitty springs, you go over a bump and it wont stop bouncing. This is what a poor electrical system can do if you don't have strict regulations. Second is sharing over networks. This is a really hard problem to solve, creating loops like you are doing is asking for some strange effects in electromagnetism. For example when you ground a piece of equipment it should only be grounded at one spot. if you introduce 2 grounds, and a loop, it is called a "ground loop" and you can have currents introduced into the system, causing voltage spikes. If/when we have a solar flare, or any other magnetic event, loops that are 100s or 1000s of square miles in area would completely destroy the power grid. Also how we calculate power on flow would become really difficult, some lines could melt, while others carry little to no energy. Sizing the power lines would be a nightmare. Energy dose not just flow uniformly along every path. It can do really weird things. AC current likes to keep loops small and would travel much further than the shortest path to do so. DC current likes the path of least resistance. But resistance in cables can change with temperature, other cables around them. Also on that is that power transmitted over long distances gets lost in the wires. Just the pure resistance in the wires can eat up to 20-30% of what is produced. Some of my insight into un-powered dams, my guess is that many of them are too small/far away to make any difference or worth it to install generation. Many of these are small dams are far from needed loads, thus transmitting this power over that distance would mean almost nothing would make it to the grid before it was lost to resistance. Also many of the small dams i would guess are seasonable and thus generate large amounts of water for 1-2 months and then nothing for the remainder of the year. Again these are just my educated guesses as an engineer. Anyway again i love your videos and i'd love to have a 100% green energy source, but also one that is affordable. Cheap power is what is driving our economy, and i would only want the switch if it wouldn't put half the usa out of a job. PS green energy takes up space and we use a lot of energy so it would need to be 2 things in the future, green energy with new energy storage and people need to cut energy use (not as likely). Its takes so much energy to melt steel, that does not change. If you like having steel for buildings it takes energy to make it. The cheaper the energy the cheaper the steel. the cheaper the steel the more you can build. Here is a video showing green energy and its space requirements. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2G6Yo2Qjq6JbtE

[@johnmcauliffe8824]

the reason why more wind turbines don't exist is because they are expensive, take a long time to get your money back, and are only feasible in the desert area of the U.S. because of the lack of obstructions. However, it is possible that a lot if the wind turbines in that area might be shut down because they are killing and endangering certain bird species. With the dams, it is for a similar reason, that it takes hundreds millions of dollars to do per dam. Not to mention the time it would take just to finish the construction.

[@johnmcauliffe8824]

also, I suggest you read this article on Costa Rican energy thecostaricanews.com/energy/did-costa-rica-really-use-99-renewable-energy-in-2015/

[@davidwilkie9551]

Your reference to playing the game is understated, the optimization of usage, and an "inhouse" storage system like the laptop battery is what everyone is personally responsible for. Then comes interaction with your house and environment, followed by the supply service you choose. All the rest starts to get very arms length political, but this video does a very good job on the technical discussion of it. I've seen detailed analysis of the various energy sources including dams, but not being a local, didn't pay much attention because places like Berkeley can swamp you with the kind of interesting details like that, that careers are built on.

[@alinanester2341]

this is one of the best videos I’ve seen. Ever. I’m writing a test tomorrow and needed exactly this information. Thank you :-)

[@MsLegaC]

Excellent video. One thing to point out about wind turbines, without getting too technical, there is Betz limit, which mathematically proves that the max efficiency a wind turbine can be~under perfect conditions~is 59%. Solar power has the most room for improvement and doesn’t have the limit of 59%. Either way, great job! Keep the knowledge flowing!

[@Q5000]

Keep making these. People need to have these things explained. Although the ones who need it most probably won't seek it unfortunately. I like how you came at it from the perspective of a video game. I think this appeals to a lot of kids and even adults that may not otherwise take interest in this important issue.

[@1ts7ust7osh]

we need to get this man to 1m subs

[@Simon-cw5co]

One of your best videos imo. Also the underrated-ness(?) of this channel pisses me off, i cant wait till you blow up so i can say i've been here from the early days

[@tom_ad9343]

A quick search of the US Energy Information Agency found this regarding hydro. Currently 3% of the US's 80,000 dams generate electricity. Installed capacity is around 80 GW (down from 102 GW in 2012) and in 2015 hydro generated 251 million megawatt hours or about 6% of US electricity. Potential Hydro power resource development is divided into 3 classes: 1. Undeveloped sites without dams (new stream reach) 2. Existing dams without hydoelectric facilities or non-power dams (NPD) 3. Existing hyroelectric facilities with the potential for additional capacity In addition to the 12 GW of potential on non-power dams mentioned in the video from the DOE study in 2012, Oakridge National Laboratory also did a study and found an estimated 61 GW of hydro power potential on undeveloped sites without dams. Additionally, the EIA estimates another 1 GW of potential up rates on existing hydro. In the Ohio River region alone, NPD have the potential to add 3,000 MW of additional capacity. Since the 2012 DOE study, four major projects in this region have begun and are expect to add 313 MW of NPD capacity in 2016. Also, between 2006-15, NPD additions totaled 126 MW.

[@Wapnep]

You deserve a ton more subs. Amazing, quality content!

[@dunzerkug]

City simulators are a pretty good way to show problems with renewable energy. I remember playing SimCity and avoiding wind since the energy density was terrible compared to nuclear plants. One issue in the US is places like the Midwest, wind varies a lot from weeks of no wind over 5 mph to storms that would tear a wind turbine apart. Similar issues with solar, we can have months of sunny days but in spring and fall we have weeks of overcast days. As far as adding power to a dam it would essentially require rebuilding the dam, a lot of dams were made more for flood control to allow building in place that would previously flood once a year. Since electricity is an on demand, predictive industry it is difficult for renewables like wind and solar to reliably supply power. The issue with infrastructure is how it was built. It was done originally in isolated systems that were eventually tied together and when that happened some places were assholes about it like Texas where their interconnects use DC and the rest of the country uses AC interconnects. A remnant of this is seen if you look up NERC Regional Reliability Organizations and interconnects, notice how most of Texas is it's own RRO. In some ways having this system helps isolate problems like the 2003 blackout since you can disconnect from a region experiencing a major blackout and limit the spread assuming your region has enough generation but it also causes losses since interconnects might require transformers between grids such as Southern Ohio which uses 25kV class distribution and Indiana which uses 15kV class distribution. This leaves us with power grids are still highly regionalized since standardizing and modernizing them would cost trillions of dollars on the low end. Also, as a side note this is a similar problem with internet bandwidth in the US.

[@AndresGomez-ct7qb]

I loved this video. It is very helpful to me because I've been considering carrying out a business plan to setup to install an electric company that runs on renewable energy, given that my country runs exclusively on energy from hydroelectric dams. Thank you very much.

[@kal9001]

The UK built the "national grid" back in the 1920's and 30's. This allows the country to share power. This coupled with a distributed system means load balancing is quite easy, and adding new plants or renewable sources is also quite easy. The US needs to have some serious investment to build a national grid too. I understand the UK and US are on totally different scales! but it is not an insurmountable task, start on a state level, and then connect the states, easy... just expensive, but that's the price for the flexible, modular system that is super easy to add to or reconfigure.

[@JakiRose]

I've always been curious about the idea of energy delocalization. Rather than building massive solar arrays, what if every building and every home had a small solar panel instead? This would also be beneficial in terms of energy independence in the event of a natural disaster. As is stands, if a power line is knocked out lots of people lose power. But, if each building had the capability to produce power, that would never be a problem (or at least not as significant of a problem). And we wouldn't be taking up additional space to build power plants. The space that is already used for homes and buildings would be maximized.

[@mikeroerig2499]

I liked your video. It paused it for a moment to find a graph of US energy consumption per person. FYI, power consumption per person peaked in 1978 and has declined about 10% since then. If solar and wind sources continue to improve efficiency while US consumption per person slowly drops, the percentage of our power derived from renewable should continually rise. That should eventually hit 100% from renewable once there is an efficient way to store the energy through the dark, windless nights.

[@Jabrils]

man what a dream right, what a dream what a dream - Jabril

[@conjecturemm]

Hey look at that new branding! The question mark. Will watch this video tomorrow when not doing homework ;___;

[@randomquestion7592]

This was a great video to watch, thanks : - D

[@danconser6709]

Congrats on helping to provide some basics to the common man. Good work

[@ArticBlueFox96]

Where can I find politicians or organizations putting forth policy initiatives to overhaul and develop the necessary energy infrastructure to effectively share excess energy and make a smarter grid?

[@Jabrils]

When you've found them, please let me know. Haha - Jabril

[@ArticBlueFox96]

I unfortunately haven't found any politicians who have specifically mention any policy initiatives or any organizations fighting for policy initiatives yet, however I did find a series of webcasts from NPR that was very informative. However it may be outdated, it was released in 2009. I included the link: www.npr.org/series/103281114/power-hungry-reinventing-the-u-s-electric-grid

[@francoisemilia3672]

The United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change ? Organizing the Cops every year, and with the Kyoto protocol and Paris Agreement they make countries agree on global and national initiatives to reduce emissions. They created funds for a sustainable development from developed countries to developing countries admitting the common but differentiated responsibilities. Financial Mechanisms as Clean Development Mechanism, Cap and trade Markets and Joint Ventures. And for the Cop 21 all parties had to come with their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), so it encouraged each country to show efforts in their policies. Canada, China and India for example talk about developing smarter grids in their Intended Nationally Determined Contribution. I think that the Paris Agreement was such a succeed because of the number of parties which finally arrived to an agreement. But now with Trump Withdrawal...

[@ElchiKing]

Hm, powering dams could be a hazard to the environment around it (like e.g. fish). According to the ministry for environment, we Germans use about 30% renewables at the moment. Unfortunately, we have two issues at the moment: 1) Coal businesses blocking the network/influencing politics and 2) infrastructure, which will need a link from north to south (SüdLink), which will in all cases go through protected areas... And there is the issue of "people" (for example people who do not want Wind turbines near their villages, partly based on wrong math)

[@Jabrils]

These all sound like very reasonable preventions for said progress, thanks for sharing this Elchi my man, its clear the solution requires so many variables to consider. - Jabril

[@tomkelly8827]

Wrong math! That is too funny! Wind turbines will create a blinking light effect for those who live in the shadows. That would suck.

[@colox97]

this video was very cool but in 16 mins you could have added the inefficiency of the grid, something more about sun energy (and speculation about nuclear?). still good job, these topics are always interesting

[@MstrB0ss]

colox97 Well that's one thing our government could be spending money on instead of maintaining bases around the world! Absolutely!

[@Jabrils]

I agree, but as stated, there are so many components to energy & so many moving parts that I had to choose info carefully for what best served to the question of the video, but there will be opportunities in the future to discuss these. - Jabril

[@Jabrils]

+Mike Feur, I agree with you here Mike. - Jabril

[@youngblackthoughtsbaty1932]

SEFD 💯keep up the good work.

[@Jabrils]

Thanks a bunch for the support Baty :D - Jabril

[@Youcanscienceit]

Great and thoughtful work as always. I did have some ideas about why some existing damns are not upgraded. Aside from the simple cost of modifying the dams many of the dams are used for agricultural irrigation and farms (11%-21% according to FEMA). The problem there is that when the farmers need the water might also be when we are using a lot of electrical energy, like all summer long. Plus the Farming industry has a lot of lobbyists making changing the legal designation of the dams to become multi-purpose another hurtle. Similarly dams that are for flood safety (another 17% according to FEMA) cannot be converted because for them to successfully stop or reduce flooding the dam needs to be empty most of the time which is the opposite of what's needed for a hydroelectric dam. Similarly dams designed for navigation of water ways (although there aren't many of these ) keep water levels in some rivers at a set standard height to allow for large boats to traverse the river. I'm not 100% on these and probably there's no technological reason that these dams can't be converted. However, given the other interests in the water use I suspect there a lot of legal issues that actually stop this development. Also I'm not sure what source you used that suggested converting preexisting dams so it may have accounted for this but dams used for holding mine waste water are no good for conversion because the water is contaminated.

[@Youcanscienceit]

Also that time lapse at the end was Dam Epic.

[@sis651]

Exactly, there are many small dams that just store little amount of water used for agricultural purposes. However, producing power needs more water storage... That 50k dams should be such dams.

[@jamielee8624]

Geothermal is such a interesting concept.

[@Jabrils]

yeah it is really fascinating. - Jabril

[@azib958]

Really good presentation of a complex idea.

[@Jabrils]

Thanks John, I am glad that you enjoyed the presentation :D - Jabril

[@francoisemilia3672]

It's brilliant ! Your way to share your curiosity with us is so good ! I would love if you could develop more about all the problematics on the renewable energies storage (lot of new technologies developed around it), smarter grids, and what are the problems in combining in the same grid energy coming from conventional power plants and renewable energies (current, synchronization, ...) You are a genius !

[@1A_Strong]

That was fantastic. Nice work!

[@TrangNguyen-cs6wv]

About hydro-electricity, we really need to be careful with it. I come from Vietnam and here we build so many dams, especially in the midland. Basically, you have to stop a fierce river and save water in an artifical lake. That change the nature (cause climate change). Further more, you have to control water in the lake. Here there are so many flood caused by not being able to do so. People die, animals die, plans die. Actually, we have raised cries to stop building dams without careful thoughts beforehand. ps. I'm sorry for my broken English.

[@axgeminix68]

I think it's also important to point out unneccessary regulations on homeowners. Almost all cities and towns have zoning that requires you to be hooked up to the power grid. Even if you build a self sufficient home with your own energy source like solar or wind as well as your own clean and safe water/sewer system, The local government shuts you down over zoning. Energy companies lobby for these laws.

[@seaplaneguy1]

Electricity is $5/gallon at 15 cents/kw-hr (33.7 kw-hr/gallon equivalent....15x33.7=5). Batteries are around 12 cents/kw-hr to put the electricity in and out...$4/gal. Total to run car on grid is $9/gal. Put the brake on and it cost $4/gal to store that energy. It saves having to get more from grid but still costs you in battery usage. In contrast my engine can run on all fuels, including Natural Gas and battery. NG is $1/gal from house. Engine compresses NG so you can fill up at home. About the same efficiency as a Tesla, 60%. When I put the brake on the cost is zero to store the energy and the work is used later so 100% capture. Tesla 100 mpg highway, 200 city. My car 250 mpg highway 500 mpg city. Both maintain efficiency high and low speed. Otto cycle cars do not...hence low city fuel economy. So, mine to Tesla 2.5 to 1 ratio. Fuel ratio (see above) 1:9. 2.5 x 9 = 22.5 times MORE to drive Tesla. 1/22.5 is 95.5% of costs. Otto gas car. 25 mpg vs mine at 250 mpg is 10:1. Gasoline is 2.2/gal without fuel tax. 10 x 2.2= 22 times MORE to drive gasoline car. Tesla to gasoline car is 98% of cost. (2.2/9 x 100 mpg /25 mpg = .98) So driving a Tesla is a wash for fuel. People think it is 1/2 the cost because they don't pay for the battery each time they fill up. But that cost still exists.

[@DarkKnightofHeaven]

The only major flaw with river power and building damns is that is slows the flow of water in rivers, which creates basins and delta's where there should not be basins and deltas. This can lead to habitat loss due to flooding of wetlands and forests around where the damn was created. Dams effectively stagnate the flow of water in the river, partly because it needs to be filtered before it can be allowed near the turbine to get out any harmful sediments and chemicals. Not all damns have these problems but very large damns do have these problems. Take a look at the picture of the damn you used in your video. There's massive pools of water on one side, but its nearly barren on the other. Now why in particular damns aren't being powered as a whole, typically has to do with them being created for other purposes, such as irrigating the surrounding land and flood control. They were built before the demand for clean energy took off so turbines were never put in them. After that the US government has been extremely stingy with giving people permits to put turbines into the dams and fund their installation. As to why they're being so stingy with those permits I do not know. The article below by forbes is the best article I could find and repeats most of the information I just said with a little more. .www.forbes.com/sites/davidferris/2012/04/25/unpowered-dams-americas-hidden-clean-power-supply/#6807329e411f

[@DoclightmegamanX]

the problem with shuttling energy is You actually lose energy over power lines, also the more energy sources pumping energy onto lines at different spots at different intensities the dirtier the power gets. dirty power is bad for electronics and other sensitive power needs.

[@Carnutzjoe]

Great video. Going 100% renewables is inevitable, just what form will it take. Adding storage capacity to the grid will help a lot. That's where Tesla and their batteries come in.

[@Jabrils]

+Carnutzjoe unfortunately the Tesla battery announcement came after I published this video so I wasn't able to talk about it. Looks like I need to do a sequel. Haha - Jabril

[@ziruini5071]

I have to take issue with the explanation that Costa Rica and Denmark’s smaller size is what enables them to scale up their renewables. As your friend mentioned, the energy markets around the US are isolated, with little sharing of electricity between states/regions. Therefore the size of the entire US doesn’t really make sense as a limiting factor given this fragmentation- it’s more as if there are many separate Denmarks and Costa Ricas within the US. You mentioned Denmark is the size of New York- New York is actually powered 70% by renewables at the time I’m writing this comment. This is because NY took it upon themselves to engage in planning, and aligned their grid to support renewable development through more stringent regulations. Unfortunately, other states that haven’t had the political will to take these steps lag behind with their respective energy markets. Unfortunately, as with many other social ills, our lack of renewables really comes down to politics more than anything. It is not a technical issue, because as New York, Denmark, and Costa Rica demonstrate, renewables can make up a significant portion of the generation capacity. The question is, will the rest of the US follow suit?

[@JOPETERS86]

This is an Awesome educational video. I would put battery networks as a more economic approach. My path to a renewable future is not a national infrastructure. A less expensive option is the decentralization of energy where a network of PV solar of a house, plus a large battery in the garage/basement, and maybe have electric cars that double as back-up generators. This will lead to more energy independence from a community point of view.

[@Jabrils]

Thank you Jeff. & I agree, that would be an incredible approach, although I know that battery powered is something that still needs a lot more research before we can confidently bank on it, but as far as a vision, I completely agree. Although another issue that I am curious about is battery funding & costs for all types of people, but that's a conversation for another day haha. - Jabril

[@harsh.thakkar]

Even with theLayman alert taken into consideration ,the turbines don't turn gases or fliuds into energy. Its the movement of fluids that is turned into energy.

[@LeRouxBel]

The fact there are so many unpowered dams is probably because of the importance of private investment in the US. Given that the investment to link a dam to the power grid is huge and selling the extra energy requires licenses might be a big no-no for owners. A proper (international) grid infrastructures is one of the few things I hope I get to see in my lifetime.

[@TheNightTyrant]

you deserve more subs

[@Jabrils]

Alien, I can't thank you enough for the faith my friend, I look forward to making you proud in the near future - Jabril

[@kevinvanegas4204]

Keep it up. Love the quality content!

[@esaedvik]

~100% renewables works for Norway...Mostly hydro though. Denmark even has excess wind power. Scaling that up is hard, it seems.

[@guitarstrunged]

You don't need to go as far as Denmark or Costa Rica. The Province of Quebec in Canada as of 2013 produces 96.8% of it's electrical needs from Hydro power. We also have one of the lowest consumer prices for electricity in North America. As you said however it's complicated. We have had to move the local Indigenous peoples far from their original homes and disrupted hunting and fishing grounds. Where, for the many, it has been a largely a benefit. For the few it has often been tragic.

[@Carnutzjoe]

Another thing is grid storage. Tesla is betting on energy grid battery storage to even out the uneven supply and demand problems. They just finished a small "power pack" for LA.

[@Jabrils]

YES! I will have to do a part 2 or remake or something to include the giga factory & what not 😍 - Jabril

[@johnbenton4488]

Could the answer to up-front infrastructure cost/complexity mean that the entire thing (including electricity generation) be done best at Federal level?

[@cjdabes]

Ayy, perfect use of the Potholer54 clip :P

[@innbydelse]

fantastic as always

[@GradedGem]

Great Vid.

[@Jabrils]

Thanks Graded :D - Jabril

[@eclipsenow5431]

Wind advocates often quote Denmark getting 47% of their energy from wind. But sadly, that statistic is a lie. There's simply no such thing as a 'Denmark grid'. A separate Danish grid simply does not exist! National boundaries are *irrelevant* when discussing an electrical super-grid that serves 400 million customers! Instead, Denmark’s wind is a tiny fraction of the much larger Nordic and European super-grids! Denmark only consumes half that wind energy, because quite often the wind energy surges at inconvenient times and they have to sell it to other countries. When the wind is not blowing, Denmark imports hydro from Norway, nuclear from Sweden, and brown coal electricity from Germany! The numbers are crunched by the World Nuclear Association. eclipsenow.wordpress.com/wind-power-too-unreliable/ Climate change is too important to allow wishful thinking to dictate our energy policy. Dr James Hansen says renewables faces profound challenges from intermittency, so much so that believing in renewables is like believing in the Tooth Fairy. goo.gl/QWPIy5 He recommends that the world build 115 reactors per year. goo.gl/c6FAlB Is that impossible? Not at all! In fact, on a GDP to reactor ratio, the French already beat that build out rate. They converted 75% of their grid to nuclear in just 15 years, building 56 reactors over 15 years! goo.gl/qrlmp7 France now has some of the cleanest electricity in Europe, and is the world's largest exporter of electricity. goo.gl/s10w0g Nuclear is not only the cheapest and safest way to replace fossil fuels, it is the fastest. Dr Hansen recommends this free book about breeder reactors that can eat nuclear waste. goo.gl/2YS1On Then electric vehicles and synthetic diesel from seawater can replace oil. goo.gl/DMj93r We can do this, we just need the political willpower.

[@moneyking11]

great video... i think you will be doing great in the future if you continue making videos like this... you get a thumbs up from Denmark .. :)

[@Jabrils]

thank you for the support Alexandros! As long as you keep watching, videos like this will continue to come! :D - Jabril

[@andrzejr82]

In reply to your video (and in reference to your live show) - I'm quite excited about hydrogen fusion. In February, Germany announced that they managed to create hydrogen plasma, which apparently is the first step towards hydrogen fusion - a completely clean source of energy.

[@Jabrils]

that is absolutely remarkable, again, energy is such a deep topic & hard to incapsule it all not only in one video but in just conversation period. Thanks for sharing this Andrzej, I will look into this when I get some spare time! - Jabril

[@jleo1]

is acdc's origin commonly known? (as in the band)

[@RussellFineArt]

I work in the commercial wind business and have for nearly 10 years, developing and selling thousands of wind turbines. The solution is NOT to connect utilities across the country, the solution is more distributed power, namely: solar PV on every roof top available with battery back-up and much larger wind turbines out in high wind areas. These are the only economical and quick-to-develop solutions. Hydro and geo-thermal are great in small amounts but their future capacity is very small compared to the possibilities of wind and solar. BTW, I power my house with a small wind turbine and solar PV and have an electric car so I'm already living the future talked about here.

[@Jabrils]

+Russell Fine Art Studio thanks for your expertise Russel! While I agree that this is a fantastic solution, I am just not sure how viable it us for everyone seeing as not everyone can / want to pay off solar panels, & not everyone is a home owner, some live in apartments, & even some apartments would have limited roof space that can't accommodate all tenets. I guess in that scenario wed need to construct solar panel glass or bricks or something, but then that would create a whole new can of challenges. I'd love to hear back from you! - Jabril

[@xMack_]

Great video!

[@pjacobsen1000]

Interesting. Thanks for the shout-out to Denmark.

[@DoctorDARKSIDE]

I am going to throw a guess out there on why some dams are not used to generate power - could this be because the reservoir created by some dams is used to feed water to cities? In other words, dams would require a constant surplus of water to be really useful as hydroelectric power stations.

[@blah7983]

Some of the water ones are depowered because they harm the ecosystems they are in. Certain hydropower plants don't affect the ecosystem but many depowered ones do.

[@vineetbhagwat4256]

Did you ever figure out why we don't use our existing dams more? And build more dams?

[@victorescobar7437]

Hey Jabrils did you ever find out about the whole dam thing?

[@tomkelly8827]

If a small country can do it, a small state can do it. If a small state can do it, a big one can. If a big country can do it, anyone can. Although many of those countries are not known for large industry either.

[@jamesrosemary2932]

While it is true that Costa Rica generates 100% of its electricity from renewable sources, it is not true that this makes the country completely "green". Costa Rica still has its entire vehicle fleet consuming gasoline and therefore generating CO2.

[@JuancoPRoFlow]

great video man, very smart man!

[@sugar4me225]

Great vid and very insightful............Yes, I've just sub:)

[@Jabrils]

Hey thanks! I hope that you enjoy what's to come! - Jabril

[@Snowboardgal77]

you're on to something great!! keep up the great work, you're gonna make a difference one day

[@Jabrils]

thanks so much Emily, I hope to have your support throughout this journey ✌ - Jabril

[@sabriath]

First of all....to your answer about the unpowered dams, the reason is because of flood control dampening, reserving for native american lands, and lastly, if we turn them all on, eventually all the water will be gone (look at California dam for example). Next....you never really went over the loss of power from distance, which is another energy problem in itself....plus, with it being AC, the way the on-demand system works requires it to be over the actual need of the line. Those combined makes it almost 30% or more of the energy wasted by the time it reaches a person's home. Personally, I think we should make laws that would stop any and all contracts that would forbid people from having renewable energy on their property, and allow everyone to tap into the energy credit system. Many neighborhoods in my area are not allowed to put solar panels or wind turbines on their property as an HOA thing....which makes it stupidly difficult to even try to go renewable, so we need laws to void these contracts. Then just keep giving rebates/refunds on renewables for homeowners and eventually it sorts itself out.

[@rabbitpiet7182]

I like how he tilted his head in the different directions for contrast and emphasis.

[@rabbitpiet7182]

“Why we should but not why we shouldn’t”

[@JustAThrowAwayName]

What do you think of pumped-storage hydroelectricity for energy storage from renewable sources?

[@ElchiKing]

This works quite well, but you'll need great height differences in your dam which can not so easily be achieved. One could also try electrolyting water, which would become Oxygen and Hydrogen, so the hydrogen could be stored and burned to water if needed. However, I guess, this is not efficient enough for high doses...

[@JustAThrowAwayName]

Elchi King Hmm, so maybe a smart grid coupled with strategically located resivoirs?

[@ElchiKing]

JustAThrowAwayName Yes. And this is something some Europeans want to do. But most capacity for such reservoirs would be in the north (Norway, Sweden, Finland), not so much in the middle, since e.g. Germany is quite densely populated.

[@spodevids]

why aren't all dams generation stations. easy they're water resiviors for drinking and agriculture, and their rate of replenishment isn't fast enough to be useful for generation.

[@Jabrils]

but 12 GW = 4.8M homes, a whole state or 2, is that not useful generation? - Jabril

[@spodevids]

How big is that reservoir behind the dam? It's not going to be very useful if it's only going to be able to meet demand for a couple of weeks then drop bellow usable levels, and leaves no drinking and agricultural water. This is a rate of flow problem. If demand is greater than replenishment it's not going to be a reliable generation source. And how many lake powels and lake meads can we create? How much land area is acceptable to gobble up for the sake of damming up a flowing body of water for a generation station? Same problem with PV and solar thermal Doesn't 500MW take up about 9 square miles of land, and disrupt natural habitat? How much area does a 1GW nuclear station take? You should have mentioned that these are the trade offs for renewable. To reduce our carbon foot print, we increase other ecological disruption and damage. Building PV cells is far from ecologically friendly.

[@TheArgusPlexus]

Many of these dams are in rural areas and are in utter disrepair. In many cases, changing the flow of an already dammed river can damage the local ecosystem.

[@remonyehia4881]

it was very helpful thanks u

[@Jabrils]

Glad it could help Remon - Jabril

[@capablerain3285]

How would renewable energy power our cars? If a country depended 100% on renewable energy, would al the cars that use petrol be scraped?

[@wyattroncin941]

my guess as to the unpowered dam conversion is the cost and risk of converting is far to great for current governments to attempt it.

[@joseph199627]

What about nuclear?

[@spodevids]

don't talk about the boogieman. exaggerated fear mongering from environmental groups blocking nuclear development. I'm actually a little annoyed that they didn't mention that large renewable generation stations like pv and solar thermal use up large land areas. solar thermal and wind kill thousands of birds and bats per year per gw of generation. harvesting uranium is basically the same process as hydro fracking. If we stop fracking for fossil fuels and replace fossil fuel generation, when it comes to harm reduction, nuclear is the clear choice. but muh Fukashima... surprised a 1950s design failed after being inundated by a tsunami after a 9.0 quake. this is what happens when environmental groups block all attempts at allowing modernization of the nuclear infrastructure.

[@IJoeAceJRI]

I think nuclear is an awesome option! We can all adapt to france's nuclear power station setups! Nevermind that coal miner worker, unfortunately thats the closed minds of the world that want the government to pay for terrorist oil and use past tragedies as excuses not to use nuclear. Btw all those tragedies were in the past. There are much safer regulations that prevent fallouts and meltdows from happening.

[@bicyclist2]

Check out Thorium. It's kind of like Nuclear only much better. Theres even a great documentary about it.

[@rowaneisner6802]

funny how france is turning to renewables to replace their nuclear - it's just so expensive when you count everything,

[@raaaaaaaaaam496]

rowan eisner its not though

[@ravi44200]

Good video btw, thumbs up

[@MrFindX]

Great video

[@AdobadoFantastico]

This channel is awesome. I am subscribing and eagerly awaiting your video on nuclear energy. In my opinion, it's all we need to hold us over until we solve fusion. The US finally approved a project for one that's supposedly going to be capable to maintaining the plasma long enough to produce power. It'll be a while yet before it'll be built and longer still before the tech is developed enough for fusion plants that are actually productive, but we're on the way. Nuclear power can keep us going for quite a while even with just the current Gen III designs(of which the US has zero). Those + Gen IV replacements can hold us over even if we have to wait for two centuries, and gen V would be crazy sophisticated(if we still haven't solved fusion).

[@omarshehab585]

Smooth af.

[@Jabrils]

+Omar Shehab smooth aflac - Jabril

[@jebus6kryst]

You should look into nuclear.

[@Jabrils]

A future episode, I promise :D - Jabril

[@Tati11233]

Interesting stuff...

[@Jabrils]

Thanks Ocean, I hope that you enjoyed it! - Jabril

[@tomjoe9477]

My extremely conservative $800 investment on a 1.6KW windmill is barely making $1/month. Its putting out 1% of nameplate rating in an area with 8mph/ave annual wind. It took being stupid for common-sense to set in; If you don't have enough wind to blow over your house - the wind fairy isn't gonna show up and power a dozer that can push over your house. That's just the way it is in the real world.

[@dabigisland1]

informative episode Mr melow

[@extropian314]

Well, only ~200 KW per unpowered dam is a very small amount of power -- maybe doesn't seem worth the cost of building into a powered dam? Oh well with that. As the exponential drop in $/W for solar continues, in a few years (2020's), everyone will start wanting to use solar for both power stations and panels on individual homes.

[@anthonywaggoner6635]

ya this is amazing, thanks for good current info

[@colenichter8762]

This is a great video that deserves a billion views...it's insane that renewable energy isn't a priority....I believe it's held back via conspiracy because if we released our actual knownledge on this stuff it would be such a do dramtic shift in our economy and where dollars come from. ....

[@PetersJazz1]

Not realy true that Denmarks electricity demand is a lot less than USs. Per capita Denmark uses more electricity than USA.

[@rajivpokharel88]

Honestly, after seeing for first 30 to 40 seconds, I was like,"wtf is wrong with him?"...but then i continued watching for some more time and was like,"wtf? this video is great.."

[@Jabrils]

hahaha thanks Rajiv! Glad that you enjoyed it, eventually haha. - Jabril

[@rajivpokharel88]

the presentation of this video is awesome....even an uninterested person feels interesting while watching this....I hope u do a video about latest technology regarding Solar....thanks :)

[@blah7983]

Instead of going from fossil fuels to nuclear to renewable. Nuclear is very efficient, produces a tin can of waste each year, and is actually pretty safe if people bothered to research it.

[@ThisIsKii]

:D a solar energy ad on this video ;D

[@lshssprings]

Look up Tom Scott's video on renewable energy. He does a very good job on explaining why we cant go 100% renewable.

[@TheMagnay]

I totally agree, I will put a link below. however, there are a lot more problems with wind then what is said in either video. the first problem is if they spin too fast the turbine will tear its self apart. that's easy to fix put breaks on but still can be a slight problem. also, you must have an electric motor in the turbines cause if those turbines stop the wind alone can never get it moving again. to understand why that happens let's go to newtons second law of motion, f=ma that means force is the mass times acceleration. the more acceleration you got the more force you got, the more force already turning the turbines the less force needed from the wind. sorry, i am not a teacher I am not good at it but feel free to look it up.

[@LittleMissSquirrel]

very good video! maybe it's to do with the required infrastructure - lack of investors? and bureaucracy - possible losers might be stopping the process?

[@blah7983]

Hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear need more research. They could be very efficient.

[@itzdaman]

Helium 3 or hydrogen 3 (a.k.a. tritium)? How is helium going to help?

[@Jabrils]

Helium3 is what the moon has quantities of, & that is a great question. At the moment Helium3 wont help at all because we have no reactors to power it, nor does anyone even have it on their mind to create one. However, if we had reactors to power Helium3, they say it'd be the cleanest, most efficient energy source man has known to date. www.extremetech.com/extreme/197784-china-is-going-to-mine-the-moon-for-helium-3-fusion-fuel - Jabril

[@itzdaman]

Yeah, they talk about " fusion-ready helium-3", which can produce more energy then pure hydrogen fusion (and with less neutron radiation), but will probably be even harder to maintain than regular fusion (which already is hard enough) because the atoms are considerably larger. Thanks for the info.