Powering the World for all Purposes With Wind, Water, and Sunlight

This talk discusses a plan to power 100% of the world's energy for all purposes with wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) within the next 20-40 years. The talk starts by reviewing and ranking major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the proposed solutions, such as on water supply, land use, resource availability, reliability, wildlife, and catastrophic risk. It then evaluates a scenario for powering the world on the energy options determined to be the best while also considering materials, transmission infrastructure, costs, and politics. The study concludes that powering the world with wind, water, and solar technologies, which are found to be the best when all factors are considered, is technically feasible but politically challenging. Relevant papers can be found at h.ttp://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/susenergy2030.html

Speaker: Mark Jacobson

NVIDIA Auditorium