WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:10.401 --> 00:00:13.100 What if I told you all the things we care about 4 00:00:13.143 --> 00:00:16.016 can be tied back to one simple question, 5 00:00:16.668 --> 00:00:18.279 can you turn your lights on in the morning? 6 00:00:28.071 --> 00:00:31.509 Electricity is all around us, but we rarely notice it. 7 00:00:38.342 --> 00:00:40.779 It's something I think about every day. 8 00:00:41.432 --> 00:00:44.087 I'm a numbers guy, when I look at the world 9 00:00:44.131 --> 00:00:45.784 I see stats and spread sheets. 10 00:00:56.665 --> 00:00:58.841 My house is filled with electric stuff. 11 00:00:58.884 --> 00:01:01.061 I have my personal fire cooking device, 12 00:01:01.626 --> 00:01:05.065 a spiffy teapot, a dishwasher, toaster, an oven 13 00:01:05.108 --> 00:01:07.937 and the ultimate gadget, the entirety of the world's 14 00:01:07.980 --> 00:01:10.244 information, and it fits in the palm of my hand. 15 00:01:10.287 --> 00:01:14.117 Nearly everything we touch, almost everything we read, 16 00:01:14.161 --> 00:01:18.339 eat or wear, has in one way or another been electrified. 17 00:01:18.382 --> 00:01:21.037 When I look at my refrigerator, I see a device 18 00:01:21.081 --> 00:01:23.126 that uses more electricity per year 19 00:01:23.170 --> 00:01:25.520 than roughly three billion people. 20 00:01:28.131 --> 00:01:30.568 Having electricity doesn't guarantee wealth, 21 00:01:31.134 --> 00:01:34.050 but not having it almost always means poverty. 22 00:01:39.099 --> 00:01:41.144 I'm Robert Bryce, and the way I see it, 23 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:44.191 electricity explains the world. 24 00:01:55.854 --> 00:01:57.639 P.G and E presents REDDY, 25 00:01:57.682 --> 00:01:59.293 your tireless household service. 26 00:01:59.336 --> 00:02:00.990 ♪ I wash and dry your clothes 27 00:02:01.033 --> 00:02:02.426 ♪ Play your radios 28 00:02:02.470 --> 00:02:04.820 ♪ I can heat your coffee pot 29 00:02:05.342 --> 00:02:06.604 ♪ I am always there 30 00:02:06.648 --> 00:02:08.128 ♪ With lots of power to spare 31 00:02:08.171 --> 00:02:10.913 ♪ 'Cause I'm Reddy Kilowatt 32 00:02:11.348 --> 00:02:14.134 Remember, just plug in, I'm Reddy. 33 00:02:15.744 --> 00:02:17.398 You know, it's funny how we take things 34 00:02:17.441 --> 00:02:18.834 like electricity for granted. 35 00:02:20.488 --> 00:02:22.185 Electricity is different from every other 36 00:02:22.229 --> 00:02:25.014 form of energy, because, for the first time in history, 37 00:02:25.057 --> 00:02:27.799 we're controlling forces we can't see or feel. 38 00:02:27.843 --> 00:02:30.193 Thanks to the electric grid, we're harnessing the motion 39 00:02:30.237 --> 00:02:32.761 of zillions upon zillions of electrons, 40 00:02:32.804 --> 00:02:34.806 and we can unleash those electrons whenever 41 00:02:34.850 --> 00:02:37.069 and wherever we want. 42 00:02:37.113 --> 00:02:38.897 Hey, wait a minute, Jim, I need some facts. 43 00:02:39.376 --> 00:02:43.946 The national academies of engineering ranked the electric grid 44 00:02:43.989 --> 00:02:46.949 as the most important engineering innovation 45 00:02:46.992 --> 00:02:48.733 of the 20th century. 46 00:02:48.777 --> 00:02:50.779 Not just for a wealthy privileged class, 47 00:02:50.822 --> 00:02:52.302 but for everyone. 48 00:02:52.346 --> 00:02:53.651 Promotional literature 49 00:02:53.695 --> 00:02:55.131 from the '30s and the '40s, 50 00:02:55.175 --> 00:02:57.873 it's all aimed at the woman of the household. 51 00:02:57.916 --> 00:03:00.092 "Make your life easier with an electric washer, 52 00:03:00.136 --> 00:03:01.964 with an electric stove." 53 00:03:02.399 --> 00:03:03.748 Electricity has allowed people 54 00:03:03.792 --> 00:03:05.881 and, in particular, women and girls, 55 00:03:05.924 --> 00:03:08.449 to escape the drudgery of past eras. 56 00:03:08.492 --> 00:03:11.843 It has liberated them from the pump, the stove and the washtub. 57 00:03:12.279 --> 00:03:14.150 Electricity has changed how we communicate, 58 00:03:14.194 --> 00:03:17.022 how we travel and where we live. 59 00:03:17.066 --> 00:03:18.676 Our nation was stirring with new ideas, 60 00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:20.156 new wants, new needs. 61 00:03:21.984 --> 00:03:23.246 Modern life and electricity 62 00:03:23.290 --> 00:03:25.379 are synonymous with one another. 63 00:03:25.422 --> 00:03:28.730 Your refrigerator, your lights, your microwave, 64 00:03:29.296 --> 00:03:31.254 those are all part of the grid. 65 00:03:31.298 --> 00:03:32.908 To realize how much our lives 66 00:03:32.951 --> 00:03:34.823 have changed in just two generations. 67 00:03:35.302 --> 00:03:37.260 It's amazing innovation. 68 00:03:37.304 --> 00:03:40.959 To me it's like a co-creation with nature. 69 00:03:42.222 --> 00:03:43.875 Naturally, we got the sunlight, 70 00:03:44.485 --> 00:03:47.096 but rest of the time it is dark, 71 00:03:47.139 --> 00:03:51.840 but you have co-created, so you have light 24 hours. 72 00:03:56.323 --> 00:03:57.541 Life has been on this planet for about 73 00:03:57.585 --> 00:03:58.629 four and a half billion years, 74 00:03:58.673 --> 00:04:00.065 Homo sapiensfor 75 00:04:00.109 --> 00:04:01.893 maybe half a million years, 76 00:04:01.937 --> 00:04:04.635 civilization only began 40,000 years ago, 77 00:04:04.679 --> 00:04:07.334 humanity advanced through fire and the wheel 78 00:04:07.377 --> 00:04:10.946 and levers and building ships, very, very slowly advancing. 79 00:04:10.989 --> 00:04:16.386 Give me a lever long enough and I can move the world. 80 00:04:16.430 --> 00:04:19.171 And there've really been two major revolutions 81 00:04:19.215 --> 00:04:21.826 that have increased the rate of this change. 82 00:04:21.870 --> 00:04:24.307 First was the industrial revolution with mechanics, 83 00:04:24.351 --> 00:04:27.397 only 150 years ago, human civilization 84 00:04:27.441 --> 00:04:29.007 went under radical transformation. 85 00:04:29.051 --> 00:04:31.445 As grand as that was, that pales in comparison 86 00:04:31.488 --> 00:04:33.316 to the rate of change we've seen 87 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:35.492 since the emergence of electricity. 88 00:04:36.014 --> 00:04:38.234 Archaeological records show that our hominid 89 00:04:38.278 --> 00:04:42.064 ancestors began using fire about one million years ago. 90 00:04:42.107 --> 00:04:45.981 Fire use became common some 400,000 years ago. 91 00:04:46.851 --> 00:04:48.679 By contrast, we have only been putting 92 00:04:48.723 --> 00:04:51.160 electricity to work since the 1880s. 93 00:04:51.595 --> 00:04:54.903 Therefore, if we could compress the 400,000 years 94 00:04:54.946 --> 00:04:59.081 that humans have been using fire into one 24 hour period, 95 00:04:59.124 --> 00:05:00.778 the electric age would span 96 00:05:00.822 --> 00:05:03.303 only the last 30 seconds before midnight. 97 00:05:05.087 --> 00:05:07.916 Now the rate of change is so fast, 98 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:10.875 it is very difficult, for even those of us 99 00:05:10.919 --> 00:05:12.399 working within it are trying to track it 100 00:05:12.442 --> 00:05:14.836 and trying to plan it, we are constantly surprised 101 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:18.405 by how much faster change happens 102 00:05:18.448 --> 00:05:20.407 than we can predict ourselves. 103 00:05:21.103 --> 00:05:22.583 If we're going to talk about electricity, 104 00:05:22.626 --> 00:05:24.628 we should probably start at the beginning. 105 00:05:25.412 --> 00:05:28.502 To do that, we went to the birth place of the electric age. 106 00:05:33.463 --> 00:05:35.378 We're here in lower Manhattan. 107 00:05:35.422 --> 00:05:37.511 It was in this region where Thomas Edison began 108 00:05:37.554 --> 00:05:39.687 the electric age with the first electric grid, 109 00:05:39.730 --> 00:05:41.689 and within a mile of where I'm standing 110 00:05:41.732 --> 00:05:43.125 right here in the battery, 111 00:05:43.168 --> 00:05:46.128 was also the cradle of the skyscraper. 112 00:05:46.171 --> 00:05:48.435 For centuries, humans have built tall structures 113 00:05:48.478 --> 00:05:50.001 like the statue of liberty. 114 00:05:50.437 --> 00:05:52.961 But the electric age fundamentally changed the city. 115 00:05:53.004 --> 00:05:55.050 Just plug in, I'm ready. 116 00:05:55.093 --> 00:05:56.834 As the technology came into being, 117 00:05:56.878 --> 00:06:00.011 it behaved like every other technology. 118 00:06:00.055 --> 00:06:02.013 We had some successful entrepreneurs, 119 00:06:02.449 --> 00:06:06.496 they saw a market, and they started out small. 120 00:06:06.975 --> 00:06:09.630 Edison, he wanted a demonstration plant, 121 00:06:09.673 --> 00:06:11.719 where he's going to supply electric light 122 00:06:11.762 --> 00:06:13.329 to anyone who wants it. And he wanted 123 00:06:13.373 --> 00:06:15.157 to be near Wall Street, because he felt he needed 124 00:06:15.200 --> 00:06:17.333 the bankers on his side. 125 00:06:17.812 --> 00:06:19.640 The first commercial power plant in the United States, 126 00:06:19.683 --> 00:06:22.338 the Pearl Street Station in New York City reached out 127 00:06:22.382 --> 00:06:24.558 and served a small number of customers. 128 00:06:24.601 --> 00:06:26.473 Pearl Street does not make a profit. 129 00:06:26.516 --> 00:06:30.738 And Edison saw that if he were going to be successful, 130 00:06:31.216 --> 00:06:33.305 you need some way to distribute this over a large area, 131 00:06:33.349 --> 00:06:36.483 it's the only way to make it economical for the common user. 132 00:06:36.526 --> 00:06:39.181 Most of us have heard names like Edison, 133 00:06:39.224 --> 00:06:42.663 Tesla and Westinghouse, they were key pioneers, 134 00:06:42.706 --> 00:06:46.057 but Frank Sprague changed the way we use juice. 135 00:06:46.101 --> 00:06:49.234 Before Sprague, electricity was used almost exclusively 136 00:06:49.278 --> 00:06:51.933 for lighting, his innovations forced electric companies 137 00:06:51.976 --> 00:06:53.891 to focus on providing power. 138 00:06:53.935 --> 00:06:57.765 Well, Frank Sprague was a graduate of the Naval Academy, 139 00:06:57.808 --> 00:07:00.115 and the Navy had the first electrical school, 140 00:07:00.158 --> 00:07:02.639 and when Sprague comes into the Edison company, 141 00:07:02.683 --> 00:07:05.468 he immediately starts seeing places for improvement. 142 00:07:05.512 --> 00:07:10.604 Edison doesn't see motors as something that's important. 143 00:07:10.647 --> 00:07:13.041 Sprague comes up with a motor, he needed something efficient, 144 00:07:13.084 --> 00:07:14.608 he needed something compact, 145 00:07:14.651 --> 00:07:16.740 he needed something that was economically viable 146 00:07:16.784 --> 00:07:20.091 and he delivered on all three, he gets Edison's approval. 147 00:07:20.527 --> 00:07:23.225 The Pearl Street plant becomes profitable for the first time, 148 00:07:23.268 --> 00:07:26.097 and that changes the future of electric power, 149 00:07:26.141 --> 00:07:27.708 because the early companies are all called 150 00:07:27.751 --> 00:07:29.971 lighting companies, you go ten years to the future, 151 00:07:30.537 --> 00:07:32.364 they're all power and light companies. 152 00:07:32.408 --> 00:07:34.932 The power customer becomes the most important customer, 153 00:07:34.976 --> 00:07:36.020 not the light customer. 154 00:07:39.763 --> 00:07:42.984 In 1894, Frank Sprague completed the first bank 155 00:07:43.027 --> 00:07:46.030 of electric elevators inside the Postal Telegraph building 156 00:07:46.074 --> 00:07:47.597 at 253 Broadway. 157 00:07:48.642 --> 00:07:51.209 Powered by Sprague's compact electric motors, 158 00:07:51.732 --> 00:07:54.561 those elevators were faster, cheaper and cleaner 159 00:07:54.604 --> 00:07:55.866 than ever before. 160 00:07:56.911 --> 00:07:59.304 Frank Sprague, because of the project 161 00:07:59.348 --> 00:08:02.351 that they posed in Telegraph building at 250 Broadway, 162 00:08:02.394 --> 00:08:07.791 really casts the mold for all future skyscrapers, 163 00:08:07.835 --> 00:08:11.229 large urban buildings or, as you go in any large building 164 00:08:11.273 --> 00:08:13.449 anywhere in the world today, you've got banked elevators, 165 00:08:13.493 --> 00:08:15.277 but this is sort of a new idea. 166 00:08:15.320 --> 00:08:17.932 Basically, height is electrical, 167 00:08:17.975 --> 00:08:21.762 from the time of the caves, 30,000 or 40,000 years ago. 168 00:08:21.805 --> 00:08:23.633 Humanity was essentially flat. 169 00:08:23.677 --> 00:08:25.287 Cities, on the one hand, are old, uh, 170 00:08:25.330 --> 00:08:27.419 Rome 2,000 years ago had a million people. 171 00:08:27.463 --> 00:08:29.639 But, essentially, cities remained the same 172 00:08:30.118 --> 00:08:32.033 for hundreds, thousands of years. 173 00:08:32.076 --> 00:08:34.383 And then, electricity came along, 174 00:08:34.426 --> 00:08:37.517 and suddenly cities had become three-dimensional. 175 00:08:38.126 --> 00:08:41.782 The urge to go skyward that you saw in New York 176 00:08:41.825 --> 00:08:44.741 through the whole 20th century, was a manifestation 177 00:08:44.785 --> 00:08:48.310 of the tremendous amount of concentrated energy. 178 00:08:48.353 --> 00:08:50.573 If you look at the greatest buildings 179 00:08:50.617 --> 00:08:52.662 of the Middle Ages, the cathedrals, 180 00:08:52.706 --> 00:08:54.534 they were small by modern standards. 181 00:08:54.577 --> 00:08:55.926 In the history of architecture there were 182 00:08:55.970 --> 00:08:58.407 symbolic structures which used height 183 00:08:58.450 --> 00:09:01.366 in order to signify their importance, 184 00:09:01.410 --> 00:09:02.890 their spirituality. 185 00:09:03.368 --> 00:09:07.459 But New York, a kind of capital of capitalism 186 00:09:07.503 --> 00:09:11.551 found in the skyscraper, a way to exploit the demand 187 00:09:11.594 --> 00:09:14.597 for central locations and cities, and the ability 188 00:09:14.641 --> 00:09:18.122 to use the elevator in order to go above the normal height 189 00:09:18.166 --> 00:09:20.734 that people feel comfortable to walk upstairs, 190 00:09:20.777 --> 00:09:22.823 which is about five or six stories. 191 00:09:22.866 --> 00:09:24.999 The ability to rise in space, 192 00:09:25.042 --> 00:09:28.176 even 100 feet or 200 feet, which doesn't seem like much, 193 00:09:28.219 --> 00:09:30.308 completely transformed the structure, 194 00:09:30.352 --> 00:09:32.963 the geography, the geometry of cities. 195 00:09:33.007 --> 00:09:35.052 It made possible, office buildings 196 00:09:35.096 --> 00:09:37.011 in which you could have hundreds, 197 00:09:37.054 --> 00:09:39.709 thousands of people working for the same firm. 198 00:09:39.753 --> 00:09:41.798 Hundreds of relays had transferred 199 00:09:41.842 --> 00:09:44.975 10,000 electrical impulses to motivate the cars. 200 00:09:45.019 --> 00:09:47.935 Once you have a tall building, if you look down from space, 201 00:09:47.978 --> 00:09:51.373 you can calculate the watts per square meter 202 00:09:51.416 --> 00:09:53.288 that that building consumes. 203 00:09:53.331 --> 00:09:55.551 The spatial density of the consumption 204 00:09:55.595 --> 00:09:58.206 in a city like New York is extremely high. 205 00:09:58.728 --> 00:10:00.861 And here's the deal, vertical cities reduce 206 00:10:00.904 --> 00:10:02.689 the human footprint on the natural world. 207 00:10:02.732 --> 00:10:05.256 Small footprints are good. 208 00:10:05.300 --> 00:10:07.650 Density, whether it involves energy production, 209 00:10:07.694 --> 00:10:10.610 food production or urban living, is green. 210 00:10:11.088 --> 00:10:14.657 The process of human progress is also a process 211 00:10:14.701 --> 00:10:17.834 of environmental progress in that it's comprised 212 00:10:17.878 --> 00:10:20.184 centrally, of energy transitions. 213 00:10:20.707 --> 00:10:23.405 From energy diffused fuels to energy dense ones. 214 00:10:23.448 --> 00:10:26.321 With electricity being the most important ultimate carrier 215 00:10:26.364 --> 00:10:28.845 of energy for modern societies. 216 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:31.848 Energy is often referred to as the master resource. 217 00:10:31.892 --> 00:10:34.634 Electricity is the master of the master resources. 218 00:10:35.156 --> 00:10:38.333 Without electricity, you are effectively going back 219 00:10:38.376 --> 00:10:41.075 in time to a world that we have been able 220 00:10:41.118 --> 00:10:43.120 to innovate away from. 221 00:10:43.686 --> 00:10:45.557 There was a point when we were relying heavily 222 00:10:45.601 --> 00:10:49.083 on wooden dung and also horse and carriages in cities, 223 00:10:49.126 --> 00:10:52.086 and cities, just after a while, became unlivable. 224 00:10:52.129 --> 00:10:54.436 You have to understand the energy ladder. 225 00:10:54.479 --> 00:10:58.005 There's a broad pattern for how people become prosperous, 226 00:10:58.048 --> 00:11:00.572 but also how we protect the natural environment. 227 00:11:00.616 --> 00:11:02.574 Cities from my point of view, 228 00:11:02.618 --> 00:11:04.098 as a green, as an environmentalist, 229 00:11:04.141 --> 00:11:06.535 are the salvation of nature. 230 00:11:06.578 --> 00:11:10.017 It's only by concentrating a significant portion 231 00:11:10.060 --> 00:11:13.107 of humanity in livable attractive cities, 232 00:11:13.150 --> 00:11:15.413 that we have the chance to spare the rest of nature 233 00:11:15.457 --> 00:11:18.547 for the lions and the tigers and the eagles. 234 00:11:22.072 --> 00:11:25.249 We know that there are about 1.2 billion people 235 00:11:25.293 --> 00:11:28.470 in the world today who have no access to electricity at all. 236 00:11:28.513 --> 00:11:30.777 What's missing in that statistic is that there are a couple 237 00:11:30.820 --> 00:11:35.782 of billion more whose access to electricity is inadequate, 238 00:11:35.825 --> 00:11:38.480 intermittent, the system doesn't work all the time. 239 00:11:40.395 --> 00:11:42.527 The defining inequality in the world today 240 00:11:42.571 --> 00:11:45.095 is the disparity between the electricity rich 241 00:11:45.139 --> 00:11:48.055 and the electricity poor, what does that mean? 242 00:11:48.098 --> 00:11:50.144 Let's go back to my refrigerator. 243 00:11:50.187 --> 00:11:54.148 It uses about 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. 244 00:11:54.191 --> 00:11:57.194 By my count, there are about three billion people today 245 00:11:57.238 --> 00:11:58.979 who, on an individual basis, 246 00:11:59.022 --> 00:12:01.590 use less electricity than my fridge. 247 00:12:02.199 --> 00:12:05.376 India, a country as ancient as it is modern. 248 00:12:05.899 --> 00:12:09.250 Moving as history moves across the threshold of the past. 249 00:12:22.829 --> 00:12:25.962 About a third of all Indians live in poverty 250 00:12:26.006 --> 00:12:28.573 and about 300 million of them, a population 251 00:12:28.617 --> 00:12:31.620 nearly the size of the United States, don't have access 252 00:12:31.663 --> 00:12:33.143 to any electricity at all. 253 00:12:46.548 --> 00:12:48.506 When electricity isn't readily available, 254 00:12:48.550 --> 00:12:50.508 people will do whatever it takes 255 00:12:50.552 --> 00:12:52.989 to get it, and that includes theft. 256 00:12:53.903 --> 00:12:58.386 People are using wires to put a hook in the wires 257 00:12:58.429 --> 00:13:01.955 and draw the electricity, that is un-metered supply. 258 00:13:01.998 --> 00:13:03.434 That is theft. 259 00:13:04.348 --> 00:13:07.308 In central Calcutta, where hooking has been going on, 260 00:13:07.351 --> 00:13:09.745 T and C losses, technical and commercial losses. 261 00:13:10.180 --> 00:13:13.836 We have around 11.5% where the national average 262 00:13:13.880 --> 00:13:16.796 is around 40, 45, 50, it's as high as that. 263 00:13:16.839 --> 00:13:18.841 If I can interrupt you and have you repeat that, 264 00:13:18.885 --> 00:13:22.671 because these numbers kind of stagger the mind. 265 00:13:22.714 --> 00:13:26.022 We... our, our loss figures, T and C losses, 266 00:13:26.066 --> 00:13:27.807 technical and commercial losses total, 267 00:13:28.285 --> 00:13:32.246 it's around 11.5%, whereas the national average 268 00:13:32.289 --> 00:13:34.248 is around 40%, 40. 269 00:13:38.208 --> 00:13:40.907 - That's a staggering number. - That's a staggering loss. 270 00:13:47.304 --> 00:13:49.263 So, if you look above me here to the right, 271 00:13:49.306 --> 00:13:51.091 there's some hooks on the electric line 272 00:13:51.134 --> 00:13:52.875 which is, uh, common, 273 00:13:52.919 --> 00:13:54.398 but the locals don't want to talk about it. 274 00:14:07.890 --> 00:14:10.893 It's one of the conundrums of electricity service, 275 00:14:10.937 --> 00:14:13.113 to make electricity available to everyone, 276 00:14:13.156 --> 00:14:16.594 it has to be cheap, but it can't be cheap when the system 277 00:14:16.638 --> 00:14:19.467 lacks integrity, whether it's customers stealing 278 00:14:19.510 --> 00:14:22.818 from the utility or the utility ripping off customers, 279 00:14:22.862 --> 00:14:26.256 integrity is as important to the grid as engineering. 280 00:14:29.129 --> 00:14:32.088 You can have food and not have a modern life. 281 00:14:32.132 --> 00:14:34.090 There are plenty of people who don't have electricity 282 00:14:34.134 --> 00:14:38.225 and have food, but whose standard of living is really 283 00:14:38.268 --> 00:14:40.401 not up to what we would think 284 00:14:40.444 --> 00:14:42.272 of as a modern standard of living. 285 00:14:42.316 --> 00:14:44.971 This is a biomass stove, this is rice straw, 286 00:14:45.014 --> 00:14:48.931 called paddy, and then they feed it into the bottom of the... 287 00:14:48.975 --> 00:14:50.367 - Yeah. - ...the, the pit here and then, 288 00:14:50.411 --> 00:14:51.847 put the pots on the top so this is 289 00:14:52.456 --> 00:14:54.502 uh, just a traditional method of cooking. 290 00:14:55.024 --> 00:14:57.940 There's a methodic correlation found between those people 291 00:14:57.984 --> 00:15:00.856 who are using the conventional biomass for their cooking 292 00:15:00.900 --> 00:15:03.467 and their health, and what happens is that cooking is done 293 00:15:03.511 --> 00:15:06.731 by the women, and that woman actually inhales all 294 00:15:06.775 --> 00:15:08.385 the pollutant during cooking. 295 00:15:08.429 --> 00:15:12.215 Cooking in that environment for four to five hours 296 00:15:12.259 --> 00:15:14.783 has a serious health impact. 297 00:15:14.826 --> 00:15:17.873 Every year in India, more than one million people 298 00:15:17.917 --> 00:15:20.920 die from indoor air pollution, the use of biomass 299 00:15:20.963 --> 00:15:23.966 in cooking causes horrifying damage to human health. 300 00:15:24.010 --> 00:15:25.881 Especially, to that of women and girls. 301 00:15:25.925 --> 00:15:28.840 University of California, Berkeley, professor Kirk Smith 302 00:15:28.884 --> 00:15:31.365 estimates the health impact of cooking with biomass 303 00:15:31.408 --> 00:15:33.889 is akin to burning 400 cigarettes 304 00:15:33.933 --> 00:15:35.847 an hour in your kitchen. 305 00:15:35.891 --> 00:15:38.938 Women take up the brunt of domestic work 306 00:15:39.503 --> 00:15:41.331 and in the absence of electricity, 307 00:15:41.897 --> 00:15:43.943 that domestic work is more difficult, more time 308 00:15:43.986 --> 00:15:45.509 consuming, less productive, 309 00:15:45.553 --> 00:15:48.164 and it's women and girls who deal with it. 310 00:15:48.208 --> 00:15:51.124 The mothers are spending all day long 311 00:15:51.167 --> 00:15:54.257 just doing the basic household chores. 312 00:15:54.301 --> 00:15:55.824 Women and girls are sort of 313 00:15:55.867 --> 00:15:57.869 the managers of household energy, 314 00:15:57.913 --> 00:15:59.741 the way they get that is labor intensive. 315 00:15:59.784 --> 00:16:02.135 Women spend a lot of time fetching firewood 316 00:16:02.178 --> 00:16:04.572 because there's no energy for actual light. 317 00:16:04.615 --> 00:16:07.357 It's, you know, collecting wood, collecting dung. 318 00:16:07.401 --> 00:16:09.664 - Collecting water. - You don't have a fridge, 319 00:16:09.707 --> 00:16:10.926 so you have to cook every evening. 320 00:16:10.970 --> 00:16:13.320 Kitchens are five degrees warmer 321 00:16:13.363 --> 00:16:14.930 when you are cooking there. 322 00:16:14.974 --> 00:16:18.064 Suppose the temperature outside is 35 degrees, 323 00:16:18.107 --> 00:16:19.979 so your kitchen is 40 degrees. 324 00:16:20.022 --> 00:16:22.024 You need air conditioning. 325 00:16:22.068 --> 00:16:24.896 Oftentimes people will talk about energy poverty 326 00:16:24.940 --> 00:16:27.203 in very abstract terms without thinking about, 327 00:16:27.247 --> 00:16:29.727 "Okay, what do we want this energy to achieve 328 00:16:29.771 --> 00:16:32.556 "once people have it?" When you're able to transform the economy 329 00:16:33.035 --> 00:16:36.082 from just being based off of raw materials, 330 00:16:36.125 --> 00:16:38.040 you put women on the path 331 00:16:38.084 --> 00:16:40.782 to participate in an economy that is richer, 332 00:16:40.825 --> 00:16:43.393 in an economy that is more just for women and girls. 333 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:13.293 And in India, sun is down by 6:00, 6:30, max. 334 00:17:13.336 --> 00:17:16.209 In the summer, your time becomes short 335 00:17:16.252 --> 00:17:19.995 and it's all dark, you can't see anything. 336 00:17:20.517 --> 00:17:23.085 This is an old style kerosene lamp. 337 00:17:23.129 --> 00:17:28.395 This is the centuries old now version of what we use, 338 00:17:28.438 --> 00:17:31.441 and we use LED lights, incandescents, fluorescents, 339 00:17:32.138 --> 00:17:34.705 but in villages like this one, this is what they use here. 340 00:17:37.447 --> 00:17:40.711 If you are absorbed in the dark, 341 00:17:41.408 --> 00:17:43.584 darkness absorbs you too, 342 00:17:44.063 --> 00:17:46.108 so you do not see the light 343 00:17:46.152 --> 00:17:48.328 and you cannot bring the light to others. 344 00:17:48.893 --> 00:17:50.591 Electricity has allowed us to conquer 345 00:17:50.634 --> 00:17:53.072 our oldest foe, darkness. 346 00:17:53.115 --> 00:17:56.292 For millennia, the cost of having well-lit spaces at night 347 00:17:56.336 --> 00:17:59.165 was so high that only the very rich could afford it. 348 00:17:59.687 --> 00:18:02.298 Those well-lit spaces matter more than you think. 349 00:18:02.907 --> 00:18:05.127 A few months before our visit, an elephant invaded 350 00:18:05.171 --> 00:18:07.216 the tiny village of Chargora. 351 00:18:07.260 --> 00:18:10.393 Turns out well-lit spaces help keep unwanted guests 352 00:18:10.437 --> 00:18:12.961 out of the village, when the lights are out and you live 353 00:18:13.004 --> 00:18:15.137 in rural West Bengal, you risk 354 00:18:15.181 --> 00:18:17.487 getting trampled by roaming elephants. 355 00:18:18.271 --> 00:18:20.577 Like my friend Joyashree, I had a moment 356 00:18:20.621 --> 00:18:23.319 in which I finally understood what darkness means. 357 00:18:23.972 --> 00:18:27.323 In the small agricultural settlement of Majalesh Pukur, 358 00:18:27.367 --> 00:18:31.414 located southeast of Calcutta, I met Rehena Jamadar. 359 00:18:31.458 --> 00:18:33.329 So, Rehena, can you tell me how your life is different 360 00:18:33.808 --> 00:18:35.679 with electricity versus before? 361 00:18:39.422 --> 00:18:42.164 She is saying that there is still much to happen. 362 00:18:42.208 --> 00:18:44.166 - Sure. - But at least some help 363 00:18:44.210 --> 00:18:47.865 is happening, so in the home they have entertainment system 364 00:18:47.909 --> 00:18:49.606 and they have the grinding systems, 365 00:18:49.650 --> 00:18:51.391 so things are happening there. 366 00:18:51.434 --> 00:18:53.958 But also your children can read at, at night? 367 00:18:55.830 --> 00:18:58.485 The, the girl goes to college. 368 00:18:58.963 --> 00:19:00.269 But, but could she go to college 369 00:19:00.313 --> 00:19:01.488 when she couldn't read at night? 370 00:19:01.531 --> 00:19:03.011 - No. - No. 371 00:19:03.446 --> 00:19:04.447 - No. - Straight answer is no. 372 00:19:04.491 --> 00:19:06.057 If you had electricity 373 00:19:06.101 --> 00:19:07.494 when you were small, 374 00:19:07.537 --> 00:19:09.060 could you have gone to university? 375 00:19:14.805 --> 00:19:17.156 Yes, she would have gone. 376 00:19:18.287 --> 00:19:20.637 Darkness had kept this gracious and intelligent 377 00:19:20.681 --> 00:19:22.335 woman from achieving something 378 00:19:22.378 --> 00:19:24.511 that she knew was within her grasp. 379 00:19:24.554 --> 00:19:27.253 Here was a person who, had she been born in one of India's 380 00:19:27.296 --> 00:19:30.517 cities instead of Magalesh Pukur, would've gone to college. 381 00:19:31.082 --> 00:19:33.433 With a college education, she could've been a doctor, 382 00:19:33.476 --> 00:19:35.826 a lawyer or maybe a nurse or engineer. 383 00:19:35.870 --> 00:19:38.655 By the time I met Rehena, I knew plenty of facts 384 00:19:38.699 --> 00:19:40.701 and statistics, the average resident of India 385 00:19:40.744 --> 00:19:44.661 uses about 800 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, 386 00:19:44.705 --> 00:19:46.881 which is about a quarter of the global average. 387 00:19:47.360 --> 00:19:50.058 I understood the myriad correlations between electricity, 388 00:19:50.101 --> 00:19:52.626 availability and health and wealth. 389 00:19:53.322 --> 00:19:56.238 But that 15 minute conversation with Rehena and Joyashree 390 00:19:56.282 --> 00:19:57.892 made me see the light. 391 00:20:09.120 --> 00:20:10.209 ...in Accra, 392 00:20:10.687 --> 00:20:12.515 they used to happen quite often. 393 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.778 We grew up in a place in the mountains and it was 394 00:20:14.822 --> 00:20:17.041 normal to us that we're going to have 395 00:20:17.085 --> 00:20:19.566 some yellow electricity and some white electricity. 396 00:20:19.609 --> 00:20:21.132 And I remember I was in the first grade, 397 00:20:21.176 --> 00:20:23.134 I was six, and there was going to be 398 00:20:23.178 --> 00:20:25.093 a pop quiz the next morning. 399 00:20:25.136 --> 00:20:28.052 In our house, we used to have the yellow lights on, 400 00:20:28.096 --> 00:20:29.663 and this indicates that this electricity 401 00:20:29.706 --> 00:20:31.447 is being supplied by the EDL. 402 00:20:33.101 --> 00:20:36.409 So I go home and I'm studying, I'm really excited 403 00:20:36.452 --> 00:20:38.672 but also very nervous, and in the middle 404 00:20:38.715 --> 00:20:40.151 of my study session, the power goes off. 405 00:20:42.284 --> 00:20:44.895 And I began crying inconsolably, because there's no way 406 00:20:44.939 --> 00:20:49.248 I'm going to go finish memorizing this times table 407 00:20:49.291 --> 00:20:50.684 when there's no power. 408 00:20:51.641 --> 00:20:54.644 And then every six hours the lights will go off 409 00:20:54.688 --> 00:20:58.431 and then we will turn on the UPS, so we used to communicate 410 00:20:58.474 --> 00:21:01.303 with my, with my father, tell him that, "I need to study now 411 00:21:01.347 --> 00:21:04.219 for the school, shall I study when the yellow lights are on 412 00:21:04.263 --> 00:21:05.873 or when the white lights are on?" 413 00:21:05.916 --> 00:21:08.049 So the white lights, we use them using the UPS, 414 00:21:08.092 --> 00:21:09.311 the fluorescent lamp. 415 00:21:09.355 --> 00:21:11.400 And, uh, my mother got 416 00:21:11.444 --> 00:21:14.534 a kerosene lantern, lit it up for me 417 00:21:14.577 --> 00:21:17.972 and sat by me while I studied my times table, 418 00:21:18.015 --> 00:21:21.454 and I think that was my first recollection of 419 00:21:21.497 --> 00:21:24.370 just how important that basic infrastructure is. 420 00:21:24.413 --> 00:21:27.547 So, to us this was normal, it was like, we lived with it, 421 00:21:27.590 --> 00:21:29.810 that we're going to be having two different types 422 00:21:29.853 --> 00:21:31.855 of power and sometimes we're not going to be having power, 423 00:21:31.899 --> 00:21:34.380 this was normal to us, we didn't know 424 00:21:34.423 --> 00:21:37.557 that, actually, people get 100% electricity. 425 00:21:38.122 --> 00:21:40.908 You know, we have this classic image of someone in a poor village 426 00:21:40.951 --> 00:21:43.389 who finally has light, getting an education. 427 00:21:43.432 --> 00:21:45.216 Let's say there's a, a solar panel on the roof, 428 00:21:45.260 --> 00:21:47.741 it's brought light, and in the evening now, 429 00:21:47.784 --> 00:21:49.873 they can s... they can be safe and they can study. 430 00:21:49.917 --> 00:21:51.571 And then the kid turns 16 and they've got an education. 431 00:21:53.268 --> 00:21:54.269 What are they going to do? 432 00:21:54.704 --> 00:21:56.010 Is our expectation that they... 433 00:21:56.053 --> 00:21:57.707 The extent of their ambition 434 00:21:58.360 --> 00:22:00.667 is to remain a subsistence farmer with an education? 435 00:22:00.710 --> 00:22:03.278 I don't think so, they're going to want a job. 436 00:22:03.322 --> 00:22:05.324 They're going to want to do something clever, become a better farmer, 437 00:22:05.367 --> 00:22:06.847 maybe an agronomic scientist. 438 00:22:06.890 --> 00:22:09.893 When we top out our energy expectations 439 00:22:09.937 --> 00:22:12.200 for the developing world, all we're really saying is, 440 00:22:12.243 --> 00:22:15.464 "We expect that you can have enough energy 441 00:22:16.422 --> 00:22:18.511 to stay poor in a little more comfort... 442 00:22:19.903 --> 00:22:22.689 maybe, and maybe to be educated enough 443 00:22:22.732 --> 00:22:24.168 "to know that you are poor." 444 00:22:24.212 --> 00:22:27.128 Incrementalism is good, but is dangerous 445 00:22:27.171 --> 00:22:30.436 when we view it as the only paradigm, what makes you think 446 00:22:30.479 --> 00:22:33.787 that an African's need for power is inferior 447 00:22:33.830 --> 00:22:35.310 to an American's need for power? 448 00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:38.792 I think that rest of the world 449 00:22:38.835 --> 00:22:41.055 who is enjoying modernity 450 00:22:41.577 --> 00:22:45.015 and we are not allowing others to be modern 451 00:22:45.059 --> 00:22:47.322 is a crime, is a major crime. 452 00:22:47.366 --> 00:22:49.890 Mutual respect for the humanity of people who live 453 00:22:49.933 --> 00:22:52.283 in other continents, that should guide 454 00:22:52.327 --> 00:22:55.069 global energy policy discussions. 455 00:22:55.112 --> 00:22:57.071 Today, billions of people are living 456 00:22:57.114 --> 00:22:58.812 in conditions like those in rural 457 00:22:58.855 --> 00:23:01.205 India and sub-Saharan Africa. 458 00:23:01.249 --> 00:23:04.426 Collectively, those billions make up the low watt world. 459 00:23:04.470 --> 00:23:06.341 Those with intermittent or insufficient 460 00:23:06.385 --> 00:23:08.474 access to electricity. 461 00:23:09.126 --> 00:23:13.435 In 1989, less than 20% of the country had access 462 00:23:13.479 --> 00:23:16.656 to electricity, it was a military government 463 00:23:16.699 --> 00:23:18.440 that had come in power through a coup d'etat, 464 00:23:18.962 --> 00:23:22.531 and the government decided that by the year 2020, 465 00:23:23.010 --> 00:23:25.839 everyone in this country will have power. 466 00:23:25.882 --> 00:23:28.842 Ghana transitioned into democratic rule in '92 467 00:23:28.885 --> 00:23:31.627 and every government that has come since then 468 00:23:31.671 --> 00:23:35.457 has stayed on the promise of universal electricity access. 469 00:23:35.501 --> 00:23:38.982 So, now in 2017, access is at 83% in Ghana. 470 00:23:40.723 --> 00:23:43.465 To date, whenever Ghana is about to have elections, 471 00:23:43.509 --> 00:23:46.337 you see a lot of infrastructure projects going up and down 472 00:23:46.381 --> 00:23:49.079 all over the country. So, in this case, democracy has really 473 00:23:49.123 --> 00:23:52.126 been the tool that has propelled the electrification project. 474 00:23:52.909 --> 00:23:55.651 Keeping the electricity flowing day after day, 475 00:23:55.695 --> 00:23:59.350 year after year, requires constant infusions of cash 476 00:23:59.394 --> 00:24:02.092 which is then used to buy fuel, repair wires 477 00:24:02.136 --> 00:24:03.703 and replace poles. 478 00:24:04.094 --> 00:24:06.793 Electricity systems have to pay for themselves. 479 00:24:06.836 --> 00:24:08.751 If there's any kind of leakage, like theft 480 00:24:08.795 --> 00:24:11.058 or corruption, the system fails. 481 00:24:13.060 --> 00:24:15.932 In the year 2050, most of the world's population 482 00:24:15.976 --> 00:24:18.108 will live in Africa or will be African. 483 00:24:18.152 --> 00:24:20.676 How are we going to have a population 484 00:24:21.155 --> 00:24:24.201 of all these bright young minds, if you're not plugged in? 485 00:24:24.245 --> 00:24:25.942 What is going to be their function? 486 00:24:25.986 --> 00:24:28.902 It's a huge demographic crisis staring us in the face. 487 00:24:28.945 --> 00:24:31.774 I think that one of the first things to do now, 488 00:24:31.818 --> 00:24:35.386 to ensure that by 2050, the young Africans on the continent 489 00:24:35.430 --> 00:24:38.215 and around the world, are people who are productive, 490 00:24:38.259 --> 00:24:41.480 self-reliant, empowered, people who will be free 491 00:24:41.523 --> 00:24:45.484 from poverty, we have to plug them in now, it begins now. 492 00:24:47.355 --> 00:24:49.488 While scores of low watt countries around 493 00:24:49.531 --> 00:24:51.925 the globe struggle to bring their people out of the dark 494 00:24:51.968 --> 00:24:54.318 and into the light, the U.S. enjoys 495 00:24:54.362 --> 00:24:56.843 an almost embarrassment of riches. 496 00:24:56.886 --> 00:25:00.542 Electricity abounds, so much so that the high watt world 497 00:25:00.586 --> 00:25:02.675 keeps stumbling into new ways 498 00:25:02.718 --> 00:25:04.851 of using massive amounts of juice. 499 00:26:17.227 --> 00:26:18.315 Take me back to sea level. 500 00:26:22.058 --> 00:26:24.017 Electricity does, in fact, explain the world. 501 00:26:24.060 --> 00:26:25.801 That's why I'm here in Boulder, Colorado. 502 00:26:25.845 --> 00:26:29.239 Arguably, the world capital of legal weed cultivation 503 00:26:29.283 --> 00:26:32.286 and retailing, within about five miles of where I'm standing 504 00:26:32.329 --> 00:26:34.505 here in Chautauqua Park, there are about a dozen 505 00:26:34.549 --> 00:26:37.247 and a half legal weed dispensaries selling brands 506 00:26:37.291 --> 00:26:40.555 like Purple Haze, but to produce Purple Haze 507 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:42.992 and other brands of cannabis sativa, they are using 508 00:26:43.036 --> 00:26:45.908 lots of electricity, in fact, marijuana cultivation 509 00:26:45.952 --> 00:26:47.867 is the world's single most electricity 510 00:26:47.910 --> 00:26:50.696 intensive agricultural business. 511 00:26:50.739 --> 00:26:52.654 All over this town, entrepreneurs are busy 512 00:26:52.698 --> 00:26:54.700 turning watts into weed. 513 00:27:02.011 --> 00:27:05.667 We're, we're looking for a dispensary. It's not that hard to find them, 514 00:27:05.711 --> 00:27:08.844 but there are about 20 of them in the city 515 00:27:08.888 --> 00:27:11.238 or at least a dozen and a half of them, but, you know, 516 00:27:11.281 --> 00:27:13.196 we're bagging dispensaries. 517 00:27:14.676 --> 00:27:18.027 So to speak, uh, all these buildings, though, have big signs 518 00:27:18.071 --> 00:27:20.551 on them, but the grow operations don't have any signs 519 00:27:20.595 --> 00:27:22.423 and they usually only have the street number. 520 00:27:22.466 --> 00:27:25.818 You just look at the exterior of the building, no signs. 521 00:27:25.861 --> 00:27:28.211 And look at the long electrical conduit lines 522 00:27:28.255 --> 00:27:30.083 that are on the outside, look at the size 523 00:27:30.126 --> 00:27:31.519 of the three phase conduit 524 00:27:31.562 --> 00:27:34.174 going into that gray box, and then how many meters 525 00:27:34.217 --> 00:27:35.828 they've got right behind it. 526 00:27:35.871 --> 00:27:38.526 That's all new conduit on the outside of the building. 527 00:27:38.569 --> 00:27:40.354 Why else would you need that much electricity 528 00:27:40.397 --> 00:27:41.703 in such a nondescript warehouse. 529 00:27:41.747 --> 00:27:43.923 Look at this, this is all brand new. 530 00:27:43.966 --> 00:27:47.230 This is new electrical service, 500 kilovolt amps. 531 00:27:47.274 --> 00:27:49.580 That's a brand new transformer put in just 532 00:27:49.624 --> 00:27:52.671 for a marijuana grow operation in this, in this warehouse. 533 00:27:53.454 --> 00:27:55.804 Marijuana growers don't want people to know they're growing 534 00:27:55.848 --> 00:27:59.199 marijuana, but you know what to look for, you can find them. 535 00:27:59.242 --> 00:28:01.941 It's certainly keeping the energy company busy. 536 00:28:01.984 --> 00:28:04.030 Operating transformers, all sorts of equipment, 537 00:28:04.073 --> 00:28:05.205 upgrades like that that are needed 538 00:28:05.248 --> 00:28:07.424 for high energy use facilities. 539 00:28:07.468 --> 00:28:09.775 Electricity used by the cannabis industry 540 00:28:09.818 --> 00:28:12.821 has been increasing sharply over the past several years. 541 00:28:12.865 --> 00:28:16.085 I believe the average has been about 34% per year. 542 00:28:16.129 --> 00:28:18.653 The electricity intensity of marijuana cultivation 543 00:28:18.697 --> 00:28:21.525 is 23 times that of a hospital 544 00:28:21.569 --> 00:28:24.790 and about 130 times that of an average U.S. residence. 545 00:28:25.355 --> 00:28:26.487 That's a lot of juice. 546 00:28:26.922 --> 00:28:28.663 Want to know the real buzz kill? 547 00:28:28.707 --> 00:28:31.492 About half of Colorado's electricity comes from 548 00:28:31.535 --> 00:28:35.148 coal fired power plants. As a result, Boulder dispensaries 549 00:28:35.191 --> 00:28:37.324 are required by city ordinance, to prove 550 00:28:37.367 --> 00:28:39.805 they're growing polar bear friendly ganja. 551 00:28:40.457 --> 00:28:43.460 Colorado's had a number of different mandates 552 00:28:43.504 --> 00:28:46.550 and opportunities for using renewable technologies. 553 00:28:46.594 --> 00:28:48.465 So, for example, I live in Boulder, 554 00:28:48.509 --> 00:28:50.076 I get my, my electricity 555 00:28:50.119 --> 00:28:53.122 from Xcel Energy, I can pay a little bit more 556 00:28:53.688 --> 00:28:55.385 to have that energy come from wind power. 557 00:28:55.908 --> 00:28:58.475 It's important for a lot of people because of politics 558 00:28:58.519 --> 00:29:00.608 and wealth to be able to feel like you're doing something 559 00:29:00.651 --> 00:29:03.306 environmental while you're living like everyone else does. 560 00:29:03.350 --> 00:29:05.613 It has not led to an appreciable 561 00:29:05.656 --> 00:29:07.789 decarbonization of the Colorado economy. 562 00:29:07.833 --> 00:29:09.965 A lot of the offsetting provisions, 563 00:29:10.009 --> 00:29:11.662 whether it's for the cannabis industry, 564 00:29:11.706 --> 00:29:13.926 for individual homeowners, it's simply accounting. 565 00:29:13.969 --> 00:29:15.710 The number that really matters is, 566 00:29:15.754 --> 00:29:18.626 where does the energy come from. And so long as Colorado 567 00:29:18.669 --> 00:29:21.847 gets 85% of its energy from fossil fuels, 568 00:29:21.890 --> 00:29:25.111 85% of the economic activity in Colorado is from fossil fuels, 569 00:29:25.154 --> 00:29:26.895 no matter which we assign to the 15% 570 00:29:26.939 --> 00:29:28.418 and which we assign to the 85%. 571 00:29:29.071 --> 00:29:33.815 We're going to a black market grower in Denver. 572 00:29:33.859 --> 00:29:36.426 He has decided that it's far easier to operate 573 00:29:36.470 --> 00:29:38.559 in the black market and more profitable 574 00:29:38.602 --> 00:29:41.344 to do it in the black market than in the regulated market. 575 00:29:42.911 --> 00:29:44.478 Okay. 576 00:29:45.131 --> 00:29:46.828 My name is Daniel, I'm currently driving 577 00:29:46.872 --> 00:29:50.179 an Uber and I also grow marijuana. 578 00:29:50.223 --> 00:29:54.618 I was arrested for growing marijuana in 2003 579 00:29:54.662 --> 00:29:57.143 and I received a felony conviction for that. 580 00:29:57.186 --> 00:30:00.320 As a result of that, I'm not allowed to participate 581 00:30:00.363 --> 00:30:02.278 in the legitimate marijuana industry. 582 00:30:02.322 --> 00:30:04.106 If you were going to tell me what are 583 00:30:04.150 --> 00:30:05.978 the three key things you need to know 584 00:30:06.021 --> 00:30:08.458 to set up a clandestine operation. 585 00:30:08.502 --> 00:30:10.896 You have to have buyers for your product, 586 00:30:10.939 --> 00:30:13.507 you need to have good knowledge of botany 587 00:30:13.550 --> 00:30:15.770 and you need to have a good knowledge 588 00:30:15.814 --> 00:30:17.990 of setting up an electrical system 589 00:30:18.033 --> 00:30:19.861 that will support an operation like that. 590 00:30:19.905 --> 00:30:21.994 What about stealing electricity, what about that? 591 00:30:22.037 --> 00:30:23.734 That's something I would never do 592 00:30:23.778 --> 00:30:25.736 because if you are caught doing that, 593 00:30:25.780 --> 00:30:27.434 you're probably going to be in more trouble 594 00:30:27.477 --> 00:30:29.784 for stealing the electricity than you are going to be 595 00:30:29.828 --> 00:30:31.481 in trouble for growing the weed. 596 00:30:31.525 --> 00:30:35.616 They have ways of detecting leakage in electricity, 597 00:30:36.051 --> 00:30:39.750 and they do that by scanning each part of the grid, 598 00:30:39.794 --> 00:30:43.624 periodically. That could bring down the operation in itself. 599 00:30:43.667 --> 00:30:47.019 In 2013, indoor pot farms in Denver 600 00:30:47.062 --> 00:30:50.587 were consuming about 100 gigawatt hours of electricity. 601 00:30:50.631 --> 00:30:52.894 By 2016, that figure had almost 602 00:30:52.938 --> 00:30:56.158 tripled to about 275 gigawatt hours. 603 00:30:56.202 --> 00:30:58.769 To put that in perspective, businesses in Denver 604 00:30:58.813 --> 00:31:02.686 are using nearly as much electricity just to grow weed 605 00:31:02.730 --> 00:31:05.472 as what's consumed by the entire country of Burundi. 606 00:31:06.168 --> 00:31:09.476 Colorado, which had a 2020 target for renewable energy 607 00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:12.305 and emissions reduction, now has a 2025 target, 608 00:31:12.348 --> 00:31:15.221 so we've moved our targets off into the future 609 00:31:15.264 --> 00:31:16.352 because we're not hitting them. 610 00:31:16.396 --> 00:31:17.745 Right now we're working towards 611 00:31:17.788 --> 00:31:20.748 a long-term goal, a very significant goal 612 00:31:20.791 --> 00:31:23.882 of 80% reduction in emissions by 2050. 613 00:31:23.925 --> 00:31:27.233 Obviously, if the emissions from this industry continue 614 00:31:27.276 --> 00:31:31.019 to increase exponentially, that could have a major impact, 615 00:31:31.063 --> 00:31:33.413 but right now we don't think that it is going to 616 00:31:33.456 --> 00:31:35.371 cause us to be derailed from our goal. 617 00:31:36.851 --> 00:31:39.245 To be sure, it's easy to snicker at the amount 618 00:31:39.288 --> 00:31:41.290 of electricity needed to grow marijuana, 619 00:31:41.856 --> 00:31:44.511 but the fact that people in rich countries are using electricity 620 00:31:44.554 --> 00:31:47.949 to grow cannabis while people in poor ones are stealing it 621 00:31:47.993 --> 00:31:51.213 solely to survive, provides a stark reminder of the vast 622 00:31:51.257 --> 00:31:54.086 disparity between the people who live high watt lives 623 00:31:54.129 --> 00:31:55.652 and those who live mostly in the dark. 624 00:34:04.781 --> 00:34:06.740 - Keep running. - Keep, keep going... 625 00:34:06.783 --> 00:34:09.221 - So this is, this is normal for... - Now, now you have the problem 626 00:34:09.264 --> 00:34:10.918 that we have here in Puerto Rico. 627 00:34:10.961 --> 00:34:12.615 So, please, keep going if you don't mind 628 00:34:12.659 --> 00:34:14.443 because we'll just ignore the lights 629 00:34:14.487 --> 00:34:15.705 - for now and just keep going. - Yeah, 630 00:34:15.749 --> 00:34:16.880 let's put the batteries on the LEDs. 631 00:34:17.446 --> 00:34:18.795 We just had a black out, 632 00:34:18.839 --> 00:34:20.449 this could be for an hour or two hours, 633 00:34:20.493 --> 00:34:21.668 - could be the rest of the day. - Yeah, 634 00:34:21.711 --> 00:34:23.452 yeah, probably two hours. 635 00:34:23.496 --> 00:34:24.627 - Two hours. - Yeah. 636 00:35:17.376 --> 00:35:19.639 So, right now we're stuck in traffic, 637 00:35:19.682 --> 00:35:23.164 and in the middle of a black out in Puerto Rico. 638 00:35:23.208 --> 00:35:24.992 And, obviously, the lights aren't working 639 00:35:25.035 --> 00:35:27.125 because the electricity is out. 640 00:35:27.168 --> 00:35:29.910 So, you have all these cars trying to merge 641 00:35:29.953 --> 00:35:34.262 through the intersection and it's kind of a, a little 642 00:35:34.306 --> 00:35:36.308 game of chicken about who's going to stop 643 00:35:36.351 --> 00:35:39.049 and who's going to play, and right now I'm winning. 644 00:35:41.835 --> 00:35:44.054 And here's the good part, we're heading 645 00:35:44.751 --> 00:35:47.188 right over there to see the power plant 646 00:35:47.232 --> 00:35:50.017 that is owned by PREPA, that is not working 647 00:35:50.496 --> 00:35:52.933 because no one knows exactly why. 648 00:35:56.458 --> 00:35:58.199 - We're going in this way. - Yeah, 649 00:35:58.243 --> 00:36:00.419 private property, that's... 650 00:36:00.462 --> 00:36:02.464 Hi, we're doing a documentary on the corruption. 651 00:36:02.508 --> 00:36:04.118 Well... 652 00:36:04.162 --> 00:36:05.728 ...yeah, you might have heard. 653 00:36:07.774 --> 00:36:09.210 - This is Robert Bryce, people like him a lot. - Let's not push it. 654 00:36:09.254 --> 00:36:11.125 I'm standing on the Bay of San Juan. 655 00:36:11.169 --> 00:36:13.171 Puerto Rico now has the distinction of having 656 00:36:13.214 --> 00:36:15.738 the longest blackout in American history. 657 00:36:15.782 --> 00:36:20.003 And today, April 18th, 2018, that blackout record 658 00:36:20.047 --> 00:36:23.006 is getting even longer, in fact, the entire island 659 00:36:23.050 --> 00:36:25.835 of Puerto Rico today, is in blackout. 660 00:36:25.879 --> 00:36:29.099 And this power plant behind me, the Palo Seco Power Station, 661 00:36:29.143 --> 00:36:31.798 rated at 600 megawatts, appears to be producing 662 00:36:31.841 --> 00:36:32.973 no electricity at all. 663 00:37:14.362 --> 00:37:17.060 There's still 300,000 people that don't have power. 664 00:37:19.237 --> 00:37:23.023 We are U.S. citizens and we do deserve to have 665 00:37:23.066 --> 00:37:26.287 the same level of support that any U.S. citizen 666 00:37:26.331 --> 00:37:28.071 has anywhere in the world. 667 00:37:42.042 --> 00:37:44.392 There is no production without electricity. 668 00:37:44.436 --> 00:37:47.221 I mean, there is no economic movement 669 00:37:47.265 --> 00:37:49.702 without access to power. 670 00:37:49.745 --> 00:37:52.661 My name is Miguel Colón, I'm the vice president 671 00:37:52.705 --> 00:37:55.795 of Model Offset Printing, we do mostly printing 672 00:37:55.838 --> 00:37:59.407 for our manufacturing industry in Puerto Rico. 673 00:38:00.060 --> 00:38:04.194 The business has been in the family since the last 30 years. 674 00:38:04.717 --> 00:38:07.937 Right after the hurricane, it was like a war zone. 675 00:38:07.981 --> 00:38:10.897 Passage through the roads was difficult 676 00:38:10.940 --> 00:38:13.769 because there was a lot of trees on the roads. 677 00:38:14.248 --> 00:38:17.295 A lot of power posts were on the floor. 678 00:38:17.817 --> 00:38:21.951 It was a total devastation, inside the business 679 00:38:21.995 --> 00:38:25.825 there was a lot of water, a lot of equipment damaged 680 00:38:25.868 --> 00:38:31.178 by the water, our solar infrastructure was gone. 681 00:38:31.221 --> 00:38:35.356 It was messy. We were without electrical power 682 00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:38.664 for about three months, we are still operating 683 00:38:38.707 --> 00:38:43.277 without AC, in... on the whole plant. And before the hurricane 684 00:38:43.321 --> 00:38:48.195 we were paying about 30,000 dollars per month on electricity. 685 00:38:48.630 --> 00:38:51.329 I pay more for the electricity than I do for paper. 686 00:39:01.556 --> 00:39:03.776 I understand time, I understand we're an island, 687 00:39:03.819 --> 00:39:06.953 I understand it takes time to get things here, but does it take 688 00:39:06.996 --> 00:39:09.390 seven months, is there really a plan? 689 00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:12.219 Some people still don't have water. 690 00:39:28.801 --> 00:39:33.327 I cannot envision or imagine living without access to power, 691 00:39:33.371 --> 00:39:36.069 it's like water, it's a necessity. 692 00:41:03.156 --> 00:41:05.506 While visiting with Iris Ortiz and her family, 693 00:41:05.550 --> 00:41:07.900 she shared a story about how one of her daughters 694 00:41:07.943 --> 00:41:10.250 wanted to have her hair done for school pictures. 695 00:41:10.293 --> 00:41:12.078 She was distraught, how could she use 696 00:41:12.121 --> 00:41:14.036 a hair dryer without electricity? 697 00:41:14.080 --> 00:41:17.170 How would she iron her clothes without electricity? 698 00:41:17.213 --> 00:41:20.086 The luxuries we so often take for granted on the mainland 699 00:41:20.129 --> 00:41:23.263 had disappeared, their world had been turned upside down. 700 00:41:23.306 --> 00:41:25.352 They were now living low watt lives 701 00:41:25.395 --> 00:41:27.441 and they're American citizens. 702 00:41:28.268 --> 00:41:29.878 The grid looked like it was being held up 703 00:41:29.922 --> 00:41:31.010 by clothes pins. 704 00:41:32.315 --> 00:41:33.360 Irma comes in, who was our sparring partner, 705 00:41:34.666 --> 00:41:36.842 and, obviously, the grid suffered damage there, 706 00:41:36.885 --> 00:41:38.757 and some of the resources were used, 707 00:41:39.540 --> 00:41:41.673 and two weeks later we get the knock-out punch. 708 00:41:41.716 --> 00:41:44.763 So, the clothes pins were all over the island 709 00:41:45.372 --> 00:41:46.721 and everything just fell apart. 710 00:41:47.200 --> 00:41:50.464 There was a lot of competition for resources. 711 00:41:50.508 --> 00:41:55.382 FEMA came very quickly, but it took control of all 712 00:41:55.425 --> 00:42:00.430 the resources, there was no gas for the whole population. 713 00:42:00.474 --> 00:42:03.172 The gas was for the military and for FEMA. 714 00:42:03.216 --> 00:42:06.132 Drinking water supply was reserved 715 00:42:06.175 --> 00:42:08.047 for the military and for FEMA. 716 00:42:32.245 --> 00:42:35.335 How long do you think New Yorkers 717 00:42:35.378 --> 00:42:37.903 would accept being without power? 718 00:42:40.209 --> 00:42:45.824 A day, a week, a month before you would have massive 719 00:42:47.042 --> 00:42:50.219 demonstrations, there's people here that today 720 00:42:50.263 --> 00:42:51.656 still don't have power. 721 00:42:52.526 --> 00:42:55.398 Seven months after the hurricane. 722 00:42:57.662 --> 00:42:58.576 It is unacceptable. 723 00:43:01.970 --> 00:43:04.190 Two months after our trip to Puerto Rico, 724 00:43:04.233 --> 00:43:07.280 Iris Ortiz sent me an email, "One minute ago 725 00:43:07.323 --> 00:43:08.673 we got electricity to our neighborhood." 726 00:43:08.716 --> 00:43:09.935 She wrote in Spanish: 727 00:43:15.418 --> 00:43:18.204 "Thank you for your prayers, God bless you very much." 728 00:43:19.248 --> 00:43:21.816 I replied touched that she'd shared her family story 729 00:43:21.860 --> 00:43:24.819 with someone who was a stranger only two months prior. 730 00:43:27.648 --> 00:43:30.782 I wrote, "You're going back to the modern world." 731 00:44:58.870 --> 00:45:01.263 We're here in Iceland, at Gullfoss Falls. 732 00:45:01.786 --> 00:45:03.483 As you can see, this country has enormous 733 00:45:03.526 --> 00:45:05.180 hydro power potential. 734 00:45:05.224 --> 00:45:09.054 About 75% of the electricity here comes from hydro. 735 00:45:09.097 --> 00:45:12.057 The other 25% comes from geothermal. 736 00:45:12.100 --> 00:45:14.276 This abundant electricity is attracting industries 737 00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:16.365 from all over the world and, in particular, 738 00:45:16.409 --> 00:45:18.628 data centers and cryptocurrency miners. 739 00:45:32.425 --> 00:45:33.731 You know, the Pirate Party said, 740 00:45:33.774 --> 00:45:35.428 "Just come in, they'll let you in." 741 00:45:35.471 --> 00:45:37.517 You'll find the security situation is not anything 742 00:45:37.560 --> 00:45:39.519 - "like what's on Capitol Hill." - So, this is your left. 743 00:45:39.562 --> 00:45:44.306 From the... 744 00:45:45.133 --> 00:45:46.482 It sure looks way too small 745 00:45:46.526 --> 00:45:48.006 to be the Parliament House. 746 00:45:48.963 --> 00:45:50.922 There are only 330,000 people in this... 747 00:45:50.965 --> 00:45:53.359 No, I got it, but even still. 748 00:45:54.099 --> 00:45:56.928 More than a third of Iceland's citizens live in Reykjavik, 749 00:45:56.971 --> 00:45:59.017 the country's spotless capital city. 750 00:45:59.060 --> 00:46:01.802 It's politically stable and has been for centuries. 751 00:46:01.846 --> 00:46:04.109 In fact, Iceland's Parliament, the Althing, 752 00:46:04.152 --> 00:46:06.372 was founded in 930, making it one 753 00:46:06.415 --> 00:46:08.156 of the world's oldest parliaments. 754 00:46:08.200 --> 00:46:10.463 Among the newest political parties in Iceland 755 00:46:10.506 --> 00:46:13.248 is the Pirate Party, which views itself as something 756 00:46:13.292 --> 00:46:15.207 of a Robin Hood of politics. 757 00:46:15.860 --> 00:46:19.211 The Pirate Party was created to make sure that 758 00:46:19.254 --> 00:46:22.562 Iceland would become a safe haven for freedom of information, 759 00:46:22.605 --> 00:46:24.782 expression and, uh, privacy. 760 00:46:25.391 --> 00:46:27.045 I want transparency. 761 00:46:27.088 --> 00:46:28.873 Taking the power from the powerful 762 00:46:28.916 --> 00:46:30.700 and giving it to the powerless. 763 00:46:30.744 --> 00:46:33.268 I created the Pirate Party to make sure that these laws 764 00:46:33.312 --> 00:46:35.140 would be written and implemented, 765 00:46:35.183 --> 00:46:38.883 and Iceland could resurrect as a Switzerland of bits. 766 00:46:38.926 --> 00:46:41.320 A digital safe haven where you could host, 767 00:46:41.363 --> 00:46:43.191 among other things, all the forbidden 768 00:46:43.235 --> 00:46:44.453 knowledge in our world. 769 00:46:44.976 --> 00:46:47.108 This vision is responsible for a lot 770 00:46:47.152 --> 00:46:48.849 of the data centers in Iceland. 771 00:47:10.349 --> 00:47:11.480 Um. 772 00:47:12.873 --> 00:47:15.658 Electricity and money are becoming the same thing. 773 00:47:16.181 --> 00:47:18.270 The transfer of money is the transfer of information. 774 00:47:18.313 --> 00:47:21.882 Money is constantly becoming more and more electrified. 775 00:47:21.926 --> 00:47:24.102 When you have cheap electricity available, 776 00:47:24.145 --> 00:47:25.755 you can turn it into money. 777 00:47:25.799 --> 00:47:28.584 That's why we need stable electricity, 778 00:47:28.628 --> 00:47:30.935 stable power supply, reliable partners 779 00:47:30.978 --> 00:47:32.458 like we have here in Iceland. 780 00:47:32.501 --> 00:47:34.242 We are seeing cryptocurrency 781 00:47:34.286 --> 00:47:36.462 disrupt the financial industry, 782 00:47:36.505 --> 00:47:39.378 or at least gaining a lot of traction. 783 00:47:39.421 --> 00:47:42.685 Banks have, for many years, been trading currency 784 00:47:42.729 --> 00:47:44.687 only electronically, when you store your money in the bank, 785 00:47:44.731 --> 00:47:46.646 they don't have a vault with cash in it, they just have 786 00:47:46.689 --> 00:47:48.474 a digital register themselves. 787 00:47:48.517 --> 00:47:51.520 One of the reasons I became fascinated with cryptocurrency 788 00:47:51.564 --> 00:47:55.916 was, I heard a story about migrant workers could move money 789 00:47:55.960 --> 00:47:59.267 back to their families without Western Union chipping in 790 00:47:59.311 --> 00:48:00.486 a big chunk of that. 791 00:48:00.529 --> 00:48:02.444 I also became fascinated 792 00:48:02.488 --> 00:48:04.620 by it because I don't want somebody 793 00:48:04.664 --> 00:48:07.232 to have access to every transaction I make. 794 00:48:07.275 --> 00:48:09.974 I don't care if I make normal transactions, 795 00:48:10.017 --> 00:48:12.933 I just don't want anybody to know exactly everything I do. 796 00:48:12.977 --> 00:48:16.806 We have to develop ways to regain our privacy, 797 00:48:16.850 --> 00:48:20.158 and cryptocurrency is certainly one way to do that. 798 00:48:20.201 --> 00:48:22.334 Iceland has some of the strictest privacy laws 799 00:48:22.377 --> 00:48:25.772 in the world, and when you consider their views on privacy 800 00:48:25.815 --> 00:48:29.080 along with a cool climate and cheap, abundant electricity, 801 00:48:29.123 --> 00:48:31.691 it makes perfect sense that Iceland has become a hotbed 802 00:48:31.734 --> 00:48:33.475 of cryptocurrency production. 803 00:48:33.954 --> 00:48:37.218 This is an industry that relies on high tensity 804 00:48:37.262 --> 00:48:40.004 with their infrastructure that is consuming a lot of energy. 805 00:48:40.047 --> 00:48:42.484 Here in Iceland we have free air cooling. 806 00:48:42.528 --> 00:48:47.054 We can rely on the cool air outside to cool down 807 00:48:47.098 --> 00:48:48.708 the servers in our data centers. 808 00:48:49.143 --> 00:48:51.841 Electricity intensity will definitely increase 809 00:48:51.885 --> 00:48:55.367 because it takes more hash power to mine one bitcoin. 810 00:48:55.410 --> 00:48:57.369 The more bitcoins are mined, more difficult 811 00:48:57.412 --> 00:48:59.240 it gets to mine one bitcoin. 812 00:48:59.719 --> 00:49:02.678 There are studies and predictions that say that 813 00:49:02.722 --> 00:49:05.464 the bitcoin network is going to consume 814 00:49:05.507 --> 00:49:08.989 as much power as Denmark in 2020. 815 00:49:09.033 --> 00:49:12.036 The deployed power behind that is massive. 816 00:49:21.306 --> 00:49:23.482 So, you've been your whole career with HS Orka then? 817 00:49:23.961 --> 00:49:25.571 Not the whole career, no. 818 00:49:26.180 --> 00:49:29.575 I've been here for around... or with HS Orka 819 00:49:29.618 --> 00:49:31.229 - for almost ten years. - I see. 820 00:49:32.056 --> 00:49:33.405 In terms of electricity, then, 821 00:49:33.448 --> 00:49:35.885 for all the geothermal 822 00:49:35.929 --> 00:49:38.018 in Iceland, about how much is produced here? 823 00:49:38.062 --> 00:49:42.544 We are producing, in total, 175 megabytes. 824 00:49:42.588 --> 00:49:44.851 Iceland has gone from undeveloped to developed. 825 00:49:44.894 --> 00:49:47.375 I've also been to Africa, to Ethiopia 826 00:49:47.419 --> 00:49:49.377 where, where they have very unstable electricity 827 00:49:49.421 --> 00:49:50.552 and you could see it. 828 00:49:51.075 --> 00:49:53.555 Where we were 50 years ago. 829 00:49:54.034 --> 00:49:55.601 So it's really only 50 years 830 00:49:55.644 --> 00:49:57.646 that Iceland's gone from completely dependent 831 00:49:57.690 --> 00:49:59.692 - on cod and diesel fuel... - Yeah. 832 00:49:59.735 --> 00:50:02.173 ...to one now where your electricity's all renewable. 833 00:50:02.216 --> 00:50:03.478 - Yeah. - And you're attracting 834 00:50:03.522 --> 00:50:04.523 industry from all over the world. 835 00:50:04.566 --> 00:50:05.654 Yeah. 836 00:50:06.133 --> 00:50:07.091 It's a simple question, 837 00:50:07.134 --> 00:50:08.092 what does electricity mean? 838 00:50:09.963 --> 00:50:10.877 Technology. 839 00:50:11.312 --> 00:50:12.139 Technology? 840 00:50:13.836 --> 00:50:14.837 Innovation 841 00:50:16.013 --> 00:50:18.798 and higher standards for living people. 842 00:50:19.494 --> 00:50:21.801 The evolution of Iceland's economy was due, 843 00:50:21.844 --> 00:50:24.673 in large part, to its ability to tap into its natural 844 00:50:24.717 --> 00:50:27.763 resources, like, geothermal and hydroelectric power. 845 00:50:27.807 --> 00:50:30.636 Just 50 years ago, the country's main export was cod. 846 00:50:30.679 --> 00:50:33.465 Today, Iceland has the world's highest per capita 847 00:50:33.508 --> 00:50:36.903 electricity consumption, over 53,000 kilowatt hours 848 00:50:36.946 --> 00:50:38.731 per year. And its main exports 849 00:50:38.774 --> 00:50:40.515 are things made with electricity. 850 00:50:40.559 --> 00:50:44.302 For us to survive, much less thrive as humanity, 851 00:50:44.345 --> 00:50:49.872 we have got to dramatically step up the energy availability 852 00:50:49.916 --> 00:50:52.049 and the cleanliness of that energy. 853 00:50:52.571 --> 00:50:56.314 Wars are fought over profound disparities 854 00:50:56.357 --> 00:50:59.360 in access to natural resources and access to information, 855 00:50:59.404 --> 00:51:01.971 and almost all of that goes back to the availability 856 00:51:02.015 --> 00:51:03.712 of cheap and plentiful electricity. 857 00:51:29.303 --> 00:51:30.739 Where history began, 858 00:51:30.783 --> 00:51:33.133 history today has made anew. 859 00:51:33.177 --> 00:51:35.788 In lands at once timeless and changing, 860 00:51:36.441 --> 00:51:40.532 fabled and mysterious, yet as sharply real as a headline, 861 00:51:40.575 --> 00:51:42.142 the lands of the Middle East. 862 00:51:54.589 --> 00:51:56.852 It's going to take 10 to 15 minutes to be in the hotel. 863 00:51:56.896 --> 00:51:58.506 - Thank you. - Oh, very welcome. 864 00:51:59.203 --> 00:52:00.421 Where are you coming from? 865 00:52:00.465 --> 00:52:02.858 - Texas. - Texas, America. 866 00:52:04.730 --> 00:52:08.037 I'm American, guys, I'm from Michigan. 867 00:52:08.081 --> 00:52:09.778 - No kidding? - I swear to God. 868 00:52:09.822 --> 00:52:11.389 I've wanted to come here my whole life. 869 00:52:11.432 --> 00:52:14.261 I've heard about Beirut my whole life. 870 00:52:14.305 --> 00:52:16.350 Enjoy then, enjoy, you going to be enjoyed. 871 00:52:31.800 --> 00:52:35.369 For 1975, the state of electric utility in Lebanon 872 00:52:35.413 --> 00:52:38.024 was so good that they were selling electricity to Syria. 873 00:52:38.067 --> 00:52:39.591 We didn't have any shortage, we didn't have 874 00:52:39.634 --> 00:52:41.201 any problem with the quality. 875 00:52:41.245 --> 00:52:43.464 And during the war, things started deteriorating. 876 00:52:44.857 --> 00:52:47.120 Stuck in the world's toughest neighborhood, 877 00:52:47.164 --> 00:52:50.079 Lebanon was once the crown jewel of the region. 878 00:52:50.123 --> 00:52:52.212 Its capital, Beirut, was called 879 00:52:52.256 --> 00:52:54.083 the Paris of the Middle East. 880 00:52:54.606 --> 00:52:57.522 But a 15 year civil war coupled with constant skirmishes 881 00:52:57.565 --> 00:52:59.567 with its neighbors, has left ordinary 882 00:52:59.611 --> 00:53:02.440 Lebanese living low watt lives. 883 00:53:02.483 --> 00:53:05.312 They were bombing roads, they were bombing, eh, power plants, 884 00:53:05.356 --> 00:53:08.359 so they were trying to break the infrastructure 885 00:53:08.402 --> 00:53:10.796 of the country, break the Lebanese economy 886 00:53:10.839 --> 00:53:14.365 to try, to somehow, make Lebanese give up on their government. 887 00:53:14.408 --> 00:53:17.237 Destroying electric infrastructure is a staple 888 00:53:17.281 --> 00:53:19.935 of modern warfare, the U.S. military bombed power plants 889 00:53:19.979 --> 00:53:23.156 in North Korea, in North Vietnam and in Iraq. 890 00:53:23.200 --> 00:53:25.332 Knocking out electricity supplies is considered 891 00:53:25.376 --> 00:53:28.466 a strategic move, like destroying bridges or roads. 892 00:53:29.031 --> 00:53:31.773 The Israelis were in conflict with Hezbollah 893 00:53:31.817 --> 00:53:34.994 and they actually wanted to penalize the Lebanese people 894 00:53:35.037 --> 00:53:38.519 because Hezbollah was and has been, and I think will continue 895 00:53:38.563 --> 00:53:40.347 to be, part of the Lebanese government. 896 00:53:40.391 --> 00:53:42.436 They are represented in the Parliament, they are represented 897 00:53:42.480 --> 00:53:43.785 in the Cabinet of Ministers. 898 00:53:43.829 --> 00:53:47.485 You have certain factions in this nation 899 00:53:47.528 --> 00:53:50.836 that do not care about the progression of the life 900 00:53:50.879 --> 00:53:52.359 of the ordinary Lebanese citizen. 901 00:53:52.403 --> 00:53:54.231 We lost a lot of, uh, infrastructure 902 00:53:54.753 --> 00:53:56.450 and we haven't recovered yet, 903 00:53:56.494 --> 00:53:58.670 why haven't we recovered? I think because 904 00:53:58.713 --> 00:54:01.020 we had lack of political will. 905 00:54:01.063 --> 00:54:03.762 The one reason in Lebanon that we do not have electricity 906 00:54:03.805 --> 00:54:06.808 is corruption, plain and simple. 907 00:54:06.852 --> 00:54:09.637 In Lebanon, you need to schedule life 908 00:54:09.681 --> 00:54:12.161 depending on electricity, you schedule your shower, 909 00:54:12.205 --> 00:54:15.426 you schedule when your washing machine, your washing time, 910 00:54:15.469 --> 00:54:17.166 you schedule everything depending 911 00:54:17.210 --> 00:54:18.777 on electricity in our daily lives. 912 00:54:18.820 --> 00:54:19.865 Do you pay two electric bills? 913 00:54:19.908 --> 00:54:21.040 As all Lebanese people, 914 00:54:21.083 --> 00:54:22.563 we pay two power electric bills, 915 00:54:22.607 --> 00:54:24.522 we pay one power electric bill to EDL 916 00:54:24.565 --> 00:54:25.958 and you pay like the double of that 917 00:54:26.001 --> 00:54:28.221 to the private generators in general. 918 00:54:28.265 --> 00:54:30.310 Let's be frank of this, so the average Lebanese, 919 00:54:30.354 --> 00:54:33.052 they need electricity, they need power, they don't need 920 00:54:33.095 --> 00:54:35.228 to live in the dark, so they don't care 921 00:54:35.272 --> 00:54:36.708 where this comes from, 922 00:54:37.230 --> 00:54:40.189 we can't live without electricity for 12 hours a day, 923 00:54:40.233 --> 00:54:43.932 so we have to rely on private generators or diesel generators, 924 00:54:43.976 --> 00:54:47.066 and we can't all afford it. So, the idea of having 925 00:54:47.109 --> 00:54:49.416 what we call a neighborhood generator evolved. 926 00:54:49.460 --> 00:54:51.592 Where every powerful person in the neighborhood, 927 00:54:52.071 --> 00:54:55.770 will buy a private generator, produce electricity 928 00:54:55.814 --> 00:54:57.598 and sell electricity to the neighborhood. 929 00:54:58.077 --> 00:55:00.166 That's we call the generator mafia. 930 00:55:00.209 --> 00:55:02.951 Do you know this term, the generator mafia? 931 00:55:03.430 --> 00:55:05.302 100%. 932 00:55:05.345 --> 00:55:07.173 - Um, 100%, yeah. - Everybody knows 933 00:55:07.216 --> 00:55:09.697 - about generator mafia? - Oh, yes, it's the mafia. 934 00:55:10.219 --> 00:55:12.918 They don't want to, to fix the electrical... 935 00:55:12.961 --> 00:55:14.136 They don't want the grid to work. 936 00:55:14.180 --> 00:55:15.312 Exactly. 937 00:55:15.747 --> 00:55:17.792 Because, you know, if they do the work 938 00:55:17.836 --> 00:55:20.012 and they give it to us, 24 hours, 939 00:55:20.055 --> 00:55:21.492 those mafias going to close. 940 00:55:21.535 --> 00:55:23.015 - Yeah. - They not going to make money. 941 00:55:23.058 --> 00:55:24.582 And this business is 942 00:55:24.625 --> 00:55:26.888 a very, it's a very big business, and it's hundreds 943 00:55:26.932 --> 00:55:28.890 and hundreds of billions of dollars. 944 00:55:28.934 --> 00:55:32.459 I don't think they would be happy if this business stops. 945 00:55:32.503 --> 00:55:35.636 Look, I am a positive person, I don't like to call 946 00:55:35.680 --> 00:55:38.639 these mafias, I, I would say 947 00:55:38.683 --> 00:55:42.034 these are companies or business men 948 00:55:42.077 --> 00:55:44.645 that were created by necessity. 949 00:55:44.689 --> 00:55:46.908 If the national utility was supplying electricity, 950 00:55:46.952 --> 00:55:49.171 reliably, 24 hours, this wouldn't have existed. 951 00:55:49.607 --> 00:55:51.565 I live, my parents live in a village, and I know, 952 00:55:51.609 --> 00:55:53.872 without those generators, life would have been 953 00:55:53.915 --> 00:55:55.352 much, much more difficult. 954 00:55:56.135 --> 00:55:58.920 They need the money, they taking the money from the people 955 00:55:58.964 --> 00:56:01.488 just to put in his... their, their pocket, government. 956 00:56:01.532 --> 00:56:03.185 First, the government. 957 00:56:03.229 --> 00:56:05.100 I'm talking about the government in Lebanon. 958 00:56:05.710 --> 00:56:09.975 The mafia, who's the government, the mafia, who's the government. 959 00:56:10.497 --> 00:56:14.936 EDL produces around 20 to 25 cents per kilowatt hour, 960 00:56:14.980 --> 00:56:17.461 and they are selling it around 10 to 11 cents, 961 00:56:17.504 --> 00:56:20.072 so the more they generate, the more they lose. 962 00:56:20.594 --> 00:56:23.423 At the time, the private generators, they generate 963 00:56:23.467 --> 00:56:26.948 at around 20 cents and they sell it around 27 cents. 964 00:56:26.992 --> 00:56:29.342 So, the more they generate, the more they make profit. 965 00:56:29.386 --> 00:56:31.605 So, if you look at this very simple equation, 966 00:56:31.649 --> 00:56:35.000 you would immediately conclude that EDL would lose money 967 00:56:35.043 --> 00:56:37.568 by producing electricity, whereas the private generators 968 00:56:37.611 --> 00:56:40.397 would, would make money by producing electricity so. 969 00:56:42.486 --> 00:56:44.401 Throughout our travels in Lebanon, 970 00:56:44.444 --> 00:56:47.229 I asked people what they thought of the generator mafia. 971 00:56:47.273 --> 00:56:50.363 The best answer, by far, came from an advisor 972 00:56:50.407 --> 00:56:51.799 to the Energy Minister. 973 00:56:52.583 --> 00:56:54.628 He paused for a moment and then replied, 974 00:56:54.672 --> 00:56:58.415 dead serious, "Well, they're not all mafia." 975 00:57:07.859 --> 00:57:10.470 We're here in Jounieh, Lebanon, just north of Beirut. 976 00:57:11.036 --> 00:57:12.994 My right over here is the old power plant. 977 00:57:13.038 --> 00:57:15.910 You can see the big fuel tanks and the old smoke stacks. 978 00:57:15.954 --> 00:57:18.826 It's not operating right now, but if you look over here, 979 00:57:18.870 --> 00:57:20.872 that's one of the Turkish power ships. 980 00:57:20.915 --> 00:57:23.091 Why are they leasing these power plants from the Turks? 981 00:57:23.135 --> 00:57:26.138 Because the power grid here in Lebanon is so fragile, 982 00:57:26.181 --> 00:57:28.401 they can't meet demand with the power generation 983 00:57:28.445 --> 00:57:31.012 stations that they have, so they're leasing them 984 00:57:31.056 --> 00:57:34.146 from the Turks. And what happens if they don't pay the bill? 985 00:57:34.189 --> 00:57:36.888 The Turks just take the power ship and sail back to Turkey. 986 00:57:44.765 --> 00:57:46.506 My name is Mustafa Baalbaki. 987 00:57:46.550 --> 00:57:48.943 I'm 30 years old, software engineer, 988 00:57:48.987 --> 00:57:50.510 living in Beirut, Lebanon. 989 00:57:50.554 --> 00:57:52.860 So, the cool feature of my app, Beirut Electricity, 990 00:57:52.904 --> 00:57:55.515 is that it provides you push notifications 991 00:57:55.559 --> 00:57:57.735 ten minutes ahead of time when the electricity will be off, 992 00:57:57.778 --> 00:58:00.477 so that you can maybe grab that elevator 993 00:58:00.520 --> 00:58:04.219 or just save your work before shutting down your computer. 994 00:58:04.263 --> 00:58:06.918 I'm not fixing the electricity issue here in Lebanon. 995 00:58:06.961 --> 00:58:09.790 I'm just trying to help people to cope with it. 996 00:58:11.270 --> 00:58:15.143 I returned to Lebanon in 2011 after a long career in energy, 997 00:58:15.187 --> 00:58:18.495 and I brought with me a coffee machine that I had purchased 998 00:58:18.538 --> 00:58:22.281 in Canada, and I love that machine because I'm used to it. 999 00:58:22.324 --> 00:58:25.240 It, it, it's fantastic, it grinds you fresh beans 1000 00:58:25.676 --> 00:58:28.417 at exactly at the time where it's brewing the coffee. 1001 00:58:28.461 --> 00:58:30.594 And you can program it to wake you up at seven o'clock 1002 00:58:30.637 --> 00:58:32.770 in the morning. And when I plugged it in Lebanon, 1003 00:58:32.813 --> 00:58:35.076 it woke me up at ten, and I realized they had 1004 00:58:35.120 --> 00:58:36.861 the power cut off three hours the same night. 1005 00:58:36.904 --> 00:58:40.778 My wife that actually I met in Canada, 1006 00:58:40.821 --> 00:58:43.476 she said, "Look, either you solve this problem, or I'm going back." 1007 00:58:43.520 --> 00:58:45.173 So, had to fix it. 1008 00:58:59.448 --> 00:59:01.581 Still going backwards. 1009 00:59:02.843 --> 00:59:04.192 Hey, E24, rock on. 1010 00:59:13.245 --> 00:59:16.422 The reason we are in Lebanon is because it's a great lab. 1011 00:59:16.857 --> 00:59:19.033 The first problem is environment. 1012 00:59:19.077 --> 00:59:22.428 We are breathing our own fumes. 1013 00:59:22.950 --> 00:59:25.518 The second issue is, I know households who are paying 1014 00:59:25.562 --> 00:59:27.607 800 dollars for their mortgage 1015 00:59:27.651 --> 00:59:30.958 and another 700 or 800 dollars for electricity. 1016 00:59:31.002 --> 00:59:34.396 It is overall a catastrophe on both economical 1017 00:59:34.440 --> 00:59:35.876 and environmental aspect. 1018 00:59:36.355 --> 00:59:40.402 The tendency today is for consumers to buy more iPhones, 1019 00:59:40.446 --> 00:59:44.711 more laptops, more ACs, more equipment in general. 1020 00:59:44.755 --> 00:59:46.757 All of those require electricity. 1021 00:59:47.235 --> 00:59:50.021 The infrastructure that every country on the planet has 1022 00:59:50.064 --> 00:59:52.414 is basically fixed, and it takes time. 1023 00:59:52.458 --> 00:59:54.939 And the larger the country, the more time it takes 1024 00:59:54.982 --> 00:59:56.331 to upgrade that infrastructure. 1025 00:59:57.506 --> 00:59:58.769 Micro-grids are the future. 1026 01:00:00.901 --> 01:00:02.860 In spite of Lebanon's many challenges, 1027 01:00:02.903 --> 01:00:06.341 corruption, war and a reliance on diesel generators 1028 01:00:06.385 --> 01:00:09.997 that are both expensive and dirty, along came E24. 1029 01:00:11.085 --> 01:00:14.262 Theirs was a two-fold solution, one part solar, 1030 01:00:14.306 --> 01:00:18.571 Lebanon has plenty of sunshine, and the other part, storage. 1031 01:00:18.615 --> 01:00:22.923 At a resort called, Qirzai, E24 is using lead acid batteries 1032 01:00:22.967 --> 01:00:26.666 designed in Bulgaria and manufactured in India 1033 01:00:26.710 --> 01:00:29.930 to store electricity produced by panels made in China. 1034 01:00:30.409 --> 01:00:33.325 It's a true micro-grid, unplugged from EDL 1035 01:00:33.368 --> 01:00:35.806 and beyond the reach of the generator mafia. 1036 01:00:36.807 --> 01:00:39.374 There's a lot of different sources of clean energy. 1037 01:00:39.810 --> 01:00:41.812 We need to be pursuing all of them. 1038 01:00:41.855 --> 01:00:43.683 There is an idea that, wouldn't it be great 1039 01:00:43.727 --> 01:00:45.990 if we could get the electricity for free? 1040 01:00:46.033 --> 01:00:47.687 Free in terms of its cost, 1041 01:00:47.731 --> 01:00:49.254 free in terms of its environmental impacts. 1042 01:00:49.297 --> 01:00:51.865 The idea of renewable energy 1043 01:00:51.909 --> 01:00:53.388 meets that need for some people, 1044 01:00:53.432 --> 01:00:54.912 because there's sunshine, there's wind. 1045 01:00:54.955 --> 01:00:57.436 We don't have to dirty the world to get that. 1046 01:00:57.479 --> 01:01:00.787 The idea that we can power the world on 100% 1047 01:01:00.831 --> 01:01:03.964 renewables, particularly wind and solar, is powerful 1048 01:01:04.008 --> 01:01:07.664 because it's pure and simple, it's sort of wholesome, 1049 01:01:07.707 --> 01:01:10.754 like your grandma's energy. People see, you know, 1050 01:01:10.797 --> 01:01:13.539 solar panels on a roof and that feels good to them. 1051 01:01:13.582 --> 01:01:16.107 We have to focus on cost, reliability 1052 01:01:16.150 --> 01:01:17.848 and environmental attributes. 1053 01:01:17.891 --> 01:01:22.200 We can't develop a system for decarbonization 1054 01:01:22.243 --> 01:01:23.941 that doesn't accomplish those goals. 1055 01:01:24.332 --> 01:01:25.812 Why do we care about climate change? It's not 1056 01:01:25.856 --> 01:01:27.901 because we care about the number, 1057 01:01:27.945 --> 01:01:31.426 the atmospheric CO2, it's because we're trying to protect 1058 01:01:31.470 --> 01:01:32.863 ourselves and protect the world we have around us 1059 01:01:32.906 --> 01:01:34.734 from the impact of climate change. 1060 01:01:34.778 --> 01:01:37.345 So why in the name of doing that would you flood a river forest? 1061 01:01:37.389 --> 01:01:39.043 Why would you cover the landscape with wind turbines? 1062 01:01:39.086 --> 01:01:41.610 Why would you take sensitive desert area for solar 1063 01:01:41.654 --> 01:01:43.830 if those were the values that we were seeking to protect 1064 01:01:43.874 --> 01:01:46.006 by the low carbon system, why would we go and interfere 1065 01:01:46.050 --> 01:01:48.879 with those values in the name of bringing down carbon? 1066 01:01:49.618 --> 01:01:51.359 One of the defining characteristics of debate 1067 01:01:51.403 --> 01:01:53.361 over energy and climate is, 1068 01:01:53.405 --> 01:01:54.885 it's vitriolic, it's nasty, 1069 01:01:54.928 --> 01:01:56.756 um, people have very strong views, 1070 01:01:56.800 --> 01:01:58.366 they also have very strong beliefs 1071 01:01:58.410 --> 01:01:59.977 that their views are the right ones. 1072 01:02:00.847 --> 01:02:05.156 We want to have broad access to a wide variety of 1073 01:02:05.199 --> 01:02:08.725 energy sources that meet the needs of modern life 1074 01:02:08.768 --> 01:02:12.206 for as much of the world's population as we can achieve, 1075 01:02:12.685 --> 01:02:15.993 cheaply, reliably and with attention paid 1076 01:02:16.036 --> 01:02:18.386 to the environmental impacts of producing their power. 1077 01:02:19.518 --> 01:02:22.869 That's the goal, should renewables be a part of that 1078 01:02:22.913 --> 01:02:25.219 solution, I think the answer is yes. 1079 01:02:25.829 --> 01:02:27.787 And then people start talking about things like, 1080 01:02:27.831 --> 01:02:30.834 "Okay, well, maybe instead of expanding the grid, 1081 01:02:30.877 --> 01:02:32.357 maybe we should give people solar lamps." 1082 01:02:32.400 --> 01:02:33.750 No, it doesn't work that way. 1083 01:02:33.793 --> 01:02:36.013 People are not going to eat solar lamps. 1084 01:02:36.056 --> 01:02:39.364 People are not going to be transformed by solar lamps. 1085 01:02:39.407 --> 01:02:43.324 I think the idea that we can move the entire economy 1086 01:02:43.368 --> 01:02:45.805 to a set of renewable energy resources, 1087 01:02:45.849 --> 01:02:48.286 it's really framing the objective in the wrong way 1088 01:02:48.329 --> 01:02:50.984 because it makes renewables the objective. 1089 01:02:51.680 --> 01:02:54.074 It turns the means into the end itself. 1090 01:02:54.683 --> 01:02:58.470 By creating this brand, renewable, which has put in the same basket, 1091 01:02:58.513 --> 01:03:01.908 a massive hydroelectric dam, a wind turbine 1092 01:03:02.387 --> 01:03:05.172 and a solar PV panel. They're remarkably different ways 1093 01:03:05.216 --> 01:03:07.784 of getting energy, each with respective advantages 1094 01:03:07.827 --> 01:03:10.134 and disadvantages. It's the opposite of what we actually 1095 01:03:10.177 --> 01:03:11.788 want in the system we're trying to provide. 1096 01:03:11.831 --> 01:03:13.702 We're not trying to create something chaotic. 1097 01:03:13.746 --> 01:03:16.053 We're trying to create something stable, predictable, 1098 01:03:16.096 --> 01:03:18.359 that can give people what they want, when they want it 1099 01:03:18.403 --> 01:03:20.797 at a low cost every hour of the year. 1100 01:03:21.449 --> 01:03:23.843 Preferably, you wouldn't do that with something that was driven by the weather. 1101 01:03:26.628 --> 01:03:28.543 If you care about the natural environment, 1102 01:03:28.587 --> 01:03:30.371 you're not going to create a power plant 1103 01:03:30.415 --> 01:03:31.851 that requires 1104 01:03:31.895 --> 01:03:33.984 150 times more land, 1105 01:03:34.027 --> 01:03:35.855 per unit of energy, than a nuclear plant. 1106 01:03:35.899 --> 01:03:40.294 Nuclear power was 50, 60 years ago, thought of as 1107 01:03:40.860 --> 01:03:43.210 our energy future, it was going to provide energy that was too 1108 01:03:43.254 --> 01:03:46.474 cheap to meter, and that everyone would have free energy. 1109 01:03:46.518 --> 01:03:49.303 Nuclear power became perceived as risky, 1110 01:03:49.347 --> 01:03:52.480 and high profile events like Chernobyl and Fukushima have contributed 1111 01:03:52.524 --> 01:03:54.178 to that public perception. 1112 01:03:54.221 --> 01:03:55.483 May I say something? 1113 01:03:55.527 --> 01:03:56.658 Go ahead. 1114 01:03:58.399 --> 01:04:00.053 The energy in the atom is the most 1115 01:04:00.097 --> 01:04:02.664 destructive force the world has ever seen. 1116 01:04:03.448 --> 01:04:05.580 It can also be one of the greatest blessings. 1117 01:04:05.624 --> 01:04:08.018 God has ever given us, which is it to be? 1118 01:04:08.496 --> 01:04:10.847 When people consider environmental protection, 1119 01:04:10.890 --> 01:04:13.240 nuclear energy is likely one of the last things 1120 01:04:13.284 --> 01:04:17.201 to come to mind, it seems divorced from nature. 1121 01:04:17.244 --> 01:04:18.985 I understand that sentiment. 1122 01:04:19.029 --> 01:04:20.465 The first article I ever published 1123 01:04:20.508 --> 01:04:22.336 was an anti-nuclear piece. 1124 01:04:22.380 --> 01:04:25.426 I was in high school, and like many people from that era, 1125 01:04:25.470 --> 01:04:27.820 I associated anything having to do with nuclear 1126 01:04:27.864 --> 01:04:29.822 with the war effort and the military. 1127 01:04:29.866 --> 01:04:32.738 Fear of nuclear, and especially, from environmental 1128 01:04:32.781 --> 01:04:36.133 organizations is really a long standing tradition. 1129 01:04:36.176 --> 01:04:38.918 Most of these environmental organizations really came out 1130 01:04:38.962 --> 01:04:42.356 of anti-war organizations, they benefited a lot 1131 01:04:42.400 --> 01:04:45.925 from conflating nuclear power with nuclear weapons. 1132 01:04:45.969 --> 01:04:48.667 You know, early nuclear designs did come out of the military, 1133 01:04:48.710 --> 01:04:50.364 so I think there's that association for people 1134 01:04:50.408 --> 01:04:53.367 who don't like that big, military industrial complex. 1135 01:04:57.284 --> 01:05:00.200 - So, where we going, Robert? - We're at the Indian Point Energy Center 1136 01:05:00.244 --> 01:05:02.072 in the village of Buchanan, New York. 1137 01:05:02.724 --> 01:05:06.032 This is the largest nuclear plant in the state of New York. 1138 01:05:22.092 --> 01:05:24.007 Today I'm at the Indian Point Energy Center, 1139 01:05:24.050 --> 01:05:26.531 located about 40 miles north of New York City. 1140 01:05:26.574 --> 01:05:29.577 This plant has been operating since 1962 1141 01:05:29.621 --> 01:05:32.929 and today it produces about 25% of all the electricity 1142 01:05:32.972 --> 01:05:34.931 consumed in the city of New York. 1143 01:05:35.453 --> 01:05:37.716 These two reactors behind me produce more than 2,000 1144 01:05:37.759 --> 01:05:39.544 megawatts of electricity. 1145 01:05:40.066 --> 01:05:41.807 The amazing thing about this plant is that is sits on 1146 01:05:41.850 --> 01:05:43.983 about one square kilometer of land. 1147 01:05:44.984 --> 01:05:47.160 As uranium atoms in the nuclear reactor 1148 01:05:47.204 --> 01:05:50.033 disintegrate, tremendous amounts of heat are generated. 1149 01:05:50.511 --> 01:05:52.818 When the heat is transferred to a liquid 1150 01:05:52.861 --> 01:05:54.298 and the liquid has circulated from 1151 01:05:54.341 --> 01:05:55.952 the reactor to a boiler room, 1152 01:05:55.995 --> 01:05:57.736 it can produce steam. 1153 01:05:58.171 --> 01:06:01.218 Steam drives a generator to produce electricity. 1154 01:06:01.740 --> 01:06:04.090 Getting into Indian Point wasn't easy. 1155 01:06:04.134 --> 01:06:06.571 We went through multiple security checkpoints 1156 01:06:06.614 --> 01:06:10.227 and multiple ID checks, but once inside I was, 1157 01:06:10.270 --> 01:06:13.143 as the Brits like to say, gobsmacked. 1158 01:06:13.186 --> 01:06:15.972 I've seen oil fields, coal mines, gas plants, 1159 01:06:16.015 --> 01:06:18.365 hydro plants, refineries and all kinds of factories, 1160 01:06:18.931 --> 01:06:21.064 but Indian Point was an engineering marvel. 1161 01:06:21.542 --> 01:06:23.240 A relic from another era. 1162 01:06:24.110 --> 01:06:26.983 Indian Point covers one square kilometer. 1163 01:06:27.026 --> 01:06:29.768 Replacing its output with wind energy would require 1164 01:06:29.811 --> 01:06:32.814 covering more than 13 hundred square kilometers 1165 01:06:32.858 --> 01:06:34.860 with wind turbines. That's one and half 1166 01:06:34.903 --> 01:06:36.340 times the size of New York City. 1167 01:06:37.950 --> 01:06:40.387 This pad will hold about 75 years' worth 1168 01:06:40.431 --> 01:06:42.041 of nuclear fuel. 1169 01:06:42.085 --> 01:06:43.521 - So, the spent fuel. - Of spent fuel. 1170 01:06:43.564 --> 01:06:45.958 So, in eight decades of reactor years, 1171 01:06:46.002 --> 01:06:47.394 - right? - Right. 1172 01:06:47.438 --> 01:06:48.787 You can fit all of the waste 1173 01:06:48.830 --> 01:06:51.311 from all of that in this area 1174 01:06:51.355 --> 01:06:53.313 which, I don't know, a couple tennis courts, maybe? 1175 01:06:53.357 --> 01:06:55.054 The likelihood of somebody coming along 1176 01:06:55.098 --> 01:06:56.490 and carrying one of these off is... 1177 01:06:56.534 --> 01:06:58.405 It's impossible, each cast weighs 1178 01:06:58.449 --> 01:07:00.712 about 230,000 pounds when loaded. 1179 01:07:04.020 --> 01:07:05.978 You can see our equipment that moves it, it moves 1180 01:07:06.022 --> 01:07:09.329 at about one mile an hour, it's, you know, a tank, basically. 1181 01:07:11.592 --> 01:07:14.204 So, the original plan was for the federal government 1182 01:07:14.247 --> 01:07:18.034 to come in and take that fuel off the hands of the utilities, 1183 01:07:18.077 --> 01:07:20.558 and when the utilities realized that that... that wasn't 1184 01:07:20.601 --> 01:07:23.343 going to happen, they basically invented dry cast storage, 1185 01:07:23.387 --> 01:07:25.432 so they could safely store it on site. 1186 01:07:25.476 --> 01:07:27.652 Just really a political issue about 1187 01:07:27.695 --> 01:07:29.828 what to do with it long-term. 1188 01:07:29.871 --> 01:07:31.656 Indian Point is suffering a fate similar 1189 01:07:31.699 --> 01:07:33.484 to that of many nuclear facilities 1190 01:07:33.527 --> 01:07:36.965 throughout the U.S., premature closure. 1191 01:07:37.009 --> 01:07:40.578 Since 2013, U.S. utilities have closed or announced 1192 01:07:40.621 --> 01:07:43.624 the closure of 15 nuclear power plants. 1193 01:07:44.234 --> 01:07:46.845 In many cases, those reactors including the ones 1194 01:07:46.888 --> 01:07:49.891 at Indian Point, could've obtained license extensions 1195 01:07:49.935 --> 01:07:52.155 that would've allowed them to continue operating 1196 01:07:52.198 --> 01:07:53.591 for decades into the future. 1197 01:08:06.169 --> 01:08:08.867 So, we've been known for many years as the smallest 1198 01:08:08.910 --> 01:08:11.609 municipality with nuclear power plants in it. 1199 01:08:11.652 --> 01:08:14.090 And there's generations of people 1200 01:08:14.133 --> 01:08:15.743 who have worked at that plant, 1201 01:08:15.787 --> 01:08:17.397 continue to work at that plant. 1202 01:08:17.876 --> 01:08:20.531 Entergy is the largest employer here, 1203 01:08:20.574 --> 01:08:22.663 they employ over 1,000 people. 1204 01:08:22.707 --> 01:08:25.623 Our budget in the village Buchanan is approximately 1205 01:08:25.666 --> 01:08:28.104 six million dollars, we're looking at losing half 1206 01:08:28.147 --> 01:08:30.323 of our budget when Entergy closes. 1207 01:08:30.367 --> 01:08:32.934 When you talk about replacing three million dollars 1208 01:08:32.978 --> 01:08:35.720 and replacing 1,000 jobs, 1209 01:08:35.763 --> 01:08:38.723 that's, that's a pretty s... steep hill to climb. 1210 01:08:51.475 --> 01:08:53.738 We're seeing a lot of these nuclear power plants close 1211 01:08:53.781 --> 01:08:56.871 prematurely in the U.S. and almost everywhere, 1212 01:08:56.915 --> 01:08:59.047 when they closed, they're being replaced by natural gas. 1213 01:08:59.091 --> 01:09:00.919 That's the first choice for utilities. 1214 01:09:01.876 --> 01:09:04.140 For Indian Point, they are planning to replace 1215 01:09:04.183 --> 01:09:06.707 the generation from Indian Point with natural gas, 1216 01:09:06.751 --> 01:09:10.798 which is a huge loss for the state of New York, 1217 01:09:10.842 --> 01:09:14.715 because New York has a very ambitious climate target 1218 01:09:14.759 --> 01:09:18.632 to reduce emissions, and Indian Point is about 25% 1219 01:09:18.676 --> 01:09:20.373 of the electricity for New York City. 1220 01:09:20.417 --> 01:09:24.203 So, taking that offline and replacing it with natural gas, 1221 01:09:24.247 --> 01:09:27.206 that's a big step backwards if you're concerned 1222 01:09:27.250 --> 01:09:29.252 about climate and trying to reduce emissions. 1223 01:09:29.295 --> 01:09:32.559 Indian Point is a built system, there are a lot of assets 1224 01:09:32.603 --> 01:09:35.301 that have already been invested in Indian Point. 1225 01:09:35.345 --> 01:09:38.957 It's zero carbon emitting, so if we want to reduce 1226 01:09:39.000 --> 01:09:42.090 carbon emissions in New York City, then we really don't want 1227 01:09:42.134 --> 01:09:45.529 to be removing a source of power 1228 01:09:45.572 --> 01:09:47.270 when it's not emitting carbon. 1229 01:09:47.313 --> 01:09:50.708 I commend reforming the energy vision as a vision, 1230 01:09:50.751 --> 01:09:53.624 as an ambitious plan, Indian Point 1231 01:09:53.667 --> 01:09:55.452 contributes to that vision. 1232 01:09:55.495 --> 01:09:58.368 To me, it just doesn't seem to really make good 1233 01:09:58.411 --> 01:10:00.544 economic or environmental sense. 1234 01:10:01.240 --> 01:10:03.590 It's a premature political decision. 1235 01:10:03.634 --> 01:10:06.550 Reducing carbon emissions, fighting climate change 1236 01:10:06.593 --> 01:10:09.640 is a big challenge, and you don't want to take anything off 1237 01:10:09.683 --> 01:10:12.338 the table, I think we're going to need a lot 1238 01:10:12.382 --> 01:10:15.428 more wind and solar, for sure, but we're also going to need 1239 01:10:15.472 --> 01:10:18.257 a lot more nuclear and a lot more natural gas to replace coal. 1240 01:10:19.780 --> 01:10:21.652 You're either a climate change denier 1241 01:10:21.695 --> 01:10:24.524 or a believer, it's drill baby drill 1242 01:10:24.568 --> 01:10:26.613 or save the spotted owl. 1243 01:10:26.657 --> 01:10:29.137 Like most things in life, especially with something 1244 01:10:29.181 --> 01:10:33.359 as complex as electricity, it just isn't that simple. 1245 01:10:33.838 --> 01:10:36.797 But here's what we know, there are over three billion 1246 01:10:36.841 --> 01:10:40.323 people in the world today without adequate access 1247 01:10:40.366 --> 01:10:43.630 to electricity, in order to empower the low watt world 1248 01:10:43.674 --> 01:10:45.893 and keep up with the ever increasing power demand 1249 01:10:45.937 --> 01:10:49.723 from high watt citizens, we're going to need a lot more juice. 1250 01:10:50.202 --> 01:10:52.030 What's the iron law of climate? 1251 01:10:52.073 --> 01:10:55.120 So, the iron law of climate is based on the idea that... 1252 01:10:55.163 --> 01:10:57.688 There, there's really only two ways that we can reduce emissions. 1253 01:10:57.731 --> 01:10:59.994 One is we could become poorer, 1254 01:11:00.038 --> 01:11:01.692 the other is that we can use technology 1255 01:11:01.735 --> 01:11:04.129 through how we source and use energy. 1256 01:11:04.172 --> 01:11:06.392 The iron law says we're not going to reduce emissions 1257 01:11:06.436 --> 01:11:08.612 by willingly getting poorer, 1258 01:11:08.655 --> 01:11:10.309 rich people aren't going to want to get poorer, 1259 01:11:10.353 --> 01:11:12.268 poor people aren't going to want to get poorer. 1260 01:11:12.311 --> 01:11:15.227 If there's one thing that we can count on, it's that policy makers 1261 01:11:15.271 --> 01:11:18.578 will be rewarded by populations if they make people 1262 01:11:18.622 --> 01:11:21.320 wealthier, so GDP is going to go up, we're doing everything 1263 01:11:21.364 --> 01:11:24.062 we can to try to get richer as nations, as communities, 1264 01:11:24.105 --> 01:11:27.805 as individuals, so if we want to reduce emissions, 1265 01:11:27.848 --> 01:11:30.895 we really have only one place to go, and that's technology. 1266 01:11:35.682 --> 01:11:37.467 I think the reason that nuclear is special is that 1267 01:11:37.510 --> 01:11:40.687 it's the only way to lift everybody out of poverty 1268 01:11:40.731 --> 01:11:42.646 and solve climate change. 1269 01:11:43.168 --> 01:11:45.301 People don't appreciate the quantum of difference. 1270 01:11:45.344 --> 01:11:47.215 We've seen a step up of energy density in the fields 1271 01:11:47.259 --> 01:11:50.131 that we've used today, going from wood to charcoal, 1272 01:11:50.175 --> 01:11:54.919 coal, oil, gas... and then suddenly you step up 1273 01:11:55.398 --> 01:11:59.053 two orders of a magnitude to uranium. 1274 01:11:59.097 --> 01:12:01.273 In a piece of uranium the size of a walnut, 1275 01:12:01.317 --> 01:12:04.058 there's as much potential energy as in the amount 1276 01:12:04.102 --> 01:12:06.670 of coal to fill a 100 car train. 1277 01:12:06.713 --> 01:12:08.585 We're not going to get a better battery than that. 1278 01:12:08.628 --> 01:12:11.370 So, here's the only way to make electricity production 1279 01:12:11.414 --> 01:12:15.069 that contains all of its toxic waste, all of it. 1280 01:12:15.592 --> 01:12:17.376 I was raised in the environmental school of thought 1281 01:12:17.420 --> 01:12:19.160 that was telling me the world was getting worse, 1282 01:12:19.204 --> 01:12:21.554 and then I hit my 30's and started doing my own research 1283 01:12:21.598 --> 01:12:24.078 and realized, actually, on, on so many metrics the world 1284 01:12:24.122 --> 01:12:26.472 has got better, we're just stuck in an energy paradox 1285 01:12:26.516 --> 01:12:29.649 that the energy that's helping us make the world get better 1286 01:12:29.693 --> 01:12:31.956 has this horrible side effect, let's get rid 1287 01:12:31.999 --> 01:12:34.350 of the side effect, let's not get rid of the energy. 1288 01:12:35.176 --> 01:12:38.310 This idea that there's too many people and that we all 1289 01:12:38.354 --> 01:12:42.140 have to reduce our energy consumption, the only people 1290 01:12:42.183 --> 01:12:43.750 in the world who say that are rich people. 1291 01:12:43.794 --> 01:12:45.796 I, I go around the world, I interview small farmers 1292 01:12:45.839 --> 01:12:48.146 everywhere, India, Africa, Latin America, Asia, 1293 01:12:48.189 --> 01:12:50.017 I've never had a small farmer 1294 01:12:50.061 --> 01:12:52.411 tell me that there's too many people and that 1295 01:12:52.455 --> 01:12:56.720 we consume too much, never, you know, um, never had that happen. 1296 01:12:58.069 --> 01:12:59.853 Whenever we think about electricity, 1297 01:12:59.897 --> 01:13:02.421 if we think about it at all, we tend to think 1298 01:13:02.465 --> 01:13:05.990 of it on our own terms, as long as we can flip on 1299 01:13:06.033 --> 01:13:08.819 the air conditioner, charge our phone, watch TV 1300 01:13:08.862 --> 01:13:11.778 and surf the web, we take it for granted. 1301 01:13:11.822 --> 01:13:15.173 Electricity's just there, ever present, invisible, 1302 01:13:15.216 --> 01:13:17.480 making our high watt lives richer. 1303 01:13:18.263 --> 01:13:20.091 That's why we hit the road. 1304 01:13:20.787 --> 01:13:23.486 It's why we traveled over 60,000 miles and interviewed 1305 01:13:23.529 --> 01:13:26.271 more than 50 people over a three-year period. 1306 01:13:26.793 --> 01:13:29.230 We talked to professors and authors, engineers 1307 01:13:29.274 --> 01:13:31.798 and activists, and, of course, to people who grapple 1308 01:13:31.842 --> 01:13:34.453 with electricity poverty on a daily basis. 1309 01:13:35.149 --> 01:13:36.934 Their answers and observations 1310 01:13:36.977 --> 01:13:38.805 were as varied as their backgrounds, 1311 01:13:39.545 --> 01:13:43.114 but they could, on occasion, find common ground. 1312 01:13:43.941 --> 01:13:45.203 What does electricity mean? 1313 01:13:45.246 --> 01:13:47.640 Electricity means prosperity, 1314 01:13:47.684 --> 01:13:50.208 means good life, means business. 1315 01:13:50.251 --> 01:13:52.689 What does electricity mean? I feel like it means life. 1316 01:13:52.732 --> 01:13:54.865 Electricity means opportunity. 1317 01:13:54.908 --> 01:13:57.345 Electricity is the life blood of a modern society. 1318 01:13:57.389 --> 01:14:00.653 Modern society is hooked on electricity. 1319 01:14:00.697 --> 01:14:04.918 If we can't keep our hospitals open, our ventilators going, 1320 01:14:04.962 --> 01:14:08.487 our refrigeration going, it all requires electricity. 1321 01:14:08.531 --> 01:14:11.142 Electricity means you are a human being. 1322 01:14:11.185 --> 01:14:12.926 If you don't have food, you can't live. 1323 01:14:12.970 --> 01:14:14.275 In a modern world, if you don't have 1324 01:14:14.319 --> 01:14:16.060 electricity, you don't have food. 1325 01:14:16.103 --> 01:14:17.627 If you don't have electricity, 1326 01:14:17.670 --> 01:14:19.977 you're cut off from policy making, 1327 01:14:20.020 --> 01:14:22.545 if you are not plugged in, how will you know? 1328 01:14:22.588 --> 01:14:25.504 How will you have mobile money, how will you have a bank account? 1329 01:14:25.548 --> 01:14:28.986 Electricity is like gold to us, without electricity, 1330 01:14:29.552 --> 01:14:32.293 we're nowhere, we go backwards, not forward. 1331 01:14:32.337 --> 01:14:34.121 No human should live on this planet 1332 01:14:34.165 --> 01:14:36.472 without basic access to electricity. 1333 01:14:36.515 --> 01:14:39.518 I see electricity as a basic human right. 1334 01:14:39.562 --> 01:14:42.042 I think people have basic rights, 1335 01:14:42.086 --> 01:14:44.349 rights for water, rights for necessity. 1336 01:14:44.392 --> 01:14:46.351 It should be the universal access, 1337 01:14:46.394 --> 01:14:48.962 everybody at the same level, 1338 01:14:49.006 --> 01:14:51.443 imagine how much more we can do? 1339 01:14:51.487 --> 01:14:53.314 You think about the potential of that. 1340 01:14:53.358 --> 01:14:57.014 When you can marriage dense fuel, particularly electricity 1341 01:14:57.057 --> 01:15:00.104 with human ingenuity, we can do nearly anything. 1342 01:15:01.453 --> 01:15:03.542 As I drove home, I thought about the battles 1343 01:15:03.586 --> 01:15:06.197 that are waged in the name of electricity in the U.S., 1344 01:15:06.240 --> 01:15:08.329 and couldn't help but compare them to what I had seen. 1345 01:15:08.982 --> 01:15:11.898 While we bicker about our favorite electricity sources, 1346 01:15:11.942 --> 01:15:14.205 billions of people are still stuck in the dark. 1347 01:15:15.119 --> 01:15:17.643 Electricity explains the world because everywhere 1348 01:15:17.687 --> 01:15:20.864 we went we saw how the electric grid reflected the society 1349 01:15:20.907 --> 01:15:23.997 it was powering. In Reykjavik, they smelt aluminum 1350 01:15:24.041 --> 01:15:27.000 and mine bitcoin because their electricity's almost free. 1351 01:15:28.088 --> 01:15:30.308 In Beirut, people endure daily blackouts 1352 01:15:30.351 --> 01:15:32.223 because the city's grid has been hobbled 1353 01:15:32.266 --> 01:15:34.573 by endless war and corruption. 1354 01:15:35.052 --> 01:15:37.707 Electricity, or rather, electricity access, 1355 01:15:37.750 --> 01:15:39.056 pits two of the toughest challenges 1356 01:15:39.099 --> 01:15:41.275 of our day against each other. 1357 01:15:41.319 --> 01:15:43.582 Energy poverty versus climate change. 1358 01:15:44.061 --> 01:15:47.238 There is no easy, one size fits all solution. 1359 01:15:47.281 --> 01:15:49.545 The only certainty is that people will do whatever 1360 01:15:49.588 --> 01:15:52.635 they have to do to get the electricity they need. 1361 01:15:52.678 --> 01:15:55.507 The challenge, it's a daunting one, is this. 1362 01:15:56.203 --> 01:15:58.989 We have to double global electricity production 1363 01:15:59.032 --> 01:16:01.687 over the next three decades or so, and we're going to need 1364 01:16:01.731 --> 01:16:05.604 solar, nuclear, coal, gas, geothermal, wind and hydro, 1365 01:16:05.648 --> 01:16:07.693 all of it, to make that happen. 1366 01:16:08.564 --> 01:16:11.523 Governments aren't going to wait around for academics 1367 01:16:11.567 --> 01:16:14.134 to resolve their disputes, people around the world 1368 01:16:14.178 --> 01:16:16.397 are going to demand access to electricity. 1369 01:16:16.441 --> 01:16:18.791 Can we, the developed industrialized world, 1370 01:16:18.835 --> 01:16:20.967 help these countries 1371 01:16:21.011 --> 01:16:24.449 move towards a place of political stability 1372 01:16:24.971 --> 01:16:28.235 and help them along the road to electrification? 1373 01:16:28.279 --> 01:16:30.629 We are spending so much of time, how do we provide 1374 01:16:30.673 --> 01:16:33.110 sanitation, how do you provide... just provide 1375 01:16:33.153 --> 01:16:35.329 electricity and everything will come. 1376 01:16:35.373 --> 01:16:38.942 I think this is a wonderful opportunity to start fresh. 1377 01:16:38.985 --> 01:16:42.815 To look at new ideas, to experiment, I want to be totally 1378 01:16:42.859 --> 01:16:45.644 sustainable, I want to be off the grid, I want to be able 1379 01:16:45.688 --> 01:16:49.735 to take charge of my future and my business 1380 01:16:49.779 --> 01:16:52.172 and not depend on a third person. 1381 01:16:52.216 --> 01:16:56.176 It's both an opportunity, but also an impending challenge, 1382 01:16:56.220 --> 01:16:58.352 and it all goes back to electricity, 1383 01:16:58.396 --> 01:17:02.182 it shouldn't be an either or trade off, we can't afford 1384 01:17:02.226 --> 01:17:05.621 to choose electricity over climate change. 1385 01:17:05.664 --> 01:17:07.187 I mean, the moment we start trying to trade 1386 01:17:07.231 --> 01:17:10.538 these things off, something has to lose. 1387 01:17:10.582 --> 01:17:12.758 If people have a choice between either no energy 1388 01:17:12.802 --> 01:17:14.978 and dirty energy, they will take dirty energy every time. 1389 01:17:15.718 --> 01:17:17.110 By mid-century, 1390 01:17:17.154 --> 01:17:19.722 something, like, 75 to 80% of the world's 1391 01:17:19.765 --> 01:17:23.334 population is going to live in an urban or suburban setting. 1392 01:17:24.465 --> 01:17:28.382 It's going to be populated by people who really 1393 01:17:28.426 --> 01:17:31.211 don't want to have to think about their electricity. 1394 01:17:32.125 --> 01:17:34.388 They want to walk in a room, they want to flip on a light 1395 01:17:34.432 --> 01:17:36.826 and they want the light to work, just like us.