as a child I thought that electricity
was magic and how could I not you don’t
have a wand but you simply flick a
switch and you get light your TV starts
entertaining you your clothes get washed
as an adult of course this changes a
little bit you stop seeing wonder and
you start seeing utility and it’s very
easy to take for granted what energy
that’s for us every day so just for a
minute think what your life would be
like if you had absolutely no
electricity in your life I mean no oven
no computer no traffic lights and God
forbid no smartphone but really to be
honest we’ve taken it for granted so
much that today when we think of our
energy it’s mostly when it goes wrong or
well when you get the bill right because
it’s never good news but we don’t think
about the whole system that is bringing
it together the magic behind it on how
it’s been generated and transformed and
transported sometimes over hundreds or
thousands of miles and is made available
to you at the exact time that you just
flick the switch and for a minute I’d
like you to think how lucky we are there
are millions actually billions of people
in the world that don’t have any access
to energy in fact my friends Alex and
Cornelius they started a company called
powwow me and would power me thus it
makes available to rural areas in Kenya
where people don’t have access to the
grid and it tells them essentially solar
panels small solar panels with a battery
they list it and they pay every month a
fee and after a certain amount of months
the power meter system is theirs to keep
there are 1.2 billion people in the
world that don’t have access to
electricity
but electricity has been shown to be the
single highest factor when bringing
people out of poverty and it’s not that
electricity creates wealth by itself but
it affords people the opportunity to
create things for themselves in fact the
World Bank has found that in an
electrified community income grows about
38 percent a year so that is quite
significant and power means by no means
the first one and doing this there are
lots of company doing it but in their
short eight months they’ve already
reached 8,000 people which is sixteen
hundred families and they have also
managed to create 200 local work jobs
can you imagine in an otherwise and
dynamic community what this means in
terms of economic growth children can go
to school they can do homework
opportunities can be sucked but what is
clear is that solar energy is becoming
to the energy system as a whole what the
internet was to music and to content to
information think about this before the
internet we got our newspaper and we
will receivers consumers of information
consumers of music but after the
internet we created it ourselves
and not only that but we were able to
share it with the world
solar energy does the same for energy
and as a consequence it changes the
whole system and I guess you know you’ll
be wondering how did we get here how did
we change the system well the reason is
we got to a point where three key
innovations happen the first innovation
is that photovoltaic solar has gotten
really cheap I mean really cheap over
the past few months and years every time
we double the deployment of solar PV the
actual cost comes down by 20 to 25
percent this is huge because despite the
fact that PV is growing very quickly
with tiny percentage of the system so we
have a lot of room to grow and
furthermore the great thing about solar
energy is that
the fuel is free so once you pay for the
hardware pretty much create a new energy
is almost free right you only have to
pay in maintenance costs and what this
means is if you are in a system in which
you are paying very very little for
energy but then you’re paying a lot
comparatively to bring it to your home
then something needs to change and what
you need to do is you need to generate
that energy close to you right so that
means the whole system has got to change
the second innovation is storage
technologies it is clear that when the
sun is shining when there is wind energy
then obviously is not a problem we have
energy but what about when we don’t have
either of those things well we need a
way to be able to store that energy for
when we need it and now we have it there
is been a lot of innovation spurred by a
lot of investment from different
technologies batteries are coming down
very quickly in costs and they’re
improving in quality in less than a
decade we’re going to have batteries
that can take us days even into storing
energy so that is again going to change
the game if you can produce energy very
cheap and then store it very cheap then
it’s very cheap essentially the third
innovation is actually a merging of
industries and that is the electric
vehicle industry electric vehicles are
set to overtake or equal the price of
combustion engine vehicles by 2025 that
means in 2025 you’ll go into a shop in
an electric vehicle will cost you the
exact same as a combustion engine
vehicle not to run just upfront costs
and those are range in the range of
about 200 to 500 kilometres in a one
single charge so it’s pretty significant
what it means is that the cost of having
an electric vehicle comparatively is
going to be a lot lot cheaper and think
about this we more and more especially
in urban centres we don’t own our cars
in fact what we do is we’ll rent one
when we need it
the
car renting schemes car sharing schemes
in most of cities around the world and
with self-driving cars especially in
taxes the whole system is gonna change
again because we no longer had a lot of
different owners but one owner that has
think about this a lot of batteries that
can take energy one they wanted and they
can put it back in the air and the
industry when they want it and they can
move it around the city they become a
huge player a broker that takes energy
when we have it and puts it back when we
need it they become almost a utility so
things are changing a lot but threat not
tomorrow when you wake up none of the
things would have happened yet and that
is because innovation takes time it
takes years sometimes decades for
example in another industry you know we
had telecommunications who had the
Telegraph and then we had the lamb lines
you know we had to kind of talk next to
the wall you know when we talk to our
friends and then from the 90s we’ve got
mobile phones and then eventually in
2006 the smartphone appeared right but
this was not the case at all for Africa
or India in fact in Africa and India the
penetration of Telegraph and the
protection of landline is very very very
small it was mobile phones that got to
the vast majority of people and this is
what made the difference because she
completely changed their lives and
what’s more they paid less for their
innovation and they got it quick they
got it better and they didn’t pay they
paid less for it but what about us then
let’s do a show of hands hands up who
has a landline at home today please
hands up hands up
okay what let’s say about 40 percent of
the people
hands up who actually uses it rather
than to call you Rama hands up all right
what ten percent of people maybe and
just to be clear to make sure I don’t
make this stuff up who has either a
mobile phone or smartphone here today
please right okay point mate the thing
is innovation happen over the next the
last couple of deck
and you guys all embraced it and he
looked too scary at first but you
embraced it and it’s part of your daily
life in fact it’s in your pocket and
that doesn’t mean that you just went
away and didn’t use the last stuff
anymore you’re still using it it’s just
not a significant part of your life well
the same is happening with the energy
system it’s changing is going into a
distributed system it’s changing the way
it works but it won’t happen overnight
what it means though is that if instead
of looking at it as if it’s too scary
it’s a threat oh my god what’s gonna
happen and we look at it as an
opportunity as an ability to of new
companies of new business models or new
opportunities
this is where the magic happens and
there are companies already doing that
let me give you an example there is
power me and there are another 1.2
billion people that need help getting
energy that is a huge opportunity for
entrepreneurs there is a company called
solar city in the u.s. their sister
company to Tesla and what they do is
they’re a utility but with a twist
they change the business model so they
go to your home they put solar panels on
your rooftop you sign a contract with
them and you buy energy from them and
from day one you paid nothing for the
system and you are already saving 50% of
your bills that seems pretty good right
and after a certain amount of years your
contract runs out and just like that the
system’s yours and they are not even the
only ones doing this there are other
companies that are investing in your
energy efficiency in your home so what
they’re doing is they’re putting
essentially insulation in your home
changing your light bulbs your
appliances putting a small thermometer
and maybe a small battery they’re
looking into how you use your energy and
they’re making a clever for you moving
it around a bit and they’re saving your
money and you know how they make it
money
they keep part of the money they save
you but you still save it and then at
the end of the contract you get to keep
all of that stuff and you just got me
started because then there is Tesla and
they have a Power Ball with battery and
you can produce your energy and store it
or you can sell it if you want you can
become a broker in the system and
they’ve produced a tile for your roof so
you really have to put a panel there
anymore you can just buy a tile that
costs the same as a normal roof tile
while we’re at it while we don’t take
every single construction material and
make it solar so that we can take
advantage of every surface
I mean coats I mean paint I mean
everything in France there is a solid
road already mat in the kilometers and
kilometers of roads we can turn into
solar panels the Perkins the hospitals
the houses the government buildings
it’s everywhere the possibilities are
everywhere and this is what I’m saying
yes does it look as scary though things
are changing absolutely but does it look
also very interesting a huge opportunity
yes it also does and I want us to think
of the huge opportunity as consumers and
end-users that can become producers as
business people with the opportunities
that we have available as futurologists
thinking on what are people going to
need for the future as helpers
peacemakers trying to get other people
out of poverty there are so many
opportunities and not only for you also
for companies like utilities that are
key to this marketplace actually working
and to people like the government that
can save a lot of money on imports and
spend them with clean energy that
doesn’t pollute at all right at home
so here is my message for you guys and
it’s a simple one I want you to go forth
from here being conscious consumers of
energy understanding where it comes from
it what it means for you to have it
knowing why renewable energy is exactly
the future that we all need and want
harnessing the opportunity maybe
becoming a solar producer may be getting
a electric vehicle seeing the
opportunity and perhaps becoming a solar
entrepreneur taking advantage of those
opportunities it is up to you to demand
clean energy and cheap energy because
it’s absolutely possible from your
utility from your government we’re
moving in this direction and if you do
any of these things or all of these
things you need to know that you are
becoming part
of the revolution a revolution that will
take us into a completely different
future from what we know in terms of
energy which is a future of very cheap
very plentiful and clean energy for
absolutely everybody thank you very much
you
was magic and how could I not you don’t
have a wand but you simply flick a
switch and you get light your TV starts
entertaining you your clothes get washed
as an adult of course this changes a
little bit you stop seeing wonder and
you start seeing utility and it’s very
easy to take for granted what energy
that’s for us every day so just for a
minute think what your life would be
like if you had absolutely no
electricity in your life I mean no oven
no computer no traffic lights and God
forbid no smartphone but really to be
honest we’ve taken it for granted so
much that today when we think of our
energy it’s mostly when it goes wrong or
well when you get the bill right because
it’s never good news but we don’t think
about the whole system that is bringing
it together the magic behind it on how
it’s been generated and transformed and
transported sometimes over hundreds or
thousands of miles and is made available
to you at the exact time that you just
flick the switch and for a minute I’d
like you to think how lucky we are there
are millions actually billions of people
in the world that don’t have any access
to energy in fact my friends Alex and
Cornelius they started a company called
powwow me and would power me thus it
makes available to rural areas in Kenya
where people don’t have access to the
grid and it tells them essentially solar
panels small solar panels with a battery
they list it and they pay every month a
fee and after a certain amount of months
the power meter system is theirs to keep
there are 1.2 billion people in the
world that don’t have access to
electricity
but electricity has been shown to be the
single highest factor when bringing
people out of poverty and it’s not that
electricity creates wealth by itself but
it affords people the opportunity to
create things for themselves in fact the
World Bank has found that in an
electrified community income grows about
38 percent a year so that is quite
significant and power means by no means
the first one and doing this there are
lots of company doing it but in their
short eight months they’ve already
reached 8,000 people which is sixteen
hundred families and they have also
managed to create 200 local work jobs
can you imagine in an otherwise and
dynamic community what this means in
terms of economic growth children can go
to school they can do homework
opportunities can be sucked but what is
clear is that solar energy is becoming
to the energy system as a whole what the
internet was to music and to content to
information think about this before the
internet we got our newspaper and we
will receivers consumers of information
consumers of music but after the
internet we created it ourselves
and not only that but we were able to
share it with the world
solar energy does the same for energy
and as a consequence it changes the
whole system and I guess you know you’ll
be wondering how did we get here how did
we change the system well the reason is
we got to a point where three key
innovations happen the first innovation
is that photovoltaic solar has gotten
really cheap I mean really cheap over
the past few months and years every time
we double the deployment of solar PV the
actual cost comes down by 20 to 25
percent this is huge because despite the
fact that PV is growing very quickly
with tiny percentage of the system so we
have a lot of room to grow and
furthermore the great thing about solar
energy is that
the fuel is free so once you pay for the
hardware pretty much create a new energy
is almost free right you only have to
pay in maintenance costs and what this
means is if you are in a system in which
you are paying very very little for
energy but then you’re paying a lot
comparatively to bring it to your home
then something needs to change and what
you need to do is you need to generate
that energy close to you right so that
means the whole system has got to change
the second innovation is storage
technologies it is clear that when the
sun is shining when there is wind energy
then obviously is not a problem we have
energy but what about when we don’t have
either of those things well we need a
way to be able to store that energy for
when we need it and now we have it there
is been a lot of innovation spurred by a
lot of investment from different
technologies batteries are coming down
very quickly in costs and they’re
improving in quality in less than a
decade we’re going to have batteries
that can take us days even into storing
energy so that is again going to change
the game if you can produce energy very
cheap and then store it very cheap then
it’s very cheap essentially the third
innovation is actually a merging of
industries and that is the electric
vehicle industry electric vehicles are
set to overtake or equal the price of
combustion engine vehicles by 2025 that
means in 2025 you’ll go into a shop in
an electric vehicle will cost you the
exact same as a combustion engine
vehicle not to run just upfront costs
and those are range in the range of
about 200 to 500 kilometres in a one
single charge so it’s pretty significant
what it means is that the cost of having
an electric vehicle comparatively is
going to be a lot lot cheaper and think
about this we more and more especially
in urban centres we don’t own our cars
in fact what we do is we’ll rent one
when we need it
the
car renting schemes car sharing schemes
in most of cities around the world and
with self-driving cars especially in
taxes the whole system is gonna change
again because we no longer had a lot of
different owners but one owner that has
think about this a lot of batteries that
can take energy one they wanted and they
can put it back in the air and the
industry when they want it and they can
move it around the city they become a
huge player a broker that takes energy
when we have it and puts it back when we
need it they become almost a utility so
things are changing a lot but threat not
tomorrow when you wake up none of the
things would have happened yet and that
is because innovation takes time it
takes years sometimes decades for
example in another industry you know we
had telecommunications who had the
Telegraph and then we had the lamb lines
you know we had to kind of talk next to
the wall you know when we talk to our
friends and then from the 90s we’ve got
mobile phones and then eventually in
2006 the smartphone appeared right but
this was not the case at all for Africa
or India in fact in Africa and India the
penetration of Telegraph and the
protection of landline is very very very
small it was mobile phones that got to
the vast majority of people and this is
what made the difference because she
completely changed their lives and
what’s more they paid less for their
innovation and they got it quick they
got it better and they didn’t pay they
paid less for it but what about us then
let’s do a show of hands hands up who
has a landline at home today please
hands up hands up
okay what let’s say about 40 percent of
the people
hands up who actually uses it rather
than to call you Rama hands up all right
what ten percent of people maybe and
just to be clear to make sure I don’t
make this stuff up who has either a
mobile phone or smartphone here today
please right okay point mate the thing
is innovation happen over the next the
last couple of deck
and you guys all embraced it and he
looked too scary at first but you
embraced it and it’s part of your daily
life in fact it’s in your pocket and
that doesn’t mean that you just went
away and didn’t use the last stuff
anymore you’re still using it it’s just
not a significant part of your life well
the same is happening with the energy
system it’s changing is going into a
distributed system it’s changing the way
it works but it won’t happen overnight
what it means though is that if instead
of looking at it as if it’s too scary
it’s a threat oh my god what’s gonna
happen and we look at it as an
opportunity as an ability to of new
companies of new business models or new
opportunities
this is where the magic happens and
there are companies already doing that
let me give you an example there is
power me and there are another 1.2
billion people that need help getting
energy that is a huge opportunity for
entrepreneurs there is a company called
solar city in the u.s. their sister
company to Tesla and what they do is
they’re a utility but with a twist
they change the business model so they
go to your home they put solar panels on
your rooftop you sign a contract with
them and you buy energy from them and
from day one you paid nothing for the
system and you are already saving 50% of
your bills that seems pretty good right
and after a certain amount of years your
contract runs out and just like that the
system’s yours and they are not even the
only ones doing this there are other
companies that are investing in your
energy efficiency in your home so what
they’re doing is they’re putting
essentially insulation in your home
changing your light bulbs your
appliances putting a small thermometer
and maybe a small battery they’re
looking into how you use your energy and
they’re making a clever for you moving
it around a bit and they’re saving your
money and you know how they make it
money
they keep part of the money they save
you but you still save it and then at
the end of the contract you get to keep
all of that stuff and you just got me
started because then there is Tesla and
they have a Power Ball with battery and
you can produce your energy and store it
or you can sell it if you want you can
become a broker in the system and
they’ve produced a tile for your roof so
you really have to put a panel there
anymore you can just buy a tile that
costs the same as a normal roof tile
while we’re at it while we don’t take
every single construction material and
make it solar so that we can take
advantage of every surface
I mean coats I mean paint I mean
everything in France there is a solid
road already mat in the kilometers and
kilometers of roads we can turn into
solar panels the Perkins the hospitals
the houses the government buildings
it’s everywhere the possibilities are
everywhere and this is what I’m saying
yes does it look as scary though things
are changing absolutely but does it look
also very interesting a huge opportunity
yes it also does and I want us to think
of the huge opportunity as consumers and
end-users that can become producers as
business people with the opportunities
that we have available as futurologists
thinking on what are people going to
need for the future as helpers
peacemakers trying to get other people
out of poverty there are so many
opportunities and not only for you also
for companies like utilities that are
key to this marketplace actually working
and to people like the government that
can save a lot of money on imports and
spend them with clean energy that
doesn’t pollute at all right at home
so here is my message for you guys and
it’s a simple one I want you to go forth
from here being conscious consumers of
energy understanding where it comes from
it what it means for you to have it
knowing why renewable energy is exactly
the future that we all need and want
harnessing the opportunity maybe
becoming a solar producer may be getting
a electric vehicle seeing the
opportunity and perhaps becoming a solar
entrepreneur taking advantage of those
opportunities it is up to you to demand
clean energy and cheap energy because
it’s absolutely possible from your
utility from your government we’re
moving in this direction and if you do
any of these things or all of these
things you need to know that you are
becoming part
of the revolution a revolution that will
take us into a completely different
future from what we know in terms of
energy which is a future of very cheap
very plentiful and clean energy for
absolutely everybody thank you very much
you
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