[Music]
I’d like to tell you a story of a very
persistent character she’s always one
step ahead of us beckoning us forwards
to Wonderland to the future she’s called
one though me thought but sometimes we
humans get stuck in our little ruts with
crews in the middle lane and we ignore
what she’s telling us we missed the
signals to come forward to change and to
progress so I’m going to tell you a
couple of stories about how one lemming
thought has moved through time and
changed our perception and we’re gonna
start with a quiz so I want your hands
up or shout out I don’t mind which who
was the first to discover that the earth
was round
was it Columbus Galileo or Magellan
who’s for Columbus
that’s good Galileo all better what
about Magellan well Magellan was
actually the first to organize a
circumnavigation of the world in the
early 1500s but I’ve misled you I’m
really sorry it was a trick question it
was the ancient Greeks almost two and a
half thousand years ago Pythagoras and
then subsequently Aristotle worked out
using maths that the earth could be
nothing other than round but this
thought didn’t catch on for the best
part of two thousand years one thing we
thought had a tough time and most of us
thought the earth is flat
some of us apparently still do
let me give you another example and I
promise no more trickery so this is
another question I want you to call out
the answer to me and I’m after an
invention okay so what was it when it
was carried through the streets of
London in 1750 by its inventor that
caused public outrage people to shout
and hurl abuse and chastise and throw
rotten fruit and vege and even for one
person to attempt to kill him
any ideas no not quite look quite here’s
a clue that’s it
umbrella it was well done give yourself
a round of applause
great one something as inoffensive as an
umbrella Jonas Hanway
was the inventor of the umbrella here he
is parading through the streets he’d
been on a trip to France and he’d seen
the parasol there shielding
French ladies from the bright sunshine
and he thought won-lang we thought
wouldn’t it be great to take this back
to Blighty where it buckets down with
rain all the time
and waterproof it so he did and as I
said he was derided for his genius now
the person that tried to kill him was
actually a cab driver of the day who ran
a horse and carriage and the reason for
that was because this disruptive
technology was letting people walk in
the rain rather than hail a cab so you
could say that the umbrella was the uber
of its day
took 50 years to catch on before it
became socially acceptable it’s quite an
astonishing amount of time and the
amazing thing was forty four thousand
two hundred and fifty millimeters of
rain needlessly fell on people’s head
during that time one nobody thought okay
one more which one lonely thought binds
these gentlemen together and I’m afraid
they are all gentlemen any ideas
actually if you’re in Kate Griggs talk
this morning you may have a clue bottom
right the light bulbs yes that’s right
thank you very much give yourself a
round of applause for getting that one
right thank you so now this is the
emblem of creativity isn’t it this is
what we always put up when we’re
thinking smart but it took 80 years from
its first incarnation through to going
commercial in 1879 and even then people
thought it was a bad idea this is what
the British government said of it can
you believe this and worthy of the
attention of practical or scientific men
it was a parliamentary committee these
are politicians so now we know we can
trust every word they say the chief
engineer of the post office called it an
absolute Ignace fatuous I don’t know
what it means but it sounds rude so I
put it on the slides now it means well
other way means it’ll be gone in a flash
but shows you how long he was
interestingly though one man a banker
called JP Morgan in New York
recognized Edison’s one name we thought
and put a lot of money into it together
they built a power network in New York
City and they lift up Manhattan with the
generator with the grid and with the
electric light bulbs that they sold and
even then you’d think well that’s a good
thing isn’t it but not everybody thought
so another notorious New York
businessman called Rockefeller thought
otherwise
he was an oilman and for every house
that was lit electrically he was losing
a customer because previously he’d been
supplying kerosene to power the oil
lamps to light that house
thankfully Morgan and Edison bust on
through Edison said you can try and stop
me all you like but you’re gonna have to
do it in the dark
so one lonely thought during the break
some of you were given something and
we’re gonna go on to that at the moment
so just fish it out I’d like to share
with you my one though me thought and
when I do I’d like you to go oh because
it’s bold so we’re going to have to get
our balls out now thankfully they’re not
balls of steel but is everybody ready
because we’d like to create an umbrella
moment when I tell you my one lonely
thought and want you to pretend um hand
way to ride me and hurl the balls at me
with it ask the theater if we could use
fruit and veg but they wouldn’t let us
so and I have no umbrella to hide behind
so you’re gonna have to hit me so if you
want stand up get your balls at they’re
ready and when I show you my one name we
thought hit me with it are you ready are
you ready
good I’m not sure I am you look very
intimidating
okay let’s go my one movie thought is
that Britain will be powered entirely by
renewables within my lifetime come on
don’t thank you so much there you go you
can have it back
thank you so much for that now I can see
something four spaces over here saying
yeah that’s never gonna happen not in
this guy’s lifetime look how old he is
and I admit I haven’t got too much left
on my side but I’d like to just tell you
a couple of points why I think it will
so the first some big data if we could
capture just one hours worth of sunshine
that hits the world’s surface with power
the entire planets energy needs for a
year
similarly if we could trap 2% of the
wind that circumnavigates our globe
every day we power the entire needs of
civilization
they’re not that big a number of numbers
are they one percent well I am sorry two
percent not huge let’s just look at a
couple of facts and figures and I’ll be
quick on these two-thirds of all new
generation that’s being built today
around the world is renewable admittedly
it’s not all renewable yet but it’s
rapidly moving that way and I can hear
one or two thinking over here what about
Hinkley
what about Hinkley well I’m not so sure
we’re gonna get Hindley the politicians
tell as we are but we’ve already seen
what we can think of what they tell us
so what about Britain well last year 25%
of all our energy was from renewables
it’s a little-known fact a little secret
if you like and this year is 30 percent
that’s a massive leap in less than 12
months so we’re well on our way and the
important point to note here is that
that’s for all our energy for everything
for industry for businesses for offices
schools and our homes but if we were to
channel it just to our homes that
renewable energy would power about 70%
of all the places where we live so we’re
well on our way technology in the 80s
wind turbines were first starting to be
deployed commercially you could pick up
one of the blades and carry it around
they were quite small quite light but
today they’re massive – like blue whale
just look at that thing that’s in the
Siemens factory it’s an absolute thing
of beauty isn’t it and this is actually
the casting the molding for the
underside of one of the blades 75 metres
long by 2020 these blades could be as
long as 180 metres some engineers are
saying so they’re absolutely
the enormous which shows the power and
the scale of renewables that many people
might not realize exists let’s look at
generation where it’s coming from a
hundred years ago we had about a hundred
generators in Britain ten years ago it
was around about 10,000 and today we
have a hundred thousand or so commercial
generators but the killer is this we
have a million of us that have got solar
panels on our roofs we’re all becoming
generators now I slowed down a little
bit because of a change in subsidy but
the price of renewables of panels the
photovoltaics is plummeting it’s
becoming really really cheap and it’s
only going to be getting cheaper and
it’s not just panels that people might
be using you may have heard of roof
tiles they’re coming our way soon and he
may have even heard of solar glass so
the windows that we’re going to be
putting in our homes in future will
generate electricity for us renewably so
there’s going to be more dice
diversification of where our power is
coming from now renewables have a
problem if it’s not windy you don’t get
the turbine turning if it’s not sunny
your photovoltaic panel won’t work
it’s called intermittent see now the
solution to this is batteries and you’re
going to hear a lot more about batteries
over the coming years this is one that’s
just gone online in Sheffield it’s
operated by Eon it’s an industrial-grade
battery it’s in the foreground of the
photograph it’s the size of 4 shipping
containers or half a million mobile
phone batteries and that stores the
energy that’s generated during the day
from sunlight perhaps or wind for use
when we need it or when renewables
aren’t generating so much power but
batteries also coming pocket-sized and I
forecast it within about five maybe ten
years we’re all going to have a battery
at home and it’s gonna be kitchen unit
size and it all fit alongside your other
one lonely thoughts you know your fridge
your freezer your washing machine those
kind of things I’ll just sit in the
kitchen all you might live in a very
smart apartment like this one in Germany
where there’s a sauna and battery
there’s the biggest manufacturer of
batteries for domestic use in the world
sitting on your wall almost like a piece
of art or a piece of furniture we’ll get
used to this stuff and then lastly why
will this one name you thought come
through in my lifetime well it’s because
of climate change now we all know this
is a major major problem but as a
country we’ve committed to do everything
we can to stop it we’ve got a carbon
budget which is to get us down to 80%
emissions of the greenhouse gases that
we throw out as a country from the 1990
levels by 2050 now some scientists say
that’s not enough but it’s showing
progress and it’s worth remembering
that’s for all energy so that’s the
generation that we use for electricity
but it’s for transport and it’s also for
heating and for commercial and
industrial use so if we can get the
electric grid entirely renewable we’ll
be well on our way to meeting that
target now what did I do to try and
fulfill this little ambition my warm
only thought well earlier this year with
friends we formed pure planet it’s a
renewable energy company it sells 100
percent green electricity to British
households couple of weeks ago we did a
survey at pure planet when we polled the
British public and we asked them a
couple of questions 64% said they want
to live in a carbon neutral Britain now
64% two-thirds of the population
it’s an enormous number get the message
they understand pollutions bad they just
want it cleaned up that’s what they want
to do but also tellingly less than 1% of
us have actually deliberately chosen the
green tariffs to power our homes so far
so there’s a long way to go so I have a
small ask of you
which is when you go home tonight when
you reflect on what you’ve heard today
please keep one thought in mind can you
help me get to that one moment that
before we have to pop off because if you
switched your home to green energy you’d
save around about 4 tons of co2
needlessly entering our atmosphere by
that switch every year that’s an average
and typical obviously
may vary depending on the size of your
home and what tire if you have today but
that’s something worth having isn’t it
for tons and they favorably in the
theater did it well would be nearly five
thousand tons so there’s an interesting
s for us all to consider today so I’ve
not got long left in this talk or
possibly in life so I’d urge you please
choose renewables there are several
other companies they’re all progressive
and they’re all good some are still a
little bit more expensive than others so
watch for those but you can be more
Edison and be more Hanway
[Applause]
I’d like to tell you a story of a very
persistent character she’s always one
step ahead of us beckoning us forwards
to Wonderland to the future she’s called
one though me thought but sometimes we
humans get stuck in our little ruts with
crews in the middle lane and we ignore
what she’s telling us we missed the
signals to come forward to change and to
progress so I’m going to tell you a
couple of stories about how one lemming
thought has moved through time and
changed our perception and we’re gonna
start with a quiz so I want your hands
up or shout out I don’t mind which who
was the first to discover that the earth
was round
was it Columbus Galileo or Magellan
who’s for Columbus
that’s good Galileo all better what
about Magellan well Magellan was
actually the first to organize a
circumnavigation of the world in the
early 1500s but I’ve misled you I’m
really sorry it was a trick question it
was the ancient Greeks almost two and a
half thousand years ago Pythagoras and
then subsequently Aristotle worked out
using maths that the earth could be
nothing other than round but this
thought didn’t catch on for the best
part of two thousand years one thing we
thought had a tough time and most of us
thought the earth is flat
some of us apparently still do
let me give you another example and I
promise no more trickery so this is
another question I want you to call out
the answer to me and I’m after an
invention okay so what was it when it
was carried through the streets of
London in 1750 by its inventor that
caused public outrage people to shout
and hurl abuse and chastise and throw
rotten fruit and vege and even for one
person to attempt to kill him
any ideas no not quite look quite here’s
a clue that’s it
umbrella it was well done give yourself
a round of applause
great one something as inoffensive as an
umbrella Jonas Hanway
was the inventor of the umbrella here he
is parading through the streets he’d
been on a trip to France and he’d seen
the parasol there shielding
French ladies from the bright sunshine
and he thought won-lang we thought
wouldn’t it be great to take this back
to Blighty where it buckets down with
rain all the time
and waterproof it so he did and as I
said he was derided for his genius now
the person that tried to kill him was
actually a cab driver of the day who ran
a horse and carriage and the reason for
that was because this disruptive
technology was letting people walk in
the rain rather than hail a cab so you
could say that the umbrella was the uber
of its day
took 50 years to catch on before it
became socially acceptable it’s quite an
astonishing amount of time and the
amazing thing was forty four thousand
two hundred and fifty millimeters of
rain needlessly fell on people’s head
during that time one nobody thought okay
one more which one lonely thought binds
these gentlemen together and I’m afraid
they are all gentlemen any ideas
actually if you’re in Kate Griggs talk
this morning you may have a clue bottom
right the light bulbs yes that’s right
thank you very much give yourself a
round of applause for getting that one
right thank you so now this is the
emblem of creativity isn’t it this is
what we always put up when we’re
thinking smart but it took 80 years from
its first incarnation through to going
commercial in 1879 and even then people
thought it was a bad idea this is what
the British government said of it can
you believe this and worthy of the
attention of practical or scientific men
it was a parliamentary committee these
are politicians so now we know we can
trust every word they say the chief
engineer of the post office called it an
absolute Ignace fatuous I don’t know
what it means but it sounds rude so I
put it on the slides now it means well
other way means it’ll be gone in a flash
but shows you how long he was
interestingly though one man a banker
called JP Morgan in New York
recognized Edison’s one name we thought
and put a lot of money into it together
they built a power network in New York
City and they lift up Manhattan with the
generator with the grid and with the
electric light bulbs that they sold and
even then you’d think well that’s a good
thing isn’t it but not everybody thought
so another notorious New York
businessman called Rockefeller thought
otherwise
he was an oilman and for every house
that was lit electrically he was losing
a customer because previously he’d been
supplying kerosene to power the oil
lamps to light that house
thankfully Morgan and Edison bust on
through Edison said you can try and stop
me all you like but you’re gonna have to
do it in the dark
so one lonely thought during the break
some of you were given something and
we’re gonna go on to that at the moment
so just fish it out I’d like to share
with you my one though me thought and
when I do I’d like you to go oh because
it’s bold so we’re going to have to get
our balls out now thankfully they’re not
balls of steel but is everybody ready
because we’d like to create an umbrella
moment when I tell you my one lonely
thought and want you to pretend um hand
way to ride me and hurl the balls at me
with it ask the theater if we could use
fruit and veg but they wouldn’t let us
so and I have no umbrella to hide behind
so you’re gonna have to hit me so if you
want stand up get your balls at they’re
ready and when I show you my one name we
thought hit me with it are you ready are
you ready
good I’m not sure I am you look very
intimidating
okay let’s go my one movie thought is
that Britain will be powered entirely by
renewables within my lifetime come on
don’t thank you so much there you go you
can have it back
thank you so much for that now I can see
something four spaces over here saying
yeah that’s never gonna happen not in
this guy’s lifetime look how old he is
and I admit I haven’t got too much left
on my side but I’d like to just tell you
a couple of points why I think it will
so the first some big data if we could
capture just one hours worth of sunshine
that hits the world’s surface with power
the entire planets energy needs for a
year
similarly if we could trap 2% of the
wind that circumnavigates our globe
every day we power the entire needs of
civilization
they’re not that big a number of numbers
are they one percent well I am sorry two
percent not huge let’s just look at a
couple of facts and figures and I’ll be
quick on these two-thirds of all new
generation that’s being built today
around the world is renewable admittedly
it’s not all renewable yet but it’s
rapidly moving that way and I can hear
one or two thinking over here what about
Hinkley
what about Hinkley well I’m not so sure
we’re gonna get Hindley the politicians
tell as we are but we’ve already seen
what we can think of what they tell us
so what about Britain well last year 25%
of all our energy was from renewables
it’s a little-known fact a little secret
if you like and this year is 30 percent
that’s a massive leap in less than 12
months so we’re well on our way and the
important point to note here is that
that’s for all our energy for everything
for industry for businesses for offices
schools and our homes but if we were to
channel it just to our homes that
renewable energy would power about 70%
of all the places where we live so we’re
well on our way technology in the 80s
wind turbines were first starting to be
deployed commercially you could pick up
one of the blades and carry it around
they were quite small quite light but
today they’re massive – like blue whale
just look at that thing that’s in the
Siemens factory it’s an absolute thing
of beauty isn’t it and this is actually
the casting the molding for the
underside of one of the blades 75 metres
long by 2020 these blades could be as
long as 180 metres some engineers are
saying so they’re absolutely
the enormous which shows the power and
the scale of renewables that many people
might not realize exists let’s look at
generation where it’s coming from a
hundred years ago we had about a hundred
generators in Britain ten years ago it
was around about 10,000 and today we
have a hundred thousand or so commercial
generators but the killer is this we
have a million of us that have got solar
panels on our roofs we’re all becoming
generators now I slowed down a little
bit because of a change in subsidy but
the price of renewables of panels the
photovoltaics is plummeting it’s
becoming really really cheap and it’s
only going to be getting cheaper and
it’s not just panels that people might
be using you may have heard of roof
tiles they’re coming our way soon and he
may have even heard of solar glass so
the windows that we’re going to be
putting in our homes in future will
generate electricity for us renewably so
there’s going to be more dice
diversification of where our power is
coming from now renewables have a
problem if it’s not windy you don’t get
the turbine turning if it’s not sunny
your photovoltaic panel won’t work
it’s called intermittent see now the
solution to this is batteries and you’re
going to hear a lot more about batteries
over the coming years this is one that’s
just gone online in Sheffield it’s
operated by Eon it’s an industrial-grade
battery it’s in the foreground of the
photograph it’s the size of 4 shipping
containers or half a million mobile
phone batteries and that stores the
energy that’s generated during the day
from sunlight perhaps or wind for use
when we need it or when renewables
aren’t generating so much power but
batteries also coming pocket-sized and I
forecast it within about five maybe ten
years we’re all going to have a battery
at home and it’s gonna be kitchen unit
size and it all fit alongside your other
one lonely thoughts you know your fridge
your freezer your washing machine those
kind of things I’ll just sit in the
kitchen all you might live in a very
smart apartment like this one in Germany
where there’s a sauna and battery
there’s the biggest manufacturer of
batteries for domestic use in the world
sitting on your wall almost like a piece
of art or a piece of furniture we’ll get
used to this stuff and then lastly why
will this one name you thought come
through in my lifetime well it’s because
of climate change now we all know this
is a major major problem but as a
country we’ve committed to do everything
we can to stop it we’ve got a carbon
budget which is to get us down to 80%
emissions of the greenhouse gases that
we throw out as a country from the 1990
levels by 2050 now some scientists say
that’s not enough but it’s showing
progress and it’s worth remembering
that’s for all energy so that’s the
generation that we use for electricity
but it’s for transport and it’s also for
heating and for commercial and
industrial use so if we can get the
electric grid entirely renewable we’ll
be well on our way to meeting that
target now what did I do to try and
fulfill this little ambition my warm
only thought well earlier this year with
friends we formed pure planet it’s a
renewable energy company it sells 100
percent green electricity to British
households couple of weeks ago we did a
survey at pure planet when we polled the
British public and we asked them a
couple of questions 64% said they want
to live in a carbon neutral Britain now
64% two-thirds of the population
it’s an enormous number get the message
they understand pollutions bad they just
want it cleaned up that’s what they want
to do but also tellingly less than 1% of
us have actually deliberately chosen the
green tariffs to power our homes so far
so there’s a long way to go so I have a
small ask of you
which is when you go home tonight when
you reflect on what you’ve heard today
please keep one thought in mind can you
help me get to that one moment that
before we have to pop off because if you
switched your home to green energy you’d
save around about 4 tons of co2
needlessly entering our atmosphere by
that switch every year that’s an average
and typical obviously
may vary depending on the size of your
home and what tire if you have today but
that’s something worth having isn’t it
for tons and they favorably in the
theater did it well would be nearly five
thousand tons so there’s an interesting
s for us all to consider today so I’ve
not got long left in this talk or
possibly in life so I’d urge you please
choose renewables there are several
other companies they’re all progressive
and they’re all good some are still a
little bit more expensive than others so
watch for those but you can be more
Edison and be more Hanway
[Applause]
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