Why Solar Is Cheaper in Australia Than America Distilled 2023-07-10 | Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.distilled.earth/Learn more about Rewiring America's work: rewiringamerica.orgIn Australia, more than a third of all homes have solar panels installed on their roof. Sometime in the next year, rooftop solar is expected to beat out coal to become the country’s largest source of electricity. No country has been more successful at encouraging rooftop solar adoption than Australia.There are many differences between America and Australia’s energy policy and markets. But if you want to understand why Australia has installed so much more rooftop solar than America, there’s only one difference that truly matters. That difference is cost.
What Most People Still Get Wrong About Clean Energy Distilled 2025-07-15 | Most people still don't appreciate how much clean energy costs have fallen. If you’d bought one of today's electric vehicles in 1990, it would have cost you about $500,000. At that point, lithium-ion batteries cost $7,532/kWh vs. ~$115/kWh today. If you’d put solar panels on your roof in the 1970s, it would have cost a million dollars. Back then, solar panels cost $115 / W compared to $0.10-0.30 today. These somewhat absurd examples illustrate just how much the cost of clean energy has fallen in recent decades. The Chinese EV company, BYD is selling one of their cars for $11,000 today. Putting solar on your roof costs about $5-10k in countries like Australia.A lot of critics of clean energy argue its too expensive. But increasingly that’s just not true. This stuff just keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.That's true of technologies many of us hear about a lot like solar and EVs. But it’s also true of lesser known technologies like enhanced geothermal energy, which has seen 50% drilling cost reductions recently.To me there’s a simple lesson in all of this: The future won’t look exactly like the present. It will be filled with technologies that are hard to imagine today—technologies that could be so much cheaper, cleaner, and better.And as we build and prepare for that future that's important to keep in mind.
Enhanced Geothermal Could Revolutionize Clean Energy Distilled 2023-11-02 | Want to support my work? You can sign up for a paid subscription to my newsletter and YouTube channel here - https://www.distilled.earth/In this video we cover enhanced geothermal and the role it could play in decarbonizing the world's electric grid.Recently there have been a series of breakthroughs in enhanced geothermal systems, an advanced method of generating electricity from the Earth’s heat. If these developments continue, geothermal could generate between 10 and 20 percent of the country’s electricity in the coming decades, according to recent studies from the Department of Energy and Princeton.Enhanced geothermal could also solve one of clean energy’s biggest problems: intermittency. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal power plants can operate at all hours of the day, no matter the weather or time of year. In this story, I’ll cover the past, present, and future of enhanced geothermal and look at what needs to happen in order for the technology to play a large role in decarbonizing America’s power sector.All sources can be found in my article on the same topic here: https://www.distilled.earth/p/the-new-clean-energy-technology-that#climatechange #technology #sustainability #geothermal #energy
The Weird Loophole That Made American Cars So Big Distilled 2023-06-02 | Few trends have been worse for the environment, people's health, or public safety than the dramatic growth of the SUV market in recent decades.But the dominance of SUVs on American roads is a relatively new phenomenon. In 1980, SUVs made up less than 2% of new car production in America; last year, that number was closer to 50%. According to automakers, changing consumer preferences explain the growth of the SUV market. But this story overlooks the crucial role that automakers played in shaping those consumer preferences.This is the story of how American vehicles got supersized. Sources: https://www.distilled.earth/p/the-loophole-that-made-cars-in-americaWant to support my work? You can sign up for a paid subscription to my newsletter and YouTube channel here - https://www.distilled.earth/Follow me on Twitter here: twitter.com/curious_founder#urbanism #sustainability #climatechange
How Paris is Leading a Sustainable Transportation Revolution Distilled 2023-04-28 | Check out the first video in this series on how the Netherlands built a biking utopia - youtu.be/bnFYOvcOn_EWant to support my work? You can sign up for a paid subscription to my newsletter and YouTube channel here - https://www.distilled.earth/Follow me on Twitter here: twitter.com/curious_founderFollow Marcel on Twitter here: twitter.com/marcelemoranCreative commons Paris cycling footage by Streetfilms: youtube.com/@StreetfilmsCommunity-- All across Paris, streets that used to be choked with traffic and pollution have been converted to bike paths and protected lanes.Riverside highways have been converted to cafes, playgrounds, and even beaches. Streets that used to be filled with parked cars are now full of trees and bike parking. So what’s going on in Paris and what can cities around the world learn from this massive project? -- **Sources**Marcel's study / maps on bike lanes in Paris: findingspress.org/article/33765-treating-covid-with-bike-lanes-design-spatial-and-network-analysis-of-pop-up-bike-lanes-in-parisIn 2015, Hidalgo announced a 150 million euro program for new cycling infrastructure: bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-06/now-paris-wants-to-become-the-world-capital-of-cycling Converting the Georges Pompidou Expressway to a biking and pedestrian area: slate.com/business/2016/09/paris-is-turning-the-expressway-on-the-seine-into-a-park-for-six-months.htmlParis removing 70% of on-street parking: brightvibes.com/paris-is-removing-70000-on-street-car-parking-spaces-to-free-up-space-for-peopleParis' most recent 250m euro investment in cycling: bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-22/how-paris-will-become-100-cyclableBetween 2020 and 2021, cycling traffic in Paris grew by 70%: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/un-global-climate-action-awards/climate-leaders/city-of-parisCar ownership has fallen from 60 to 35%: nytimes.com/2019/10/05/world/europe/paris-anne-hildago-green-city-climate-change.htmlParis has cut its carbon emissions by 20%: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/un-global-climate-action-awards/climate-leaders/city-of-parisHow Paris Kicked Out the Cars: slate.com/business/2023/03/paris-car-ban-bikes-cycling-history-france.html?utm_source=pocket_savesIf you want to read more about Paris urbanism and cycling infrastructure, I recommend following and read the work of Henry Grabar at Slate and Feargus O'Sullivan at Bloomberg. I wouldn't have been able to make this video without their work. Henry Grabar: slate.com/author/henry-grabarFeargus O'Sullivan: bloomberg.com/authors/AUe6rwqGKkE/feargus-osullivanCreative commons video usage #biking #urbanism #sustainability
The Biggest Problem With Carbon Offsets Distilled 2023-04-06 | Want to support my work? You can sign up for a paid subscription to my newsletter and YouTube channel here - https://www.distilled.earth/In the last few years, many of the world’s largest corporations, including Shell, have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050. At first glance these announcements seem like great news — evidence that large corporations are finally taking climate change seriously. But dig into these companies' plans to get to zero emissions, and you’ll notice something alarming. Virtually all of them are planning to use huge amounts of carbon offsets to get there.Sources and links here: https://www.distilled.earth/p/how-companies-like-shell-and-delta#sustainability #climatechange #netzero
The Most Sustainable City In America Distilled 2023-03-23 | Want to support my work? You can sign up for a paid subscription to my newsletter and YouTube channel here - https://www.distilled.earth/Over the last few weeks, I reached out to sustainability experts around the world, crunched a bunch of numbers, and asked all of you for help finding the most sustainable city in America.Here's what I learned. -- Sources: Transit ridership data: apta.com/wp-content/uploads/APTA_Fact-Book-2019_FINAL.pdfBike commuter data: census.gov/programs-surveys/acsCar-free index: bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-24/the-best-and-worst-u-s-places-to-live-car-freeMost green space data: blog.dutchbulbs.com/us-cities-with-most-access-green-spaceCool Climate Berkeley - coolclimate.org/calculator#climatechange #sustainability #urbanism
Why Dont We All Use Solar Water Heaters? Distilled 2023-03-16 | Want to support my work? You can sign up for a paid subscription to my newsletter and YouTube channel here - https://www.distilled.earth/If you look at the rooftops of buildings in Israel, you’ll notice something. All of them have solar water heaters. In Greece and Cyprus you'll see the same thing. But in the United States, less than 1% of homes use the sun to heat their water, even in sunny states like California, Texas, and Arizona. Why? That's a question I've been wondering for a while. So this week, I decided to find the answer. #climatechange #solarenergy #sustainability
How The Netherlands Built a Biking Utopia Distilled 2023-03-08 | Want to support my work? You can sign up for a paid subscription to my newsletter and YouTube channel here - https://www.distilled.earth/Today the Netherlands is known for its incredible bike infrastructure. But this European country wasn’t always a utopia for cyclists. For the last 6 months I've been obsessed with this question: How did the Netherlands go from having traffic-clogged cities to having some of the world's best bike infrastructure. In this video I want to share what I learned with you and why I think there might just be hope for my car-obsessed society here in America. Thanks to @NotJustBikes for letting me use some footage of car-free streets. If you haven't seen Jason's videos, I highly recommending checking out his channel here: youtube.com/@NotJustBikesSources: https://www.distilled.earth/p/how-the-netherlands-built-a-biking#biking #urbanism #sustainability
The Mystery of Siberias Exploding Craters, Explained Distilled 2023-02-16 | Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.distilled.earth/Scientists recently figured out why permafrost in Siberia is randomly exploding. And what they’ve discovered has implications for everyone on Earth, everywhere from New York to Sub-saharan Africa. Because what’s causing the ground to randomly explode in Siberia could dramatically change our planet.Check out all the my sources for this video here: docs.google.com/document/d/19GTneMfQUGX8f6oEXatVNV9crladXMiVZ0yaQxE2wKs/edit#heading=h.boh76a5t6t7b
Who Funded PragerUs Propaganda About Climate Change? Distilled 2023-01-27 | Subscribe to my newsletter and support my reporting - https://www.distilled.earth/Sources: https://www.distilled.earth/p/how-prageru-built-a-climate-disinformationIf you’ve spent any time on YouTube you’ve probably seen videos by PragerU. One reason for this is because they’ve spent tens of millions of dollars on YouTube, Google, and Facebook ads over the last 10 years. One topic PragerU has spent a lot of time on is climate change. They’ve made over 20 videos on the topics of energy and the environment.But what very few people know is that right before these videos were made, PragerU received millions of dollars in funding from two fossil fuel billionaires.#prageru #climatechange #climatecrisis
I Measured the Pollution From My Gas Stove. It Was Bad. Distilled 2023-01-17 | Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.distilled.earth/There's been a lot of news about gas stoves. At first, I was skeptical about the panic over these appliances. But then I measured the indoor air pollution from our stove and talked to public health experiments. You can view all sources, learn more about my experiment, and listen to behind-the-scenes interviews on the Distilled website: https://www.distilled.earth/p/i-measured-the-pollution-from-my#gasstove #gasstoves #climatechange #methane
