WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.240
Hello everyone. Well, I must
say I'm very impressed with this meeting.

2
00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:06.360
Room is amazing. I feel like
I'm in a waterfall. It's really lovely

3
00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:10.240
here, and that was an incredible, incredible performance. So I must say

4
00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:13.800
I'm quite delighted to be here this
morning talking to you and to experience this

5
00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:18.440
wonderful event and everything that Indonesia has
to offer. It's amazing being here in

6
00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:23.480
Bali in Indonesia. Hopefully everyone saw
the mangrove forests, because those are very

7
00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:27.920
impressive. It's several one hundred thousand
acres of mangroves that I think have been

8
00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.800
replanted. I recall correctly. There
are a lot of great things happening in

9
00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:34.799
Indonesia and the rest of the world, and overall, I would say I'm

10
00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:38.600
quite sort of optimistic for the future. I think we should never be complacent

11
00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:43.200
or entitled, but I do think
that if we're not in complacent entitled that

12
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:46.600
the future will actually be great for
the world. And I think we're headed

13
00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:50.960
to a bright future overall. So, and with respect to to water,

14
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.600
I've always thought we should we call
it, but actually Earth is seventy percent

15
00:00:56.679 --> 00:01:00.159
water by surface area, so we've
technically think if alien came here, and

16
00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.480
a lot of people think aliens have
come here because they're always asking me.

17
00:01:03.599 --> 00:01:08.439
They're always asking me about aliens,
they would name us water because we are

18
00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:15.599
seventy percent water and only thirty percent
land. So what that means is the

19
00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:21.560
potential for solving any given water issue
is extremely good because there is so much

20
00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:26.120
water. There's obviously desalination required at
times, and the transport of water,

21
00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:30.879
but desalination, as I think most
people know, has become very inexpensive and

22
00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:37.120
is and so really the availability of
fresh water is simply about energy and transport.

23
00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:41.079
So when I talk to even very
well read, very smart people in

24
00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:44.959
the United States, they will often
think, well, the water crisis is

25
00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:49.799
unsolvable, But in fact it is
very solvable. We are continuing breakthroughs in

26
00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:53.319
the efficiency of desalination, and I
think we've got we've got a great water

27
00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:57.879
future ahead of us, and I
think a great sustainable energy future ahead of

28
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.840
us. Basically, I'm kicking things
off on a positive note, but I

29
00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:06.079
think with good basis for doing so. The next section is really just some

30
00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:08.879
questions or Q and A. Anyone
would like to ask me anything about anything?

31
00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.680
I suppose we should generally stick to
the topic of water, given that

32
00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:17.120
it's the Water Conference, but I'm
happy to answer other questions as well.

33
00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:24.400
Not quite sure how the logistics of
question posing works, but just say a

34
00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:28.759
question. Sure, if I heard
correctly, what is the most important thing

35
00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:32.479
for solving the water crisis? Okay, Well, the exact solution will vary

36
00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:38.199
depending upon country and even region within
a country. But the as I mentioned,

37
00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:44.039
because the cost of desalination has dropped
so much, if you're just talking

38
00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:49.080
about water for individual consumption, or
water in say a hydroponics facility, some

39
00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:52.240
kind of you know, where you're
not simply putting it on the ground for

40
00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:57.039
crops, but actually have some sort
of contained facility that minimizes the amount of

41
00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:00.159
evaporation. I think you can basically
turn in any part of the world's green,

42
00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:06.560
including the entire world. So it
just bangs the question of where does

43
00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:10.719
the energy come from? And here's
where I think solar energy is very much

44
00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:16.879
underestimated in terms of its capability.
So if you think about what would the

45
00:03:16.919 --> 00:03:22.039
Earth be without the Sun, the
Earth would be a frozen, dark ice

46
00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:28.080
bowl at roughly three degrees above absolute
zero. It quite unpleasant. So you

47
00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:32.080
know, we're cold and dark.
But because of the sun where we are,

48
00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:38.000
we're at a quite a nice temperature, quite pleasant, roughly three three

49
00:03:38.039 --> 00:03:44.520
hundred degrees above absolute zero, and
the sun powers almost the entire ecosystem is

50
00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:47.960
solar powered. When you say,
like, well how much electricity, how

51
00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:55.479
much land would it take to generate
electricity, there's a gigawatt perst square kilometer

52
00:03:55.879 --> 00:04:01.280
of solar radiation that reaches the surface. So for every square kilometer there's a

53
00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:10.000
peak power of roughly a gigawatt,
which is comparable to a power station.

54
00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:14.639
Now, the sun doesn't shine all
the time, obviously, so when you

55
00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:17.959
net all of that out and say, well, how much energy per day

56
00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:24.959
does one square kilometer yield, it's
roughly one giga what hour per square kilometer

57
00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:30.040
per day? There's just still a
lot. So and if you do the

58
00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:35.560
rough math to power the United States, which is a heavy user of electricity,

59
00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:40.079
it would only take would take less
than a two hundred kilometer by two

60
00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:45.639
hundred kilometer solar array power of the
entire United States. And if you drive

61
00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:48.920
through the United States through there's plenty
of sections of the United States where there

62
00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.560
is basically no people or another way
to think of it, as a small

63
00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:56.680
section of the Sahara could power all
of Europe or the world. Now,

64
00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.040
not saying you would be so concentrated
in the placement solar power, because it's

65
00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:04.680
better to be more distributed. But
the sheer magnitude of solar power that is

66
00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:11.360
available is often not quite understood,
but the math of it is very clear.

67
00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:17.920
So I'd really would strongly recommend sort
of a solar plus battery combination or

68
00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:24.680
wind plus solar can solve all of
the world's energy needs by a lot needs.

69
00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:29.839
Also R and D to reduce the
price of desalination or desalinated cuban met

70
00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:32.399
for WORTERM by ninety percent. Like
what happened? Would that be? Be?

71
00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:38.199
Who is going to support the R
and D in this era? Not

72
00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:41.639
that invariable countess of course, how
we are going to support the serchio.

73
00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:46.639
Yeah. So something that I would
encourage everyone in the room to look at

74
00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:50.680
is and you touched on that briefly, is that the cost of solar power

75
00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:56.040
has dropped dramatically over the years.
So if you were to say, look

76
00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:59.199
at the cost of solar power five
years ago, or ten years ago or

77
00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:02.319
twenty years ago, it would have
seemed cost prohibitive, but the cost of

78
00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:09.560
solar power today is extremely low,
and the cost of batteries to store the

79
00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:16.120
energy has also dropped dramatically. The
cost of battery a storage of electricity has

80
00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:21.639
dropped by a factor of ten in
the past five years. So many of

81
00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:27.040
the studies that were done in times
past when batteries were very expensive and solar

82
00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:30.879
power is very expensive, and I
would just encourage everyone to basically take another

83
00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:35.040
look at the cost of solar and
the cost of batteries, and I think

84
00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:46.920
you'll find that you're pleasantly surprised.
So all right, yes, okay,

85
00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:50.879
thank you. Well, it's an
honor to be here, and thank you

86
00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:56.319
very much for listening to my words. And I hope you have a fantastic conference.