TED Talks
TED: The missing piece of the clean energy transition | Sheila Ngozi Oparaocha
The clean energy transition has a major blind spot, says energy equity expert Sheila Ngozi Oparaocha: it ignores millions of people without access to energy. Highlighting grassroots women's organizations leading the charge towards...
TED Talks
TED: The invisible networks shaping your everyday life | Deb Chachra
The basic infrastructure that controls plumbing, electricity and more is vital to your individual agency, says engineering professor Deb Chachra. She offers a crash course on how these systems connect to shape our lives — and suggests...
TED Talks
TED: The secret force for limitless energy? Lasers | Tammy Ma
In 2022, physicist Tammy Ma and the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a scientific breakthrough decades in the making: fusion ignition, or the combining of two atoms to generate more energy out of a reaction than...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The tech that seems to break the laws of physics | Anna Rothschild
Typically, with any piece of technology, you pump one unit of energy in and you get about one out. That’s just the first law of thermodynamics: energy has to be conserved. But there’s a piece of technology called a heat pump, where for...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Could we build a miniature sun on Earth? | George Zaidan
Stars have cores hot and dense enough to force atomic nuclei together, forming larger, heavier nuclei in a process known as fusion. In this process, the mass of the end products is slightly less than the mass of the initial atoms. But...
SciShow
Four Weird Ways to Make Electricity
When you think of newer ways to make electricity, solar cells and wind turbines may come to mind. But scientists can make the stuff from just about anything. And they're working on some truly bizarre ways to generate power.
TED Talks
TED: Meet mini-grids — the clean energy solution bringing power to millions | Tombo Banda
Hundreds of millions of people lack access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa, relying on highly polluting diesel and firewood for power and light. Working to brighten the future in her home country of Malawi and beyond, energy access...
TED Talks
TED: Can a simple brick be the next great battery? | John O'Donnell
The world relies on manufacturing, and manufacturing relies on heat — a massive contributor to global carbon emissions, responsible for a quarter of the world's fossil fuel use. Energy entrepreneur John O'Donnell has figured out a...
TED Talks
TED: Enough red tape — we need to say yes to clean energy | Rich Powell
Climate innovation leader Rich Powell dives into the bureaucracy, bottlenecks and not-in-my-backyard attitude preventing the US from achieving its green energy goals, warning that we need about 10,000 new clean energy projects to be...
TED Talks
TED: The powerful possibilities of recycling the world's batteries | Emma Nehrenheim
The world has plenty of clean energy. The problem is storing that energy and getting it where we need it, when we need it, says battery recycling pioneer Emma Nehrenheim. While batteries are fundamental to powering a sustainable future,...
TED Talks
TED: Why you should ditch deadly fossil-fuel appliances | Donnel Baird
In the US, people spend the overwhelming majority of their time inside buildings that burn fossil fuels, which are bad for both the environment and human health. (Think: breathing in air pollution from gas stoves, furnaces and water...
Be Smart
When Will We Stop Using Oil?
We've heard news of "peak oil" and "the end of the oil age" for years now, but we keep coming up with ways to find and pump more of it to the surface. Rising CO2 levels and the changing climate that results from burning fossil fuels mean...
TED Talks
TED: This country runs on 98 percent renewable energy | Ramón Méndez Galain
Fifteen years ago, Uruguay was experiencing an energy crisis brought on by its reliance on fossil fuels; today, the nation produces 98 percent of its electricity from renewable sources (and even exports extra energy to neighboring...
TED Talks
TED: How to supercharge renewables and energize the world | Rebecca Collyer
The power sector generates the electricity that sustains modern life -- but it's also the number one contributor to climate change. We need a swift and equitable shift to renewable energy, says 2023 Audacious Project grantee and...
TED Talks
TED: Can AI help solve the climate crisis? | Sims Witherspoon
AI can be a transformational tool in our fight against climate change, says Sims Witherspoon, a leader at the AI research lab Google DeepMind. Using wind power as her case study, she explains how powerful neural networks can help us...
TED Talks
TED: Can the US and China take on climate change together? | Changhua Wu
Climate change doesn't care about ideological divides, says policy analyst and China expert Changhua Wu. Here's what she says the US can learn from the progress China has made on the clean energy revolution -- and why collaboration...
TED Talks
TED: The molecular love story that could help power the world | Olivia Breese
The key to revolutionizing the world's energy landscape may lie in an unlikely love story, says energy innovator Olivia Breese. She details the fateful marriage of a green electron and a water molecule -- a powerful source of...
TED Talks
TED: The renewable energy revolution happening in Ukraine | Maxim Timchenko
What's it like keeping the lights on during war? Ukrainian energy executive Maxim Timchenko shares how his company has diversified Ukraine's power structures to survive Russian attacks, highlighting the resilience of renewable energy....
TED Talks
TED: An economy powered by sun and wind -- it's almost here | Kala Constantino
With some of the highest energy bills in Southeast Asia and extreme weather to match, the Philippines experiences the climate crisis -- and climate activism -- as a part of daily life. Clean energy advocate Kala Constantino highlights...
SciShow
Why Haven't We Built a Better Battery?
Improving batteries is a tough problem, but it’s also an important one because in many ways the future of our planet also depends on the future of batteries. Luckily, scientists are on the case, figuring out ways to give this essential...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are solar panels worth it? | Shannon Odell
Today in many countries solar is the cheapest form of energy to produce. Millions of homes are equipped with rooftop solar, with most units paying for themselves in their first seven to 12 years and then generating further savings. So,...
TED Talks
TED: A faster way to get to a clean energy future | Ramez Naam
When it comes to cost, clean energy is bound to beat out fossil fuels, says technologist Ramez Naam. But the hesitancy to build amid the prevalence of "not in my backyard" campaigns is preventing the creation of our sustainable future....
TED Talks
TED: 5 lessons on building an emissions-free city | Heidi Sørensen
Confronting climate change makes for better cities and a better quality of life, says Heidi Sørensen, director of the climate agency for the city of Oslo, Norway. From construction sites without noise pollution to fully electric...
TED Talks
TED: What happens to gas stations when the world goes electric? | Emily Grubert
When the world goes fully electric, what happens to the cars, tools and livelihoods that rely on fossil fuels? Civil engineer and environmental sociologist Emily Grubert visualizes what a clean energy future will look like, outlining the...