The inflection point for solar energy | David Galipeau | TEDxBrookings

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Solar energy has been hailed as the future of energy for decades. Finally, solar energy has reached the inflection point where it not only makes technological sense, but also economic sense.

Dr. David W. Galipeau is the Harold Hohbach Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Coordinator of the Center for Advanced Photovoltaics and Sustainable Energy; and Electrical Engineering MS and Ph.D. graduate programs at South Dakota State University. He was also the program lead for the Alternative Power Technology (APT) Program supported by the Department of Defense. While at SDSU, he has been the PI or Co-PI on over forty funded research projects, including twelve major NSF awards for over $10 M and eight SBIR-STTR awards. He has published over 100 research papers, given numerous presentations, and established a spin off business. He was also Co-founder of the Center for Advanced Photovoltaics and Sustainable Energy.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[Brainbuster]

"This talk was given at a local TEDx event..." in the description, sure would be nice to mention the year this talk was given as well as the place (though the uploader was pretty vague about the place as well).
Play at 1.25x playback speed. ;) MUCH better.

[tomtompkins]

Oh and on a cost comparison, make sure all illness and deaths from fuel production are included. How many deaths have been caused by solar?
Also how many spills and catastrophes has solar caused compared to fossil fuels?

[achalhp]

*Thorium Molten Salt Reactors* and Nuclear fusion need help from innovator like David Galipeau.

Solar Energy has limitations:

*Dilute : need large area* * *Seasonal variations - Need fossil power backup* * *Intermittent on hourly basis - need battery/pumped hydro backup* * *Location specific*

[thejourneyofsuccess]

We need to take advantage of this information and solar technology. We need to make fossil fuel a thing of the past within the next 100 years.

[tomtompkins]

If you put all fossil fuel electricity producer together, how much land would that cover, oh and include all the refineries and mines, hmmm I wonder.

[voluntaryist]

No one could predict the AT&T monopoly breakup would lead to cell phones. No one can predict how great life will be when all monopolies are broken up. This argument falls on deaf ears because most are afraid of living their lives without centralized control by monopoly. The worldwide political paradigm of a coercive elite running everyone's life has failed for millennia as seen by the existence of war and poverty worldwide. But the state (govt.) teaches us to fear self-governance, non-coercive community cooperation, and a voluntary society. We are taught from kindergarten-college that law (violent control) is order and without that monopoly, life would be chaotic. Experience teaches us the opposite. The private sector has no monopoly on violence granted to it as the public sector does, but it produces all the wealth while the public sector consumes it. Everything the public sector controls is failing, e.g., the infrastructure. Why? The public sector is not controlled by the public. Democracy has failed. The private sector is controlled by the public.

A company cannot survive without support from consumers unless it is bailed out by money taken by force (taxes). This is NOT capitalism, the free market. It is fascism, the govt. intervention to benefit itself and private interest against the public interest. And it leads to social chaos.

[michaelweaver]

No talk of how we store all this energy for when we don't have sun. How much environmental damage will huge arrays of batteries do and how efficient will they be? Can we get enough storage to handle the load in low sun times. I think the answer at least for now is no. We can use solar to reduce the load but it cannot replace the current grid system. Same goes for wind. There are limits to how far you transmit even high voltage power so we have to keep some other form of energy like fossil or nuclear powered up on the grid and have therefore only partially mitigated the problem. New safer forms of nuclear along with renewables is the best option.

[anchorbait]

This guy is a trip.. He talks wired too. Haha

[pardeeptandon]

I wonder why this gentleman has not told us that today China is the world leader in solar power ?

[jammadamma]

Please don't give a talk wearing Crocs!

[brettrasmussen]

So many assumptions, most of them wrong, and this guy calls himself an engineer!