#undecided with matt ferrell

[bumblebeeappletree]

China’s MASSIVE Desert Project Is About To Change The World. This is the biggest solar power plant in the United States, located in Kern, California. The Solar Star Plant is over 8 square miles and has a generation capacity of 579 megawatts, powering around 255,000 homes. This is impressive, but about 6,500 miles away, in this remote desert, there's a solar facility that could dwarf it … and just about every other solar power plant on earth. And it’s not alone.

Watch 5 BEST Things I Saw in Vegas at CES 2024

• 5 BEST Things I Saw in...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/chinas-massiv...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version -

/ @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[neoatlantiscodex]

Why Hydrogen DOES Have a Future

Hydrogen fuel cells never went away, and are only getting better.  While there are potential problems, they are less than using chemical batteries.

Unfortunately, the government stopped pretending to care about it.  Rather than helping no technologies get implemented, they want to punish people for energy use.

There are hospitals setting up solar/hydrogen systems, and using the waste oxygen as... oxygen.

Runtime:  12:31

[weatherman667]

Why Do American Homes Suck?

I highly recommend not watching the video, unless you want to see a giant wall of regulations and certifications.

So, I’ll summarize.

The US has had cheaper energy than Europe, and so doesn’t care as much about energy efficiency.

That’s the only useful part of this video.  He doesn’t understand how much of a regulatory nightmare his prized countries in Europe are, which adds years to the construction of even single-family detached homes.  He also asserts that low air-change is good, but this only applies if you are using air conditioning.  If you, say, live in a warm climate, and use natural ventilation, then all of the energy put into insulation is not just wasted, but actively detrimental.

Also, passive house is a bullshit standard.  Passive house is a house that produces as much energy as it uses.  Not a house that produces it’s own energy, but a house that over a year produces as much energy as it uses.  Solar power plants don’t just produce power during the daytime, but during the summer.  This means that the house is producing power during the summer daylight hours, while taking power from the grid during the winter and night.  So, it’s not producing the power when it needs it.

When he says that American houses suck, he is restricting himself to insulation, and that’s it.

Runtime:  17:03

[bumblebeeappletree]

How We Solved The Home Wind Turbine Problem. Whenever I cover wind turbines many of you ask about what’s available for home applications. At the moment, I’ve got both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the current market for residential wind is…less than great. The good news? We have a lot of new innovations that look to improve it. The team behind the U.S.-based startup Harmony Turbines is hoping to popularize wind energy for the masses and allow them to have their iPhone moment. Plus, if you remember our video on Aeromine’s rooftop models from last year, we have an update on how its “motionless” design is progressing out in the real world. But of course, these are far and away from the only companies working on bringing wind power generation to our backyards. Residential wind has to have its moment someday, but when? Or should I say, “but wind?”

Watch Why This NASA Battery May Be The Future of Energy Storage

• Why This NASA Battery ...

Mentioned Videos:

The Challenges of a Wind Turbine on Your Home

• The Challenges of a Wi...

How Can A Wind Turbine Be Motionless?

• How Can A Wind Turbine...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/how-we-solved...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version -

/ @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

This Crazy Wind Turbine May Be The Future of Wind Energy. Solar panels are a marvel, right? One of the neatest things about them is that they can be used almost anywhere, from big farms, to residential spaces and anything in between. If only we could make other renewables, like wind power, as versatile. Well that’s exactly what a company called AirLoom Energy is trying to do, they claim they’ve developed a radically different kind of wind energy device. One that’s much cheaper, more flexible, and has the backing of Bill Gates. Given his cleantech investing success rate, I’ll let you decide if that’s a badge or honor, or a sign that this device is all hot air. How does AirLoom work? And is their radically different wind turbine design going to change the game?

Watch Why This NASA Battery May Be The Future of Energy Storage

• Why This NASA Battery ...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/this-crazy-wi...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version -

/ @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

What REALLY happens to used Solar Panels? This is going to take a little bit of explanation, but … probably to the surprise of no one … I’m fascinated by solar panel technology. Being able to generate electricity for yourself onsite, on your roof, is an insanely compelling technology. However, it has its downsides. There’s a growing tsunami of solar panels hitting their end of life coming in the next decade. And one of the most common things I see in my solar panel video comments is that “solar panels can’t be recycled.” That’s why I flew down to Odessa, Texas to visit SolarCycle to see if that’s really the case. What did I find out?

For more info on SolarCycle: www.solarcycle.us

Watch Top 5 Solar Energy Advances Using Perovskites

• Top 5 Solar Energy Adv...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/what-really-h...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version -

/ @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

How Offshore Solar Could be the Future of Energy. What’s stopping us from converting the open ocean into a massive solar power plant? After all, land has always been a complicated issue in the world of renewables, and as populations grow denser, it’s all the more relevant. How do we balance the urgency of the clean energy transition with the space needed for agriculture, housing, and conservation? Establishing offshore wind farms is one way. But it also turns out that we can also stand to gain a lot from offshore solar. That is, if we can figure out how to steady marine floating photovoltaics in the same way we’re already experimenting with freshwater FPV. Developing seaworthy panels is a lot more complicated than smashing a bottle on the array and setting sail. So, what makes ocean FPV worth a shot? And what’s holding it back?

Watch Is This Accidental Discovery The Future Of Energy?

• Is This Accidental Dis...

Previous video on floating solar on canals - How Solar Panels Can Help Solve California’s Drought

• How Solar Panels Can H...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/how-offshore-...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

Why We Need To Rethink Wind Turbines. Wind turbines have a “big” problem. As in, they’re really big: bigger than you might think. One of the latest wind turbine designs sports a swept area of about 10 American football fields. This is generally desirable, especially for offshore wind turbines. More height and larger diameters mean more energy captured with fewer towers. But as you can probably imagine, this makes producing, transporting, and installing these things a colossal undertaking. And as wind turbine manufacturers have competed against each other, the push to maximize size has ended up undermining quality.

For more future wind turbine tech, check out How Can A Wind Turbine Be Motionless?

• How Can A Wind Turbine...

Why Are Floating Wind Turbines So Huge?

• Why Are Floating Wind ...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/why-we-need-t...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[weatherman667]

I Made A Mistake Building My New Net Zero Home

He’s obsessed with passive houses, which is just utterly ridiculous.  But, there are a lot of individual aspects of it that are incredibly useful.

Passive House means your YEARLY power consumption is equivalent to your power production.  But that’s not how gird load balancing works.  You cannot produce more power from the summer and draw more from the winter, and call yourself passive.  One of the problems with California is that they have too much solar power that they cannot use.

Highly insulated homes require thermal barriers, and any penetration through this barrier can have serious consequences on your efficiency.  His problem is that the tried to minimize the penetration, but messed it up.

Solar power to power storage.

Smart panels that can ration power when offgrid.  They also disconnect the house from the grid during power outages.

Electric car that can be programmed to only charge when he has excess solar power, or to charge during non-peak hours when some places have cheaper rates.

Individually, these are all good ideas.  But yearly power consumption makes zero sense for calling a house passive.

Runtime:  13:58

[bumblebeeappletree]

How Wave Power Could Be The Future Of Energy. The ocean has an incredible amount of power potential. China’s brand new Wave Energy Converters has been making a lot of news recently. While this ocean power device isn’t the first of its kind, its sheer size represents a breakthrough for this underutilized but potent branch of the renewable energy family tree. What is wave energy generation, and how does it compare to other renewables like solar panels and wind turbines? And if wave energy is so great, then why is it lagging behind solar, wind and others? Let's dive into the ocean of renewable energy, where the waves may hold more untapped potential than the sun. Maybe the surfers were right all along.

Fully Charged Live Canada (25% off with code UNDECIDED): https://link.undecidedmf.com/fullycha...

Watch Why This NASA Battery May Be The Future of Energy Storage • Why This NASA Battery ...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/how-wave-powe...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

What do you do if a satellite runs out of batteries? It’s prohibitively expensive to send a team into orbit and pop in some new AAs, and as a result many satellites use very efficient, reliable and long-lived nickel-hydrogen batteries. We’re talking about batteries that last decades. That sounds like the sort of battery that could revolutionize grid-scale energy storage and really help out renewables back here on Earth, which is why EnerVenue is backing nickel hydrogen batteries as the next step forward! But if batteries rugged and powerful enough for spacecraft already exist, then why haven’t we used it back here on Earth until now?

Fully Charged Live Canada (25% off with code UNDECIDED): https://link.undecidedmf.com/fullycha...

Hydrogen safety demonstration video - AlChE Academy: https://www.aiche.org/ili

Watch How Wave Power Could Be The Future Of Energy • How Wave Power Could B...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/why-this-nasa...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

Aside from a concrete garage and elevator shafts, Ascent Milwaukee is a 25 story-tall building constructed almost entirely from wood, making it the tallest mass timber building in the world. It might not hold this title for long though because wooden skyscrapers are rapidly growing in popularity due to a host of benefits including sustainability. But how are wooden skyscrapers possible? And isn’t it a little foolish to make a timber tower when a little thing called “fire” exists?

Watch the full interview with Jason Korb here:

• 175: Wooden Skyscraper...

Watch Why Are Floating Wind Turbines So Huge?

• Why Are Floating Wind ...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/why-dont-we-b...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

Why Solar Panels Aren’t Unfair or a Scam. Get a LARQ Bottle Filtered and start enjoying fresh, pure water today: https://bylarq.com/undecided2 There’s concerns that homes with solar panels are reducing their utility bills at the expense of their neighbors without solar panels. The phenomenon is referred to as “cost shifting”: the idea that the credits utilities pay to solar homes for the solar energy they produce ultimately results in higher bills for customers without solar panels. This has had major implications on public policy…for better or worse. Is the solar energy cost shift real?

Watch How Dead EV Batteries are Perfect for Energy Storage • How Old EV Batter...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/why-solar-pan...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

How Old EV Batteries are Perfect for Energy Storage. Get BougeRV solar panels today: https://link.undecidedmf.com/bougerv BIG discount codes: MATT27 - 27% off 200W CIGS solar panels, MATT20 - 20% off 100W CIGS solar panels. After June 6th they drop to 17% off, so don’t miss out. And use MATT15 for 15% off other products. All codes valid until September 1st. It’s been nice to see the growing popularity of electric vehicles these last few years, but EVs need batteries and batteries don’t last forever. In fact, the first generation of EV batteries are already dying, and there's an absolute dead battery typhoon coming. Lithium battery recycling is improving, but it's still far from where it needs to be. Luckily there's another option that's pretty simple. Just take those used batteries and repurpose them for less demanding large scale energy storage. That's exactly what’s happening at a recently opened 25 MWh grid scale energy storage system in California. But if these batteries are “dead,” how are they able to bring new life to renewable energy storage?

Additional BougeRV products:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/th...

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/th...

Watch Why is this Propeller Getting So Much Attention?

• Why is this Prope...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/how-dead-ev-b...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

Why I Went With Geothermal For My Net Zero Home. In a recent heat pump video I covered how air source heat pumps are getting so much better in the cold, but in my new house I decided not to go with one. Instead I went with the more expensive option: a geothermal heat pump. Why did I decide it was a better option to drill into the earth 400 hundred feet at more cost for my new home? I’ll run through that, but there’s also a few other things I kind of went a little nuts on in my house that are worth touching on too, like smart electric panels, a crazy home network, and more. Let’s get into the current state of my net zero energy home.

Watch Wow! I Didn’t Know A Prebuilt House Could Do This • Wow! I Didn’t Kno...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/why-i-went-wi...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[bumblebeeappletree]

Top 5 Solar Energy Advances Using Perovskites. For years, perovskite solar cells have promised revolutionary improvements compared to traditional silicon solar panels. Perovskite could hold the key to higher efficiency at lower costs and in some cases has shown a 250% performance boost. But scientists have been working on improving this solar energy tech since the 1990s. What do we have to show for it today? This feels like yet another piece of over-hyped, planet-saving tech, perpetually 10 years away from adoption, right? Maybe not … they might finally be on the market before the end of this year. Let’s look at 5 perovskite solar panel advances since the last time we talked about it.

Be sure to check out the previous perovskite video here: • Perovskite Solar ...

Watch Top 5 Batteries for Home (And One You Might Not Expect): • Top 5 Batteries f...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.com/top-5-solar-e...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm