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What if I told you
all the things we care about

can be tied back
to one simple question,

can you turn your lights on
in the morning?

Electricity is all around us,
but we rarely notice it.

It's something
I think about every day.

I'm a numbers guy,
when I look at the world

I see stats and spread sheets.

My house is filled
with electric stuff.

I have my personal
fire cooking device,

a spiffy teapot, a dishwasher,
toaster, an oven

and the ultimate gadget,
the entirety of the world's

information, and it fits
in the palm of my hand.

Nearly everything we touch,
almost everything we read,

eat or wear, has in one way
or another been electrified.

When I look at my refrigerator, I see a device

that uses more
electricity per year

than roughly
three billion people.

Having electricity
doesn't guarantee wealth,

but not having it almost
always means poverty.

I'm Robert Bryce,
and the way I see it,

electricity explains the world.

P.G and E
presents REDDY,

your tireless household service.

♪ I wash and dry your clothes

♪ Play your radios

♪ I can heat your coffee pot

♪ I am always there

♪ With lots of power to spare

♪ 'Cause I'm Reddy Kilowatt

Remember,
just plug in, I'm Reddy.

You know, it's funny
how we take things

like electricity for granted.

Electricity is
different from every other

form of energy, because,
for the first time in history,

we're controlling forces
we can't see or feel.

Thanks to the electric grid,
we're harnessing the motion

of zillions upon
zillions of electrons,

and we can unleash
those electrons whenever

and wherever we want.

Hey, wait a minute,
Jim, I need some facts.

The national academies of
engineering ranked the electric grid

as the most important
engineering innovation

of the 20th century.

Not just for a wealthy privileged class,

but for everyone.

Promotional literature

from the '30s and the '40s,

it's all aimed at the woman
of the household.

"Make your life easier
with an electric washer,

with an electric stove."

Electricity
has allowed people

and, in particular,
women and girls,

to escape the drudgery
of past eras.

It has liberated them from the
pump, the stove and the washtub.

Electricity has changed
how we communicate,

how we travel and where we live.

Our nation was stirring
with new ideas,

new wants, new needs.

Modern life
and electricity

are synonymous with one another.

Your refrigerator,
your lights, your microwave,

those are all part of the grid.

To realize
how much our lives

have changed in just
two generations.

It's
amazing innovation.

To me it's like
a co-creation with nature.

Naturally, we got the sunlight,

but rest of the time it is dark,

but you have co-created,
so you have light 24 hours.

Life has been on
this planet for about

four and a half billion years,

Homo sapiensfor

maybe half a million years,

civilization only
began 40,000 years ago,

humanity advanced
through fire and the wheel

and levers and building ships,
very, very slowly advancing.

Give me a lever long enough
and I can move the world.

And there've really
been two major revolutions

that have increased
the rate of this change.

First was the industrial
revolution with mechanics,

only 150 years ago,
human civilization

went under radical
transformation.

As grand as that was,
that pales in comparison

to the rate of change we've seen

since the emergence
of electricity.

Archaeological
records show that our hominid

ancestors began using fire
about one million years ago.

Fire use became common
some 400,000 years ago.

By contrast, we have
only been putting

electricity to work
since the 1880s.

Therefore, if we could
compress the 400,000 years

that humans have been using
fire into one 24 hour period,

the electric age would span

only the last 30 seconds
before midnight.

Now the rate
of change is so fast,

it is very difficult,
for even those of us

working within it
are trying to track it

and trying to plan it,
we are constantly surprised

by how much
faster change happens

than we can predict ourselves.

If we're going
to talk about electricity,

we should probably
start at the beginning.

To do that, we went to the birth place of the electric age.

We're here
in lower Manhattan.

It was in this region
where Thomas Edison began

the electric age with
the first electric grid,

and within a mile
of where I'm standing

right here in the battery,

was also the cradle
of the skyscraper.

For centuries, humans
have built tall structures

like the statue of liberty.

But the electric age
fundamentally changed the city.

Just plug in, I'm ready.

As the technology
came into being,

it behaved like every
other technology.

We had some successful
entrepreneurs,

they saw a market,
and they started out small.

Edison, he wanted
a demonstration plant,

where he's going to supply
electric light

to anyone who wants it.
And he wanted

to be near Wall Street,
because he felt he needed

the bankers on his side.

The first commercial
power plant in the United States,

the Pearl Street Station
in New York City reached out

and served a small
number of customers.

Pearl Street does
not make a profit.

And Edison saw that if
he were going to be successful,

you need some way to distribute
this over a large area,

it's the only way to make it
economical for the common user.

Most of us have
heard names like Edison,

Tesla and Westinghouse,
they were key pioneers,

but Frank Sprague changed
the way we use juice.

Before Sprague, electricity
was used almost exclusively

for lighting, his innovations
forced electric companies

to focus on providing power.

Well, Frank Sprague was
a graduate of the Naval Academy,

and the Navy had
the first electrical school,

and when Sprague comes
into the Edison company,

he immediately starts seeing
places for improvement.

Edison doesn't see motors
as something that's important.

Sprague comes up with a motor,
he needed something efficient,

he needed something compact,

he needed something
that was economically viable

and he delivered on all three,
he gets Edison's approval.

The Pearl Street plant becomes
profitable for the first time,

and that changes
the future of electric power,

because the early
companies are all called

lighting companies, you go
ten years to the future,

they're all power
and light companies.

The power customer becomes
the most important customer,

not the light customer.

In 1894, Frank Sprague
completed the first bank

of electric elevators inside
the Postal Telegraph building

at 253 Broadway.

Powered by Sprague's
compact electric motors,

those elevators were faster,
cheaper and cleaner

than ever before.

Frank Sprague,
because of the project

that they posed in Telegraph
building at 250 Broadway,

really casts the mold
for all future skyscrapers,

large urban buildings or,
as you go in any large building

anywhere in the world today,
you've got banked elevators,

but this is sort of a new idea.

Basically, height is electrical,

from the time of the caves,
30,000 or 40,000 years ago.

Humanity was essentially flat.

Cities, on the one hand,
are old, uh,

Rome 2,000 years ago
had a million people.

But, essentially,
cities remained the same

for hundreds,
thousands of years.

And then,
electricity came along,

and suddenly cities
had become three-dimensional.

The urge to go skyward
that you saw in New York

through the whole 20th century,
was a manifestation

of the tremendous amount
of concentrated energy.

If you look
at the greatest buildings

of the Middle Ages,
the cathedrals,

they were small
by modern standards.

In the history
of architecture there were

symbolic structures
which used height

in order to signify
their importance,

their spirituality.

But New York, a kind of
capital of capitalism

found in the skyscraper,
a way to exploit the demand

for central locations
and cities, and the ability

to use the elevator in order
to go above the normal height

that people feel comfortable
to walk upstairs,

which is about five
or six stories.

The ability
to rise in space,

even 100 feet or 200 feet,
which doesn't seem like much,

completely transformed
the structure,

the geography,
the geometry of cities.

It made possible,
office buildings

in which you could
have hundreds,

thousands of people
working for the same firm.

Hundreds of
relays had transferred

10,000 electrical impulses
to motivate the cars.

Once you have a tall building,
if you look down from space,

you can calculate
the watts per square meter

that that building consumes.

The spatial density
of the consumption

in a city like New York
is extremely high.

And here's the deal,
vertical cities reduce

the human footprint
on the natural world.

Small footprints are good.

Density, whether it involves
energy production,

food production
or urban living, is green.

The process of human
progress is also a process

of environmental progress
in that it's comprised

centrally,
of energy transitions.

From energy diffused fuels
to energy dense ones.

With electricity being the most
important ultimate carrier

of energy for modern societies.

Energy is often referred to
as the master resource.

Electricity is the master
of the master resources.

Without electricity,
you are effectively going back

in time to a world
that we have been able

to innovate away from.

There was a point
when we were relying heavily

on wooden dung and also horse
and carriages in cities,

and cities, just after
a while, became unlivable.

You have to understand
the energy ladder.

There's a broad pattern for
how people become prosperous,

but also how we protect
the natural environment.

Cities from
my point of view,

as a green,
as an environmentalist,

are the salvation of nature.

It's only by concentrating
a significant portion

of humanity in livable
attractive cities,

that we have the chance
to spare the rest of nature

for the lions and the tigers
and the eagles.

We know that there are
about 1.2 billion people

in the world today who have
no access to electricity at all.

What's missing in that statistic
is that there are a couple

of billion more whose access
to electricity is inadequate,

intermittent, the system
doesn't work all the time.

The defining
inequality in the world today

is the disparity
between the electricity rich

and the electricity poor,
what does that mean?

Let's go back
to my refrigerator.

It uses about 1,000 kilowatt
hours of electricity per year.

By my count, there are about
three billion people today

who, on an individual basis,

use less electricity
than my fridge.

India, a country
as ancient as it is modern.

Moving as history moves across
the threshold of the past.

About a third
of all Indians live in poverty

and about 300 million
of them, a population

nearly the size of the United
States, don't have access

to any electricity at all.

When electricity
isn't readily available,

people will do whatever it takes

to get it,
and that includes theft.

People are using wires
to put a hook in the wires

and draw the electricity,
that is un-metered supply.

That is theft.

In central Calcutta,
where hooking has been going on,

T and C losses, technical
and commercial losses.

We have around 11.5%
where the national average

is around 40, 45, 50,
it's as high as that.

If I can interrupt you
and have you repeat that,

because these numbers
kind of stagger the mind.

We... our, our loss figures,
T and C losses,

technical and commercial
losses total,

it's around 11.5%,
whereas the national average

is around 40%, 40.

- That's a staggering number.
- That's a staggering loss.

So, if you look above me
here to the right,

there's some hooks
on the electric line

which is, uh, common,

but the locals don't want
to talk about it.

It's one of the
conundrums of electricity service,

to make electricity
available to everyone,

it has to be cheap, but it can't be cheap when the system

lacks integrity, whether
it's customers stealing

from the utility or the utility ripping off customers,

integrity is as important
to the grid as engineering.

You can have food
and not have a modern life.

There are plenty of people
who don't have electricity

and have food, but whose
standard of living is really

not up to what we would think

of as a modern
standard of living.

This is a biomass
stove, this is rice straw,

called paddy, and then they feed
it into the bottom of the...

- Yeah.
- ...the, the pit here and then,

put the pots
on the top so this is

uh, just a traditional
method of cooking.

There's a methodic correlation
found between those people

who are using the conventional
biomass for their cooking

and their health, and what
happens is that cooking is done

by the women, and that
woman actually inhales all

the pollutant during cooking.

Cooking in that environment
for four to five hours

has a serious health impact.

Every year in India,
more than one million people

die from indoor air pollution,
the use of biomass

in cooking causes horrifying
damage to human health.

Especially, to that
of women and girls.

University of California,
Berkeley, professor Kirk Smith

estimates the health impact
of cooking with biomass

is akin to burning
400 cigarettes

an hour in your kitchen.

Women take up
the brunt of domestic work

and in the absence
of electricity,

that domestic work is
more difficult, more time

consuming, less productive,

and it's women and girls
who deal with it.

The mothers are
spending all day long

just doing the basic
household chores.

Women and girls are sort of

the managers
of household energy,

the way they get that
is labor intensive.

Women spend a lot of
time fetching firewood

because there's no energy
for actual light.

It's, you know, collecting
wood, collecting dung.

- Collecting water.
- You don't have a fridge,

so you have
to cook every evening.

Kitchens are five degrees warmer

when you are cooking there.

Suppose the temperature
outside is 35 degrees,

so your kitchen is 40 degrees.

You need air conditioning.

Oftentimes people
will talk about energy poverty

in very abstract terms
without thinking about,

"Okay, what do we want
this energy to achieve

"once people have it?" When
you're able to transform the economy

from just being based off
of raw materials,

you put women on the path

to participate
in an economy that is richer,

in an economy that is more
just for women and girls.

And in India, sun is down
by 6:00, 6:30, max.

In the summer,
your time becomes short

and it's all dark,
you can't see anything.

This is an old
style kerosene lamp.

This is the centuries old
now version of what we use,

and we use LED lights,
incandescents, fluorescents,

but in villages like this one,
this is what they use here.

If you are absorbed in the dark,

darkness absorbs you too,

so you do not see the light

and you cannot bring
the light to others.

Electricity
has allowed us to conquer

our oldest foe, darkness.

For millennia, the cost of having well-lit spaces at night

was so high that only
the very rich could afford it.

Those well-lit spaces
matter more than you think.

A few months before our visit,
an elephant invaded

the tiny village of Chargora.

Turns out well-lit spaces
help keep unwanted guests

out of the village, when the lights are out and you live

in rural West Bengal, you risk

getting trampled
by roaming elephants.

Like my friend Joyashree,
I had a moment

in which I finally understood
what darkness means.

In the small agricultural
settlement of Majalesh Pukur,

located southeast of Calcutta,
I met Rehena Jamadar.

So, Rehena, can you tell me
how your life is different

with electricity versus before?

She is saying that there
is still much to happen.

- Sure.
- But at least some help

is happening, so in the home
they have entertainment system

and they have
the grinding systems,

so things are happening there.

But also your
children can read at, at night?

The, the girl
goes to college.

But, but could
she go to college

when she couldn't read at night?

- No.
- No.

- No.
- Straight answer is no.

If you had electricity

when you were small,

could you have gone
to university?

Yes, she would have gone.

Darkness had kept
this gracious and intelligent

woman from achieving something

that she knew was
within her grasp.

Here was a person who, had she
been born in one of India's

cities instead of Magalesh Pukur, would've gone to college.

With a college education,
she could've been a doctor,

a lawyer or maybe
a nurse or engineer.

By the time I met Rehena,
I knew plenty of facts

and statistics,
the average resident of India

uses about 800 kilowatt hours
of electricity per year,

which is about a quarter
of the global average.

I understood the myriad
correlations between electricity,

availability
and health and wealth.

But that 15 minute conversation with Rehena and Joyashree

made me see the light.

...in Accra,

they used to happen quite often.

We grew up in a place
in the mountains and it was

normal to us that
we're going to have

some yellow electricity
and some white electricity.

And I remember
I was in the first grade,

I was six, and there was
going to be

a pop quiz the next morning.

In our house, we used
to have the yellow lights on,

and this indicates
that this electricity

is being supplied by the EDL.

So I go home and I'm studying,
I'm really excited

but also very nervous,
and in the middle

of my study session,
the power goes off.

And I began crying inconsolably,
because there's no way

I'm going to go finish
memorizing this times table

when there's no power.

And then every six hours
the lights will go off

and then we will turn on the
UPS, so we used to communicate

with my, with my father, tell
him that, "I need to study now

for the school, shall I study
when the yellow lights are on

or when the white
lights are on?"

So the white lights,
we use them using the UPS,

the fluorescent lamp.

And, uh,
my mother got

a kerosene lantern,
lit it up for me

and sat by me while
I studied my times table,

and I think that was
my first recollection of

just how important
that basic infrastructure is.

So, to us this was normal,
it was like, we lived with it,

that we're going
to be having two different types

of power and sometimes we're
not going to be having power,

this was normal to us,
we didn't know

that, actually,
people get 100% electricity.

You know, we have this classic
image of someone in a poor village

who finally has light,
getting an education.

Let's say there's a,
a solar panel on the roof,

it's brought light,
and in the evening now,

they can s... they can be
safe and they can study.

And then the kid turns 16
and they've got an education.

What are they going to do?

Is our expectation that they...

The extent of their ambition

is to remain a subsistence
farmer with an education?

I don't think so,
they're going to want a job.

They're going to want to do something
clever, become a better farmer,

maybe an agronomic scientist.

When we top out
our energy expectations

for the developing world,
all we're really saying is,

"We expect that
you can have enough energy

to stay poor
in a little more comfort...

maybe, and maybe
to be educated enough

"to know that you are poor."

Incrementalism is good,
but is dangerous

when we view it as the only
paradigm, what makes you think

that an African's need
for power is inferior

to an American's need for power?

I think
that rest of the world

who is enjoying modernity

and we are not allowing
others to be modern

is a crime, is a major crime.

Mutual respect for the humanity
of people who live

in other continents,
that should guide

global energy
policy discussions.

Today, billions
of people are living

in conditions
like those in rural

India and sub-Saharan Africa.

Collectively, those billions
make up the low watt world.

Those with intermittent
or insufficient

access to electricity.

In 1989, less than
20% of the country had access

to electricity,
it was a military government

that had come in power
through a coup d'etat,

and the government decided
that by the year 2020,

everyone in this country
will have power.

Ghana transitioned
into democratic rule in '92

and every government
that has come since then

has stayed on the promise
of universal electricity access.

So, now in 2017,
access is at 83% in Ghana.

To date, whenever Ghana
is about to have elections,

you see a lot of infrastructure
projects going up and down

all over the country. So, in
this case, democracy has really

been the tool that has propelled
the electrification project.

Keeping the electricity
flowing day after day,

year after year, requires
constant infusions of cash

which is then used
to buy fuel, repair wires

and replace poles.

Electricity systems
have to pay for themselves.

If there's any kind
of leakage, like theft

or corruption, the system fails.

In the year 2050,
most of the world's population

will live in Africa
or will be African.

How are we going
to have a population

of all these bright young
minds, if you're not plugged in?

What is going
to be their function?

It's a huge demographic crisis
staring us in the face.

I think that one of
the first things to do now,

to ensure that by 2050, the
young Africans on the continent

and around the world,
are people who are productive,

self-reliant, empowered,
people who will be free

from poverty, we have to plug
them in now, it begins now.

While scores
of low watt countries around

the globe struggle to bring
their people out of the dark

and into the light,
the U.S. enjoys

an almost embarrassment
of riches.

Electricity abounds, so much
so that the high watt world

keeps stumbling into new ways

of using massive
amounts of juice.

Take me back to sea level.

Electricity does, in fact,
explain the world.

That's why I'm here
in Boulder, Colorado.

Arguably, the world capital
of legal weed cultivation

and retailing, within about
five miles of where I'm standing

here in Chautauqua Park,
there are about a dozen

and a half legal weed
dispensaries selling brands

like Purple Haze,
but to produce Purple Haze

and other brands of cannabis
sativa, they are using

lots of electricity, in fact,
marijuana cultivation

is the world's single
most electricity

intensive agricultural business.

All over this town,
entrepreneurs are busy

turning watts into weed.

We're, we're looking for a dispensary.
It's not that hard to find them,

but there are about
20 of them in the city

or at least a dozen and a half
of them, but, you know,

we're bagging dispensaries.

So to speak, uh, all these
buildings, though, have big signs

on them, but the grow operations
don't have any signs

and they usually only
have the street number.

You just look at the exterior
of the building, no signs.

And look at the long
electrical conduit lines

that are on the outside,
look at the size

of the three phase conduit

going into that gray box,
and then how many meters

they've got right behind it.

That's all new conduit on
the outside of the building.

Why else would you need
that much electricity

in such a nondescript warehouse.

Look at this,
this is all brand new.

This is new electrical service,
500 kilovolt amps.

That's a brand new
transformer put in just

for a marijuana grow operation
in this, in this warehouse.

Marijuana growers don't want
people to know they're growing

marijuana, but you know what
to look for, you can find them.

It's certainly keeping
the energy company busy.

Operating transformers,
all sorts of equipment,

upgrades like that
that are needed

for high energy use facilities.

Electricity used
by the cannabis industry

has been increasing sharply
over the past several years.

I believe the average
has been about 34% per year.

The electricity
intensity of marijuana cultivation

is 23 times that of a hospital

and about 130 times that
of an average U.S. residence.

That's a lot of juice.

Want to know the real buzz kill?

About half of Colorado's
electricity comes from

coal fired power plants. As
a result, Boulder dispensaries

are required by city
ordinance, to prove

they're growing polar
bear friendly ganja.

Colorado's had a number
of different mandates

and opportunities for using
renewable technologies.

So, for example,
I live in Boulder,

I get my, my electricity

from Xcel Energy,
I can pay a little bit more

to have that energy
come from wind power.

It's important for a lot
of people because of politics

and wealth to be able to feel
like you're doing something

environmental while you're
living like everyone else does.

It has not led to an appreciable

decarbonization
of the Colorado economy.

A lot of the offsetting
provisions,

whether it's for
the cannabis industry,

for individual homeowners,
it's simply accounting.

The number that
really matters is,

where does the energy come from.
And so long as Colorado

gets 85% of its energy
from fossil fuels,

85% of the economic activity in
Colorado is from fossil fuels,

no matter which
we assign to the 15%

and which we assign to the 85%.

We're going to a black
market grower in Denver.

He has decided that
it's far easier to operate

in the black market
and more profitable

to do it in the black market
than in the regulated market.

Okay.

My name is Daniel,
I'm currently driving

an Uber and I also
grow marijuana.

I was arrested for growing
marijuana in 2003

and I received a felony
conviction for that.

As a result of that,
I'm not allowed to participate

in the legitimate
marijuana industry.

If you were going
to tell me what are

the three key things
you need to know

to set up a clandestine
operation.

You have to have
buyers for your product,

you need to have good
knowledge of botany

and you need to have
a good knowledge

of setting up
an electrical system

that will support
an operation like that.

What about stealing
electricity, what about that?

That's something
I would never do

because if you are
caught doing that,

you're probably going
to be in more trouble

for stealing the electricity
than you are going to be

in trouble for growing the weed.

They have ways of detecting
leakage in electricity,

and they do that by scanning
each part of the grid,

periodically. That could bring
down the operation in itself.

In 2013,
indoor pot farms in Denver

were consuming about 100
gigawatt hours of electricity.

By 2016, that figure had almost

tripled to about
275 gigawatt hours.

To put that in perspective,
businesses in Denver

are using nearly as much
electricity just to grow weed

as what's consumed by
the entire country of Burundi.

Colorado, which had a 2020
target for renewable energy

and emissions reduction,
now has a 2025 target,

so we've moved our targets
off into the future

because we're not hitting them.

Right now we're working towards

a long-term goal,
a very significant goal

of 80% reduction
in emissions by 2050.

Obviously, if the emissions
from this industry continue

to increase exponentially,
that could have a major impact,

but right now we don't think
that it is going to

cause us to be
derailed from our goal.

To be sure, it's
easy to snicker at the amount

of electricity needed
to grow marijuana,

but the fact that people in rich countries are using electricity

to grow cannabis while people
in poor ones are stealing it

solely to survive, provides
a stark reminder of the vast

disparity between the people
who live high watt lives

and those who live
mostly in the dark.

- Keep running.
- Keep, keep going...

- So this is, this is normal for...
- Now, now you have the problem

that we have here
in Puerto Rico.

So, please,
keep going if you don't mind

because we'll just
ignore the lights

- for now and just keep going.
- Yeah,

let's put the batteries
on the LEDs.

We just
had a black out,

this could be for
an hour or two hours,

- could be the rest of the day.
- Yeah,

yeah, probably two hours.

- Two hours.
- Yeah.

So, right now
we're stuck in traffic,

and in the middle of
a black out in Puerto Rico.

And, obviously,
the lights aren't working

because the electricity is out.

So, you have
all these cars trying to merge

through the intersection
and it's kind of a, a little

game of chicken
about who's going to stop

and who's going to play,
and right now I'm winning.

And here's the good part,
we're heading

right over there
to see the power plant

that is owned by PREPA,
that is not working

because no one
knows exactly why.

- We're going in this way.
- Yeah,

private property, that's...

Hi, we're doing
a documentary on the corruption.

Well...

...yeah, you might have heard.

- This is Robert Bryce, people like him a lot.
- Let's not push it.

I'm standing
on the Bay of San Juan.

Puerto Rico now has
the distinction of having

the longest blackout
in American history.

And today, April 18th,
2018, that blackout record

is getting even longer,
in fact, the entire island

of Puerto Rico today,
is in blackout.

And this power plant behind me,
the Palo Seco Power Station,

rated at 600 megawatts,
appears to be producing

no electricity at all.

There's still 300,000
people that don't have power.

We are U.S. citizens
and we do deserve to have

the same level of support
that any U.S. citizen

has anywhere in the world.

There is no production
without electricity.

I mean, there is
no economic movement

without access to power.

My name is Miguel Colón,
I'm the vice president

of Model Offset Printing,
we do mostly printing

for our manufacturing
industry in Puerto Rico.

The business has been in the
family since the last 30 years.

Right after the hurricane,
it was like a war zone.

Passage through the roads
was difficult

because there was a lot
of trees on the roads.

A lot of power posts
were on the floor.

It was a total devastation,
inside the business

there was a lot of water,
a lot of equipment damaged

by the water, our solar
infrastructure was gone.

It was messy. We were
without electrical power

for about three months,
we are still operating

without AC, in... on the whole
plant. And before the hurricane

we were paying about 30,000
dollars per month on electricity.

I pay more for the electricity
than I do for paper.

I understand time,
I understand we're an island,

I understand it takes time to
get things here, but does it take

seven months,
is there really a plan?

Some people still
don't have water.

I cannot envision or imagine
living without access to power,

it's like water,
it's a necessity.

While visiting with
Iris Ortiz and her family,

she shared a story about
how one of her daughters

wanted to have her hair
done for school pictures.

She was distraught,
how could she use

a hair dryer
without electricity?

How would she iron her
clothes without electricity?

The luxuries we so often take
for granted on the mainland

had disappeared, their world
had been turned upside down.

They were now living
low watt lives

and they're American citizens.

The grid looked
like it was being held up

by clothes pins.

Irma comes in, who was
our sparring partner,

and, obviously, the grid
suffered damage there,

and some of
the resources were used,

and two weeks later
we get the knock-out punch.

So, the clothes pins were
all over the island

and everything just fell apart.

There was a lot
of competition for resources.

FEMA came very quickly,
but it took control of all

the resources, there was no
gas for the whole population.

The gas was for the military
and for FEMA.

Drinking water
supply was reserved

for the military and for FEMA.

How long
do you think New Yorkers

would accept being
without power?

A day, a week, a month before
you would have massive

demonstrations, there's
people here that today

still don't have power.

Seven months after
the hurricane.

It is unacceptable.

Two months after
our trip to Puerto Rico,

Iris Ortiz sent me an email,
"One minute ago

we got electricity
to our neighborhood."

She wrote in Spanish:

"Thank you for your prayers,
God bless you very much."

I replied touched that she'd
shared her family story

with someone who was a stranger only two months prior.

I wrote, "You're going
back to the modern world."

We're here in Iceland,
at Gullfoss Falls.

As you can see,
this country has enormous

hydro power potential.

About 75% of the electricity
here comes from hydro.

The other 25% comes
from geothermal.

This abundant electricity
is attracting industries

from all over the world
and, in particular,

data centers
and cryptocurrency miners.

You know,
the Pirate Party said,

"Just come in,
they'll let you in."

You'll find the security
situation is not anything

- "like what's on Capitol Hill."
- So, this is your left.

From the...

It sure
looks way too small

to be the Parliament House.

There are only
330,000 people in this...

No, I got it,
but even still.

More than a third of Iceland's
citizens live in Reykjavik,

the country's
spotless capital city.

It's politically stable
and has been for centuries.

In fact, Iceland's Parliament,
the Althing,

was founded in 930,
making it one

of the world's
oldest parliaments.

Among the newest political
parties in Iceland

is the Pirate Party, which
views itself as something

of a Robin Hood of politics.

The Pirate Party
was created to make sure that

Iceland would become a safe
haven for freedom of information,

expression and, uh, privacy.

I want transparency.

Taking the power
from the powerful

and giving it to the powerless.

I created the Pirate Party
to make sure that these laws

would be written
and implemented,

and Iceland could resurrect
as a Switzerland of bits.

A digital safe haven
where you could host,

among other things,
all the forbidden

knowledge in our world.

This vision is
responsible for a lot

of the data centers in Iceland.

Um.

Electricity and money
are becoming the same thing.

The transfer of money is
the transfer of information.

Money is constantly becoming
more and more electrified.

When you have cheap
electricity available,

you can turn it into money.

That's why we need
stable electricity,

stable power supply,
reliable partners

like we have here in Iceland.

We are seeing
cryptocurrency

disrupt the financial industry,

or at least gaining
a lot of traction.

Banks have, for many years,
been trading currency

only electronically, when you
store your money in the bank,

they don't have a vault with
cash in it, they just have

a digital register themselves.

One of the reasons I became
fascinated with cryptocurrency

was, I heard a story about
migrant workers could move money

back to their families without
Western Union chipping in

a big chunk of that.

I also became fascinated

by it because
I don't want somebody

to have access to every
transaction I make.

I don't care if I make
normal transactions,

I just don't want anybody
to know exactly everything I do.

We have to develop ways
to regain our privacy,

and cryptocurrency is
certainly one way to do that.

Iceland has some
of the strictest privacy laws

in the world, and when you consider their views on privacy

along with a cool climate and cheap, abundant electricity,

it makes perfect sense that
Iceland has become a hotbed

of cryptocurrency production.

This is an industry
that relies on high tensity

with their infrastructure that
is consuming a lot of energy.

Here in Iceland we have
free air cooling.

We can rely on the cool
air outside to cool down

the servers in our data centers.

Electricity intensity
will definitely increase

because it takes more hash
power to mine one bitcoin.

The more bitcoins are mined,
more difficult

it gets to mine one bitcoin.

There are studies
and predictions that say that

the bitcoin network
is going to consume

as much power
as Denmark in 2020.

The deployed power
behind that is massive.

So, you've been your
whole career with HS Orka then?

Not the whole career, no.

I've been here for
around... or with HS Orka

- for almost ten years.
- I see.

In terms
of electricity, then,

for all the geothermal

in Iceland, about how
much is produced here?

We are producing,
in total, 175 megabytes.

Iceland has gone from
undeveloped to developed.

I've also been
to Africa, to Ethiopia

where, where they have
very unstable electricity

and you could see it.

Where we were 50 years ago.

So it's
really only 50 years

that Iceland's gone
from completely dependent

- on cod and diesel fuel...
- Yeah.

...to one now where your
electricity's all renewable.

- Yeah.
- And you're attracting

industry from
all over the world.

Yeah.

It's a simple question,

what does electricity mean?

Technology.

Technology?

Innovation

and higher standards
for living people.

The evolution
of Iceland's economy was due,

in large part, to its ability
to tap into its natural

resources, like, geothermal
and hydroelectric power.

Just 50 years ago, the country's main export was cod.

Today, Iceland has the world's
highest per capita

electricity consumption,
over 53,000 kilowatt hours

per year. And its main exports

are things made
with electricity.

For us to survive,
much less thrive as humanity,

we have got to dramatically
step up the energy availability

and the cleanliness
of that energy.

Wars are fought
over profound disparities

in access to natural resources
and access to information,

and almost all of that goes
back to the availability

of cheap and plentiful
electricity.

Where history began,

history today has made anew.

In lands at once
timeless and changing,

fabled and mysterious, yet
as sharply real as a headline,

the lands of the Middle East.

It's going to take 10
to 15 minutes to be in the hotel.

- Thank you.
- Oh, very welcome.

Where are you coming from?

- Texas.
- Texas, America.

I'm American, guys,
I'm from Michigan.

- No kidding?
- I swear to God.

I've wanted
to come here my whole life.

I've heard about
Beirut my whole life.

Enjoy then, enjoy,
you going to be enjoyed.

For 1975, the state of
electric utility in Lebanon

was so good that they were
selling electricity to Syria.

We didn't have any shortage,
we didn't have

any problem with the quality.

And during the war, things
started deteriorating.

Stuck in the world's
toughest neighborhood,

Lebanon was once the crown
jewel of the region.

Its capital, Beirut, was called

the Paris of the Middle East.

But a 15 year civil war coupled with constant skirmishes

with its neighbors,
has left ordinary

Lebanese living low watt lives.

They were bombing roads, they
were bombing, eh, power plants,

so they were trying
to break the infrastructure

of the country,
break the Lebanese economy

to try, to somehow, make Lebanese
give up on their government.

Destroying electric
infrastructure is a staple

of modern warfare, the U.S.
military bombed power plants

in North Korea,
in North Vietnam and in Iraq.

Knocking out electricity
supplies is considered

a strategic move, like
destroying bridges or roads.

The Israelis were
in conflict with Hezbollah

and they actually wanted
to penalize the Lebanese people

because Hezbollah was and has
been, and I think will continue

to be, part of
the Lebanese government.

They are represented in the
Parliament, they are represented

in the Cabinet of Ministers.

You have certain
factions in this nation

that do not care about
the progression of the life

of the ordinary
Lebanese citizen.

We lost a lot of,
uh, infrastructure

and we haven't recovered yet,

why haven't we recovered?
I think because

we had lack of political will.

The one reason in Lebanon that
we do not have electricity

is corruption, plain and simple.

In Lebanon,
you need to schedule life

depending on electricity,
you schedule your shower,

you schedule when your washing
machine, your washing time,

you schedule
everything depending

on electricity
in our daily lives.

Do you pay
two electric bills?

As all Lebanese people,

we pay two power electric bills,

we pay one power
electric bill to EDL

and you pay like
the double of that

to the private
generators in general.

Let's be frank of this,
so the average Lebanese,

they need electricity,
they need power, they don't need

to live in the dark,
so they don't care

where this comes from,

we can't live without
electricity for 12 hours a day,

so we have to rely on private
generators or diesel generators,

and we can't all afford it.
So, the idea of having

what we call a neighborhood
generator evolved.

Where every powerful person
in the neighborhood,

will buy a private generator,
produce electricity

and sell electricity
to the neighborhood.

That's we call
the generator mafia.

Do you know this
term, the generator mafia?

100%.

- Um, 100%, yeah.
- Everybody knows

- about generator mafia?
- Oh, yes, it's the mafia.

They don't want to,
to fix the electrical...

They don't want
the grid to work.

Exactly.

Because, you know,
if they do the work

and they give it
to us, 24 hours,

those mafias going to close.

- Yeah.
- They not going to make money.

And this business is

a very, it's a very big
business, and it's hundreds

and hundreds
of billions of dollars.

I don't think they would be
happy if this business stops.

Look, I am a positive person,
I don't like to call

these mafias, I, I would say

these are companies
or business men

that were created by necessity.

If the national utility
was supplying electricity,

reliably, 24 hours,
this wouldn't have existed.

I live, my parents live
in a village, and I know,

without those generators,
life would have been

much, much more difficult.

They need the money, they taking
the money from the people

just to put in his... their,
their pocket, government.

First, the government.

I'm talking about
the government in Lebanon.

The mafia, who's the government,
the mafia, who's the government.

EDL produces around 20
to 25 cents per kilowatt hour,

and they are selling it
around 10 to 11 cents,

so the more they generate,
the more they lose.

At the time, the private
generators, they generate

at around 20 cents and
they sell it around 27 cents.

So, the more they generate,
the more they make profit.

So, if you look at this
very simple equation,

you would immediately conclude
that EDL would lose money

by producing electricity,
whereas the private generators

would, would make money by
producing electricity so.

Throughout
our travels in Lebanon,

I asked people what they thought of the generator mafia.

The best answer, by far,
came from an advisor

to the Energy Minister.

He paused for a moment
and then replied,

dead serious,
"Well, they're not all mafia."

We're here in Jounieh,
Lebanon, just north of Beirut.

My right over here
is the old power plant.

You can see the big fuel tanks
and the old smoke stacks.

It's not operating right now,
but if you look over here,

that's one of
the Turkish power ships.

Why are they leasing these
power plants from the Turks?

Because the power grid here
in Lebanon is so fragile,

they can't meet demand
with the power generation

stations that they have,
so they're leasing them

from the Turks. And what happens
if they don't pay the bill?

The Turks just take the power
ship and sail back to Turkey.

My name is Mustafa Baalbaki.

I'm 30 years old,
software engineer,

living in Beirut, Lebanon.

So, the cool feature of my app,
Beirut Electricity,

is that it provides you
push notifications

ten minutes ahead of time when
the electricity will be off,

so that you can maybe
grab that elevator

or just save your work before
shutting down your computer.

I'm not fixing the electricity
issue here in Lebanon.

I'm just trying to help
people to cope with it.

I returned to Lebanon in
2011 after a long career in energy,

and I brought with me a coffee
machine that I had purchased

in Canada, and I love that
machine because I'm used to it.

It, it, it's fantastic,
it grinds you fresh beans

at exactly at the time where
it's brewing the coffee.

And you can program it to
wake you up at seven o'clock

in the morning. And when
I plugged it in Lebanon,

it woke me up at ten,
and I realized they had

the power cut off
three hours the same night.

My wife that actually
I met in Canada,

she said, "Look, either you solve
this problem, or I'm going back."

So, had to fix it.

Still going backwards.

Hey, E24, rock on.

The reason we are in
Lebanon is because it's a great lab.

The first problem
is environment.

We are breathing our own fumes.

The second issue is, I know
households who are paying

800 dollars for their mortgage

and another 700 or 800
dollars for electricity.

It is overall a catastrophe
on both economical

and environmental aspect.

The tendency today is for
consumers to buy more iPhones,

more laptops, more ACs,
more equipment in general.

All of those
require electricity.

The infrastructure that
every country on the planet has

is basically fixed,
and it takes time.

And the larger the country,
the more time it takes

to upgrade that infrastructure.

Micro-grids are the future.

In spite of
Lebanon's many challenges,

corruption, war and a reliance
on diesel generators

that are both expensive
and dirty, along came E24.

Theirs was a two-fold solution, one part solar,

Lebanon has plenty of sunshine, and the other part, storage.

At a resort called, Qirzai, E24 is using lead acid batteries

designed in Bulgaria
and manufactured in India

to store electricity produced
by panels made in China.

It's a true micro-grid,
unplugged from EDL

and beyond the reach
of the generator mafia.

There's a lot of
different sources of clean energy.

We need to be
pursuing all of them.

There is an idea that,
wouldn't it be great

if we could get
the electricity for free?

Free in terms of its cost,

free in terms of
its environmental impacts.

The idea of renewable energy

meets that need for some people,

because there's sunshine,
there's wind.

We don't have to dirty
the world to get that.

The idea that we can
power the world on 100%

renewables, particularly wind
and solar, is powerful

because it's pure and simple,
it's sort of wholesome,

like your grandma's energy.
People see, you know,

solar panels on a roof
and that feels good to them.

We have to focus on
cost, reliability

and environmental attributes.

We can't develop a system
for decarbonization

that doesn't accomplish
those goals.

Why do we care about
climate change? It's not

because we care
about the number,

the atmospheric CO2, it's
because we're trying to protect

ourselves and protect
the world we have around us

from the impact
of climate change.

So why in the name of doing that
would you flood a river forest?

Why would you cover the
landscape with wind turbines?

Why would you take
sensitive desert area for solar

if those were the values
that we were seeking to protect

by the low carbon system,
why would we go and interfere

with those values in the name
of bringing down carbon?

One of the defining
characteristics of debate

over energy and climate is,

it's vitriolic, it's nasty,

um, people have
very strong views,

they also have
very strong beliefs

that their views
are the right ones.

We want to have broad access
to a wide variety of

energy sources that meet
the needs of modern life

for as much of the world's
population as we can achieve,

cheaply, reliably
and with attention paid

to the environmental impacts
of producing their power.

That's the goal, should
renewables be a part of that

solution, I think
the answer is yes.

And then people
start talking about things like,

"Okay, well, maybe instead
of expanding the grid,

maybe we should give
people solar lamps."

No, it doesn't work that way.

People are not going
to eat solar lamps.

People are not going to be
transformed by solar lamps.

I think the idea that
we can move the entire economy

to a set of renewable
energy resources,

it's really framing
the objective in the wrong way

because it makes
renewables the objective.

It turns the means
into the end itself.

By creating this brand, renewable,
which has put in the same basket,

a massive hydroelectric dam,
a wind turbine

and a solar PV panel. They're
remarkably different ways

of getting energy,
each with respective advantages

and disadvantages. It's
the opposite of what we actually

want in the system
we're trying to provide.

We're not trying
to create something chaotic.

We're trying to create something
stable, predictable,

that can give people what
they want, when they want it

at a low cost
every hour of the year.

Preferably, you wouldn't do that with
something that was driven by the weather.

If you care about
the natural environment,

you're not going
to create a power plant

that requires

150 times more land,

per unit of energy,
than a nuclear plant.

Nuclear power was 50,
60 years ago, thought of as

our energy future, it was going
to provide energy that was too

cheap to meter, and that
everyone would have free energy.

Nuclear power became
perceived as risky,

and high profile events like Chernobyl
and Fukushima have contributed

to that public perception.

May I say something?

Go ahead.

The energy in the atom
is the most

destructive force
the world has ever seen.

It can also be one
of the greatest blessings.

God has ever given us,
which is it to be?

When people consider
environmental protection,

nuclear energy is likely
one of the last things

to come to mind,
it seems divorced from nature.

I understand that sentiment.

The first article
I ever published

was an anti-nuclear piece.

I was in high school, and like
many people from that era,

I associated anything
having to do with nuclear

with the war effort
and the military.

Fear of nuclear, and especially,
from environmental

organizations is really
a long standing tradition.

Most of these environmental
organizations really came out

of anti-war organizations,
they benefited a lot

from conflating nuclear power
with nuclear weapons.

You know, early nuclear designs
did come out of the military,

so I think there's
that association for people

who don't like that big,
military industrial complex.

- So, where we going, Robert?
- We're at the Indian Point Energy Center

in the village of
Buchanan, New York.

This is the largest nuclear
plant in the state of New York.

Today I'm at
the Indian Point Energy Center,

located about 40 miles
north of New York City.

This plant has been
operating since 1962

and today it produces about
25% of all the electricity

consumed in the city
of New York.

These two reactors behind me
produce more than 2,000

megawatts of electricity.

The amazing thing about
this plant is that is sits on

about one square
kilometer of land.

As uranium atoms
in the nuclear reactor

disintegrate, tremendous
amounts of heat are generated.

When the heat is
transferred to a liquid

and the liquid
has circulated from

the reactor to a boiler room,

it can produce steam.

Steam drives a generator
to produce electricity.

Getting into
Indian Point wasn't easy.

We went through multiple
security checkpoints

and multiple ID checks,
but once inside I was,

as the Brits like
to say, gobsmacked.

I've seen oil fields,
coal mines, gas plants,

hydro plants, refineries
and all kinds of factories,

but Indian Point was
an engineering marvel.

A relic from another era.

Indian Point covers
one square kilometer.

Replacing its output with
wind energy would require

covering more than
13 hundred square kilometers

with wind turbines.
That's one and half

times the size of New York City.

This pad will hold
about 75 years' worth

of nuclear fuel.

- So, the spent fuel.
- Of spent fuel.

So, in eight decades
of reactor years,

- right?
- Right.

You can fit all of the waste

from all of that in this area

which, I don't know,
a couple tennis courts, maybe?

The likelihood
of somebody coming along

and carrying
one of these off is...

It's impossible,
each cast weighs

about 230,000
pounds when loaded.

You can see our equipment
that moves it, it moves

at about one mile an hour, it's,
you know, a tank, basically.

So, the original plan was
for the federal government

to come in and take that fuel
off the hands of the utilities,

and when the utilities realized
that that... that wasn't

going to happen, they basically
invented dry cast storage,

so they could safely
store it on site.

Just really a political
issue about

what to do with it long-term.

Indian Point is
suffering a fate similar

to that of many
nuclear facilities

throughout the U.S.,
premature closure.

Since 2013, U.S. utilities
have closed or announced

the closure of
15 nuclear power plants.

In many cases, those reactors
including the ones

at Indian Point, could've
obtained license extensions

that would've allowed them
to continue operating

for decades into the future.

So, we've been known
for many years as the smallest

municipality with nuclear
power plants in it.

And there's
generations of people

who have worked at that plant,

continue to work at that plant.

Entergy is the largest
employer here,

they employ over 1,000 people.

Our budget in the village
Buchanan is approximately

six million dollars,
we're looking at losing half

of our budget
when Entergy closes.

When you talk about replacing
three million dollars

and replacing 1,000 jobs,

that's, that's a pretty
s... steep hill to climb.

We're seeing a lot of
these nuclear power plants close

prematurely in the U.S.
and almost everywhere,

when they closed, they're being
replaced by natural gas.

That's the first
choice for utilities.

For Indian Point,
they are planning to replace

the generation from Indian
Point with natural gas,

which is a huge loss
for the state of New York,

because New York has a very
ambitious climate target

to reduce emissions,
and Indian Point is about 25%

of the electricity
for New York City.

So, taking that offline and
replacing it with natural gas,

that's a big step backwards
if you're concerned

about climate and trying
to reduce emissions.

Indian Point is a built system,
there are a lot of assets

that have already been
invested in Indian Point.

It's zero carbon emitting,
so if we want to reduce

carbon emissions in New York
City, then we really don't want

to be removing a source of power

when it's not emitting carbon.

I commend reforming
the energy vision as a vision,

as an ambitious plan,
Indian Point

contributes to that vision.

To me, it just doesn't seem
to really make good

economic or environmental sense.

It's a premature
political decision.

Reducing carbon emissions,
fighting climate change

is a big challenge, and you
don't want to take anything off

the table, I think
we're going to need a lot

more wind and solar, for sure,
but we're also going to need

a lot more nuclear and a lot
more natural gas to replace coal.

You're either
a climate change denier

or a believer,
it's drill baby drill

or save the spotted owl.

Like most things in life,
especially with something

as complex as electricity,
it just isn't that simple.

But here's what we know,
there are over three billion

people in the world today
without adequate access

to electricity, in order
to empower the low watt world

and keep up with the ever
increasing power demand

from high watt citizens, we're going to need a lot more juice.

What's the iron
law of climate?

So, the iron law of climate
is based on the idea that...

There, there's really only two
ways that we can reduce emissions.

One is we could become poorer,

the other is that
we can use technology

through how we source
and use energy.

The iron law says we're not
going to reduce emissions

by willingly getting poorer,

rich people aren't
going to want to get poorer,

poor people aren't going
to want to get poorer.

If there's one thing that we can
count on, it's that policy makers

will be rewarded by populations
if they make people

wealthier, so GDP is going
to go up, we're doing everything

we can to try to get richer
as nations, as communities,

as individuals, so if we want
to reduce emissions,

we really have only one place
to go, and that's technology.

I think the reason
that nuclear is special is that

it's the only way to lift
everybody out of poverty

and solve climate change.

People don't appreciate
the quantum of difference.

We've seen a step up of
energy density in the fields

that we've used today,
going from wood to charcoal,

coal, oil, gas...
and then suddenly you step up

two orders
of a magnitude to uranium.

In a piece of
uranium the size of a walnut,

there's as much potential
energy as in the amount

of coal to fill a 100 car train.

We're not going to get
a better battery than that.

So, here's the only way
to make electricity production

that contains all of
its toxic waste, all of it.

I was raised in the
environmental school of thought

that was telling me
the world was getting worse,

and then I hit my 30's and
started doing my own research

and realized, actually, on,
on so many metrics the world

has got better, we're just
stuck in an energy paradox

that the energy that's helping
us make the world get better

has this horrible
side effect, let's get rid

of the side effect,
let's not get rid of the energy.

This idea that there's
too many people and that we all

have to reduce our energy
consumption, the only people

in the world who say
that are rich people.

I, I go around the world,
I interview small farmers

everywhere, India, Africa,
Latin America, Asia,

I've never had a small farmer

tell me that there's
too many people and that

we consume too much, never, you
know, um, never had that happen.

Whenever we think
about electricity,

if we think about it at all,
we tend to think

of it on our own terms,
as long as we can flip on

the air conditioner,
charge our phone, watch TV

and surf the web,
we take it for granted.

Electricity's just there,
ever present, invisible,

making our high
watt lives richer.

That's why we hit the road.

It's why we traveled over
60,000 miles and interviewed

more than 50 people
over a three-year period.

We talked to professors
and authors, engineers

and activists, and, of course,
to people who grapple

with electricity poverty
on a daily basis.

Their answers and observations

were as varied
as their backgrounds,

but they could, on occasion,
find common ground.

What does
electricity mean?

Electricity means prosperity,

means good life, means business.

What does electricity mean?
I feel like it means life.

Electricity means opportunity.

Electricity is the life
blood of a modern society.

Modern society
is hooked on electricity.

If we can't keep our hospitals
open, our ventilators going,

our refrigeration going,
it all requires electricity.

Electricity means
you are a human being.

If you don't have food,
you can't live.

In a modern world,
if you don't have

electricity,
you don't have food.

If you don't have electricity,

you're cut off
from policy making,

if you are not plugged in,
how will you know?

How will you have mobile money,
how will you have a bank account?

Electricity is like gold to us,
without electricity,

we're nowhere,
we go backwards, not forward.

No human should
live on this planet

without basic access
to electricity.

I see electricity
as a basic human right.

I think people
have basic rights,

rights for water,
rights for necessity.

It should be
the universal access,

everybody at the same level,

imagine how much more we can do?

You think about
the potential of that.

When you can marriage dense
fuel, particularly electricity

with human ingenuity,
we can do nearly anything.

As I drove home,
I thought about the battles

that are waged in the name
of electricity in the U.S.,

and couldn't help but compare
them to what I had seen.

While we bicker about our
favorite electricity sources,

billions of people are
still stuck in the dark.

Electricity explains
the world because everywhere

we went we saw how the electric grid reflected the society

it was powering. In Reykjavik,
they smelt aluminum

and mine bitcoin because their
electricity's almost free.

In Beirut, people
endure daily blackouts

because the city's
grid has been hobbled

by endless war and corruption.

Electricity, or rather,
electricity access,

pits two of the toughest
challenges

of our day against each other.

Energy poverty
versus climate change.

There is no easy,
one size fits all solution.

The only certainty is
that people will do whatever

they have to do to get
the electricity they need.

The challenge,
it's a daunting one, is this.

We have to double global
electricity production

over the next three decades
or so, and we're going to need

solar, nuclear, coal, gas,
geothermal, wind and hydro,

all of it, to make that happen.

Governments aren't going
to wait around for academics

to resolve their disputes,
people around the world

are going to demand
access to electricity.

Can we, the developed
industrialized world,

help these countries

move towards a place
of political stability

and help them along the road
to electrification?

We are spending so
much of time, how do we provide

sanitation, how do you
provide... just provide

electricity
and everything will come.

I think this is a wonderful
opportunity to start fresh.

To look at new ideas, to
experiment, I want to be totally

sustainable, I want to be off
the grid, I want to be able

to take charge of
my future and my business

and not depend on
a third person.

It's both an opportunity,
but also an impending challenge,

and it all goes back
to electricity,

it shouldn't be an either
or trade off, we can't afford

to choose electricity
over climate change.

I mean, the moment
we start trying to trade

these things off,
something has to lose.

If people have a choice
between either no energy

and dirty energy, they will
take dirty energy every time.

By mid-century,

something, like, 75 to 80%
of the world's

population is going to live in an urban or suburban setting.

It's going to be populated
by people who really

don't want to have to think
about their electricity.

They want to walk in a room,
they want to flip on a light

and they want the light
to work, just like us.