Name: Impact Initiative 2023: The Green Revolution Is Here
Uploaded: 2023-09-13
Duration: 19 min 33 s
Description: Donnel Baird, Founder, BlocPower Dr. Caroline Golin, Global Head, Energy Markets and Policy, Google Dr. Tammy Ma, Lead, Inertial Fusion Energy Initiative, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Moderator: Molly Wood, Molly Wood Media

Donnel Baird, Founder, BlocPower Dr. Caroline Golin, Global Head, Energy Markets and Policy, Google Dr. Tammy Ma, Lead, Inertial Fusion Energy Initiative, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Moderator: Molly Wood, Molly Wood Media

Impact Initiative 2023: The Green Revolution Is Here

Conferences

Donnel Baird, Google, Dr. Tammy Ma, Lead,Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Molly Wood, Molly Wood Media

And now I'm gonna make an abrupt transition. We many of us I assume woke up to breaking news alerts about flooding in Libya that has left the last I saw something like 10,000 people missing, um thousands dead. That is just the latest in a string of increased natural disasters, roaring fires across North America Europe and Australia devastating hurricanes and typhoons. Climate change has unquestionably arrived in full force and is here to stay. There are however, uh and I have focused the back half of my career on this solutions and opportunities for change and so on. Uh One of one such opportunity is the transition as soon as we can to cleaner and renewable energy sources. Joining us. Now we'll hear from three leaders who are focused on accelerating that green energy transition. I'm excited to welcome Dr Carolyn Golan, the global head of energy markets and policy at Google, who's focused on how to help the tech giant reach the goal of 100% carbon free energy by 2030. Doctor Tammy Ma is the Inertial Fusion Energy lead at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which is a mic drop all by itself. And which successfully achieved nuclear fusion in December of last year. And Carly Swift is the General Council for Black Power, a Climate technology startup that focuses on bringing eco-friendly all electric heating and cooling systems to older buildings in primarily low income communities. Please give a warm welcome to my panel. Welcome, welcome to my second straight all woman panel feeling pretty good about this. Um So I wanna be mindful of our time, which is short because we're going to talk about some complicated energy issues with a pretty eclectic cast here. Um So I'm going to start by asking each of you to explain a little bit what you're working on and I'll start with you Caroline. Thank you and thank you for having me that being my hometown talking about such an important topic. So I lead a global team at Google and our responsibility is broad, but I think most relevant today is we are responsible for coming up with the solutions to decarbonise, the grids that we operate on. And that includes the partnerships, the policies, the products, the innovations that Google wants to spur in the ecosystem today to make sure that not only we can meet our sustainability goals, increasingly our business objective, but also create access across the globe for everyone to reach a decarbonise future. And so we work in every country that we have operations which are many uh I think 29 right now and we're working at every, every level. And I spend most of my days trying to think through how we're going to create more innovation in this system so that we can drive change faster. Ok. Hi. Thank you for having me. Um So fusion is the reaction that powers the sun. Um And what we do at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore, national Lab is we have the world's largest most energetic laser. Um And what we do with that laser is actually compress fuel pellets of hydrogen and deter and tritium and get them to fuse. And if we can do that, which we did last December, we demonstrated more energy out than we put in with that laser. And what that means is it opens up an entirely new energy source that would be clean, completely abundant, sustainable with no high level nuclear waste where we are now, we still have a lot of R and D to do to make this an energy source that we can put on the grid. Um But we've, we've demonstrated the fundamental scientific feasibility now and we're hoping to deploy this as a new energy technology for the future Charlie. Thank you so much for having me. Um So at block power, we are a startup based in New York City. And what we're doing is we are trying to make buildings smarter so that we can reduce emissions while at the same time improving air quality and creating jobs. So we're doing that by um managing and creating workforce development programs where we train um folks in, in the community to, to uh enter the green workforce. But then we're also uh taking on a very, very big task of retrofitting older buildings. It's, it's difficult work. It's not easy. Um The science isn't, hasn't always caught up to where we are, but we think that by doing this, we're gonna be able to help reduce um emissions um in greenhouse gas. Um It, it's interesting because every one of you, you would think that fusion is the hardest problem on the stage. And yet I would argue that every one of you is tackling something that's incredibly difficult. So I'm gonna come back this way and then of course, as is in fortune style, I'll be coming to the audience for questions. So please start thinking about them and flagging down our runners. Um The built environment and buildings account for depending on who you ask. 60% of greenhouse emissions and retrofitting is the single. I I would argue hardest thing about that. Um Talk about the challenge of scaling that everywhere. Well, absolutely. So there are about 5 million small to medium size commercial buildings that we can focus on and that accounts for about 7% of greenhouse gas there. That's the estimate. Um And there are a lot of challenges. First, there's a workforce challenge. We don't have a workforce that is um pre prepared to to enter the market for green jobs. The second problem is really technology. We do a lot of projects that no other company would ever consider taking on. We're talking about old churches um that have oil systems that have never had air condition um where we're going in and we're helping them transition to a new um heat pump system. And so there's a lot of learning that we are, are doing and we are, and part of that learning is so that we can help others um learn from what we've learned to in order to, to expand what we are doing. So I think all of that is, is part of uh the, the challenges that we have. But we're, we're, we're in it and we um the founder El built this company based on a simple idea that clean energy should be available to everyone. And so we have to scale it in a way that everyone has access. Um And so that's what we're trying to do with Black Power. And then quickly before I move on, what are some of the, what are the pieces of the science that haven't caught up to where you want them? So I would say we have found challenges specifically around older buildings. Um Often many of the manufacturers who are building heat pumps, for example, aren't necessarily testing them on the types of retrofit projects that we are embarking on. And so even though you can, you can have um equipment that it functions. But when it is introduced to an environment that is different, it's not gonna work. Someone, someone set an example was you can have a Lamborghini that goes 0 to, to 60 on the highway, but try to drive that up a hill or a mountain, you're gonna have a different experience. And so we have to figure out a way to uh the science has to catch up with what happens because we, we're not gonna build our way out of this by building new buildings. We have to figure out a way to make our existing building portfolio work. If you convert that Lamborghini to electric, I'm just saying, if you would buy me one, that'd be great, right? Yeah, we'll talk about that later. I don't have one. OK. And then fusion super hard problems, but also one that's in an interesting point right now, I would argue because you have both public and private entities working on it. Do you feel like you're in a race? Are you sort of hopeful that a public entity gets there first? Yeah. So we've been trying to do fusion for over six decades now. And for the most part, it has been publicly funded because it is this very high risk, long term R and D work. We are seeing a lot of new startup companies in this space, they're bringing a lot of momentum and it's, it's awesome because Fusion is such a big challenge. We absolutely need help. And so government, we have a, a history right of doing the very fundamental R and D and then the transition, the tech transfer happens with commercialization through private companies. And so hopefully, we're at that point where we can work together and really push to make fusion power plants a reality. Now, the Biden administration came out with a bold decal vision for the commercialization of fusion in a decade. Um And um hopefully, that means uh we get uh a lot of investment from the government, a lot of support. Um But also the private companies that can help us to take that technology and transition it. I'll, I'll come back to that in a minute again. 10 to a million questions about fusion. Um Caroline uh Google has been a really interesting player, I think in clean energy and net zero in, in terms of being the company, I think that demonstrated to a lot of other companies that it is possible actually to decarbonise. Um Now I wanna ask you why you're like, oh thank God, that's where you went with that. Interesting. But now those efforts are coming in the context of massively increasing power use, right? The tech sector is the NA I are only uh uh probably exponentially growing the amount of power that's gonna be used. And so how do you see this challenge and the your ability to keep up with it? Well, that is the million dollar question, right? Um So, uh at a high level, I think we all have to recognize we're in this really interesting place in, in history where we both have an onslaught of clean energy, a race to finance and deploy clean energy, which means we need space on the grid and we have this resurgence of industrial and manufacturing growth, which means we need space on the grid, right? And the key to this is actually making sure that we're doing that together and we're doing that thoughtfully and we're creating the market structures that are a win win. I will tell you when I started at Google, our investment in 24 7, our goal around 24 7 in decarbonising operations and really having control over what our electricity makeup looked like was largely couched in the sustainability goal. I will tell you that it's changed dramatically and we see that as a competitive advantage across the globe and we see that as a piece of our resiliency and our to grow our product and, and meet our business needs and where I think that's gonna become the most interesting. And what I'm I've been really passionate about recently is making sure that where we are locating the investments we're making are actually driving impacts in the community. We were talking about this, you know, backstage, which is that where we put our money matters. But it also we also recognize the communities that we invest in don't have the same access to clean energy that we do. So that means working with our policy makers, working with other NGO S, we went through a three year um sort of review and engagement where we listened to every NGO every community developer and said, how do we do this? Well, how do we create wealth within our communities around the clean energy transition? And we landed on a number of programs. And in addition to that, it's also about working to fundamentally change the infrastructure. So we have to work with the Ts Os. We have to work uh with the RT Os. We have to work with all policy makers because it's not built for vision. It's not built for fusion actually either. Um It's not built for what we need, but it's, it's, it's uh it is the challenge. And I would say though, for anyone who sees the growth in clean energy strictly at the sustainability goal in this country, they're not talking to the industrial manufacturing class because that is not the conversation anymore. Say a little bit more about that if you would, I I think that what we've recognized is that a decarbonization of the grid is, is inevitable, how fast we do it. And at what cost is going to determine whether we meet the challenge of climate change and whether we do it in an equitable manner. But if you are a company that's trying to grow. You see clean energy, particularly firm, clean energy and you see the growth of that new technology as resilience and your ability to have ownership over the number one input that's going to drive your competitive advantage in the marketplace and as utilities in this country and across the globe catch up to that, they are gonna be investing as well. So do we have ownership, do we drive the agenda? Do we make sure it is both net positive for business and for the communities we operate in or do we leave it to chance? And I think increasingly our customer class is recognizing we need to be in charge of it, right? And I think sort of to the point even about public private partnership and fusion, do we want with all due respect, private companies to have that ownership and to have deployed this, you know, kind of critical infrastructure. We're seeing conversations about that with respect to spacex and all kinds of, of um of infrastructure before I let you jump in there, I am gonna see if there are any questions in the audience. Otherwise I'm gonna keep peeking out on Fusion. We have, we have one over here if you and if you want to be prepared in advance, we have other runners. So put your hand up and they'll find you. Hi, uh I am Angelo Molino, president of Latina Music and Wellness Company. My question is about the Fusion like a argument and the dream to have the cold fusion reactor in a place or the actual reactors that are providing energy. How long is I know that it is a question of billion dollars because I start to listen in Europe, I am Italian about the cold fusion maybe 25 years ago and then disappeared. The topic in a way that is like hidden because we have another kind of a production of energy in this moment. But the danger to use the fission is under the eyes of everyone. And the fusion is a real, a new prospect of the production of energy in your professional opinion. Like a scientist. How long we have to wait? Thank you. The same fusion question. So let me do a quick clarification. Coal fusion has been debunked. What we actually do is hot fusion. And so you'll, you'll hear it as thermonuclear fusion or just, just fusion where we are right now. We're still in the very early R and D phases, to be honest, right? And you never know when those breakthroughs will come or there's still a lot of parallel technology development. We need to do, we need better lasers, we need to figure out how to generate targets cheaply. We have to integrate all of these different subsystems. So there's still a lot of work to do and how fast we can do. It very much depends on the level of funding and the support we get in all honesty, right. The way the US government right now, we are the largest funder of fusion in the world. It will be never. However, the government is right now is very supportive, Germany just pledged a billion dollars by 2028. The UK is putting in 6 700 million over the next few years. So we're starting to see a lot more interest. I would say if we did a Manhattan project type scale or an Apollo project type scale where we said this is really important, right? We need the clean energy, we need that limitless energy. It probably could be done in a decade, right? Barring that, I'll say a few decades, I have seen many quotes to that effect. That sort of there's there is a level of funding that gets us there in 10 years and the level of funding for the last 60 years has effectively been fusion. Never to your point. Are there other questions in the audience? I'll ask you. Um then I will kind of I think start to wrap us up with a question about mm a question about adoption. So you know, there's this, there's a, there's a rush, there is a sense I think of urgency and also there is a need for power full stop globally. And so I wonder how you see like, well, I'll start with Black power, you know, I believe in the adoption curve as people adopt heat pumps and retrofit technologies, they become cheaper and more available across the world. But I wonder how you think about Black Power's mission even larger with acknowledgement that it's already really hard. Well, I think the scale question is what we're, we're trying to answer, we are looking at technology as a way to identify risk so that we're able to take on these projects and then scale those. Um because once the projects become more repeatable, it'll be much easier for us to, to scale. Um And I think that coupled with the work we're doing around helping to create this green, this, this what we call a green core or folks that are able to jump into these jobs that we need in order to move um these clean energy projects forward, that that's what we think is the way that we do it. And then also, I think the other part of our power is that we're, we are working with sort of the Wall Wall Street, we're working with um nonprofit community. We are sort of the the connector of all these group to try to help them bring, to get, bring those folks together, which would, which we think helps skill. So our light lightning round version, tell me what is the biggest barrier that you have to scaling fusion? I think we know it's cash money, well, making it work, first of all. Um But um you know, the the potential of is so great that we want to deploy it around the world because that, that level of energy will raise standards of living worldwide. However, right now the US is in the lead, we want to maintain that lead because whoever gets there first gets to set the values, right. Um You know, we don't want our adversary states to get a hold of fusion first and then set a rule set that limits the way the energy is used in a way that's not fair and not equitable. And so that's, that's we're aware of that. And we're trying to get ahead of the curve now and think about these things as we develop a new industry. Amazing and then five words or less. What's your number one? How do you, how do you fundamentally change every single market in the world to be focused on decarbonization instead of fossil fuel production? Um I will say this alignment. We have shadow policy institutions, we have shadow governing boards, we have incentives coming from every single direction. There is not a governor or a regulator in this country who really understands ESG, who understands greenhouse gas protocol, who understands all these different shadow institutions that are developing the incentives for private capital goes, if we do not align those, we will run around in circles and the things we need to build, we will not get those amazing. Thanks everybody. Thank you so much to my wonderful Panelist.