oh, as we take on the world, i do all this is weird all about the stories that matter to you. whatever it takes to hide policeman a deal we are, your is actually on fire made for mines. we need energy for everything we do. but most of our energy still comes from fossil fuels, like coal and oil, a total worldwide switch to renewable energy generated from wind water. and so that power is already possible. but it would take a big investment according to a new study, more than 60 trillion euros. new technologies such as floating,

wind power plants and solar power plants in the alps could accelerate the transition. welcome to tomorrow to day d, w. science magazine. wind power is expanding around the globe. china has the highest number of wind turbines followed by the united states, germany and india. there are downsides to wind power though. for one, it's not always windy, and the turbines have to go somewhere. but they don't have to go in our fields and forests, not when there's plenty of space available far out at sea. or greenow, denmark. a strange structure is being built in the small dust real harbor near our

house. what looks like a gigantic tripod is actually the base for a floating wind turbine. the prototype is being assembled here, and the concept was developed by wind power pioneer. hendricks t stall. the main reason to do floating offshore wind is that it really increases the available resource of when power. so with ordinary bottom piece, we can maybe cover there was electricity needs. if we ex, floating, we can maybe cover 10 times the wives in christians. model projects for floating wind farms are currently being developed in many regions of the world. the areas right for development are colored light blue on the map along there close enough to the coast that the power connection to land is still

possible, but are located in areas that are too deep for fixed foundations. in germany, the topic of floating wind farms has so far been neglected. both the north sea and baltic sea are shallow enough for fixed foundations. only off the coast of mecklenburg, west pomeranian. can you find a german testing facility of floating wind turbines on a smaller scale? many european neighbors are ahead of germany with this research. the world's 1st floating wind farm was built of scotland in 2017. the structures are so large that they require water, depth of at least 80 meters only there could the floating foundations be erected. each tube is weighted down with 5000 tons of ballast as a counterweight to the wind turbine. above. the wind turbines were assembled on land and to the foundations with huge floating cranes. the amount of work involved

was enormous. but so is the wind energy yields. high wind, scotland has been the highest yielding wind farm in the u. k for several years in a row, the danes are hoping for similar success at lower cost. so if we want to make off shore, really a key element of the future energy supply, it needs to be cheap. and also has become cheap because it has in touch and each of mass production, but floating foundations on to allow, have not been made like that they have been made in shipyards, one at a time was hand welding taking hundreds of thousands of hours. so my idea was very simply to say, well, if we have something that has really become cheap, like the tours for the offshore turbines, why don't we just build air floating foundation in the same way and put it together? i'm the same way as we put villa wind turbines. by fact, roommate components david in finally stood stacked to gala. and that's how we build

our floating foundation. the foundations can be assembled very quickly in the port because the pipes are not welded, but connected with bolts. the construction consists of triangles making it very stable. the elements are thinner and lighter than those in scotland. after assembly, the foundation is pushed into the harbor basin. together the wind turbine and float lay around $1200.00 tons. a 3600 tons, ballast keel is suspended below the wind turbine on highly tear resistant cables. also in a triangular shape. the heavy keel is designed to keep the floating wind turbine upright even in the most violent storms. people normally when they go on structures like this are surprised that they feel as if they don't move at all. they do move, but he's really, really slow. it takes about 40 seconds to do one movement like that. and then the

latest he'll angle is about $340.00 degrees. so this one he is designed for a maximum, a wave weighs 25 meters from the bottom up to the top of the wave. we get that once every 50. yes, and that's what you designed for. so far, the danes have only tested the stability using computer calculations and models. now technicians are installing dozens of sensors. they are there to document the movements on the high seas. project partners include a wind energy subsidiary of siemens. the movements of the floating foundation may be small, but the wind turbine sits high up at around 100 meters and up their wind and waves exert extreme forces on the structure. your aunts are wonder for us and our turbine here. it's important that we track the movement in. thus via that we know

the loads in the whole structure via a globe mogley fossa does for you. we have to prepare for it now, so that we can make all the mistakes now from it via and learn as much as possible . a philo. yes makin come on. this will feed remotely. her lung. the floating wind turbine then embarks on its maiden voyage. it will be towed from greener to the norwegian coast for testing. incidentally, future floating wind farms will also include a floating transformer station that will bundle the electricity generated and transmitted to shore via long cables. once on site, the ballast keels of the danish prototypes are lower to 60 meters to achieve even more stability. they are anchor to the sea bed with long tethers. water. depths of up to 1000 meters are possible without any problems. the operators are now hoping

for calm weather for the voyage and stormy times during test phase. only then will it become clear how robust the danish model really is. the mountains are the closest we can get to the heavens without flying. that is even in winter when fog settles in the valleys, it's usually sunny at high altitude and every mountain in knows that up here the sun is much more intense. so this has to be the perfect place for us. so the appellate baton tries, but something swiss we said his looking into the swiss alps, high above divorce. the solar panels have stood here for over 4 years. they're part of an experiment aimed at testing a range of technical set ups and positioning some of the modules or by facial

meaning they can produce power from both sides. ah mio, leaning is an atmospheric physicist and environmental scientist. he wants to find out when each panel produces the most solar power and above all, why that is. to do this, the researchers are recording meteorological data, like temperature, humidity, and wind, and cameras register. the amount of snow boseman via the within what's known about snow is that it reflects light forward. and that's something that's now been calculated the 1st time out. how much that accounts for in terms of solar power production the lp's altitude is advantageous for producing solar energy. especially in comparison with the conventional photovoltaic plant in the midlands. let's keep an eye on a sites. you can see that the winter production on the total is much higher up to 4

times higher. and that on an average annual overall 2 times as much energy can be generated on the total. but then on this was plateau. and that's extremely important because he that helps make up for the higher investment cost and it helps cover the power gap in winter. when does he does nights of interest to move goods thick? ah, the significantly higher energy yields are the result of lower temperatures and more intense sunlight at that altitude. in winter, the snow further boosts electricity production. 2 projects are already being planned in the alps. both in switzerland's, valet canton one would see if solar farm built on a redundant pasture called the gondo solar project. it would sand 2000 meters above sea level and span 14 soccer pitches. it would produce 23300000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. more than half of it generated in the winter months. it would also

supply around $5200.00 households with power new feasibility studies are currently being carried out. biologists are investigating possible environmental impacts and the go ahead has not yet been given me. a 2nd solar project is planned and as i finish valley, it would be bigger than any of the previously plan. solar power plants in switzerland above grandiose by facial solar panels would be installed over 5 square kilometers, equivalent to $700.00 soccer fields. the energy yield would be comparable to that of the largest hydro electric power plant in switzerland. 2000000000 kilowatt hours of electricity. from reams of data media leaning had created a model that shows how and where electricity can best be produced in switzerland. with methane is what we see here is the ideal distribution of photovoltaic

installations across switzerland, 2 pieces. and you can clearly see that the mountain sides are optimal. that's according to a calculation that was done on came off. ah, it's a promising plan for how more green electricity could be produced in switzerland. according to the researchers calculations, however, hundreds of projects like gondo solar would be needed to cover the winter electricity gap, or 10 jaya plans like the one in his office. valley legal authorizations have not yet been granted, but politicians are likely to approve of such solar installations in the swiss alps . reese, it is from ireland and india had worked out what it would mean if every house in the world had solar panels on the reef. they found that the energy produced wouldn't quite cover the amount used by the world's biggest consumer, china in 2020 but it would have been more than enough for the 2nd biggest consumer, the united states, i said, seems like an idea with

a lot of potential. mm. but what effect would just have on our environment so the energy is pretty amazing. it's generation is emissions free, and it's really cheap. but if something sounds too good to be true, there's gotta be a catch right? first, let's take a look at solar energy impacts on the climate solar panels produce electricity without creating emissions, which sounds pretty awesome, but it's also not the whole story. producing them in particular uses lots of energy . raw materials have to be mind transported, processed, then the whole thing has to be assembled. and as our economy is still largely run on fossil fuel, all this means greenhouse gas emissions. but the question is, how much and how much is that compared to other sources of energy?

well, to answer that, there's a thing called lifecycle assessment. this is gavin heath who's been studying this for many years. so we'll just let him explain how it works on the context of electricity generation. these services being provided in the generation of kilowatt hour. the role of lifecycle assessment is to do as comprehensive, complete, and an account of, for instance, the greenhouse gas emissions that are emitted that are attributable to that kilowatt hour. the results of this, on average solar energy emits around 40 grams of c o 2 equivalent per kilowatt hour produces, which is really, really low compared to fossil fuels like natural gas at 500 grams or coal at the thousands. but then again, some power decimal a little bit more c o 2 than wind power. what do we make of that? it shouldn't really be

a choice light at this point of light greenhouse gas missions between different when they all provide significant benefit. when displace what's more is that so the energy has been becoming more and more efficient, which could further push down lifecycle emissions. so yes, strictly speaking solar energy isn't completely emissions free, but it is already one of the climate friendliest energy sources we have mixed up. let's take a look at what actually goes into making all these panels to produce solar cells. you need quite a few chemical substances. for example, the process of refining the silicone produces silicon tetra, chloride. it can be recycled and then be used, but it's not really clear whether manufacturers always do that. if it ends up in the water, it can have devastating effects on the environment and people's health all take hydrochloric acid, which is needed to clean the solar wife us during production. it's

a highly corrosive asset that needs to be handled very carefully. we have a lot of hazardous chemicals of concern that are in east in to make solar panels. this is sheila davis of the silicon valley toxics coalition. she developed the solar school counts that ranks manufacturers by the sustainability. we don't want to solve the climate problem at the expense of other important mire, mental issues like hazardous waste issues or resource issues or chemical of other issues that aren't and toxic issues. and that ah, pretty much ah, the problem. what solar? so it is green. there's only green in one phase, we want to make sure it's green throughout his life cycle. another problem is that depending on the type of solar cell lands manufacturer, hazardous materials like lads, cadmium, or arsenic, can end up in the modules. but increasingly, there also alternatives, and one of the key components of finding, say, for alternatives,

is being able to perform the call and alternative chemical assessment. and luckily right now we have the capacity to do this. so yes, the chemicals needed to make solar cells are problematic. there really needs to be pressure on the industry to come up with alternatives and make the switch once they find them. and finally, let's take a look at where all these panels go to die. solar panels last around 30 years, often even longer. but at some point, they've reached the end of their life. as of now, the waste heap of discarded panels is still relatively low. about 250000 metric tons plots. by 2050, it's expected to grow up to 78000000 metric tons. that would be more than $200.00 empire state buildings of old solar panels. you know, now it's we can see that it's going to be a problem that of course, and next 10 years or 15 years is going to be

a major prices. where old panels will pile on to the mountains of e waste. we are already struggling to deal with. the good news is that solar panels are recyclable and it's already being done mainly in the u. government's here made it compulsory for manufacturers to make sure that use panels get recycled. facilities like this one already recovered a good chunk of the materials. but there's also some bad news that recover silicon, for example, isn't of high purity yet, which means we can't really use it to make new solar panels. instead it goes into other stuff like shoe cells. and then that's another problem because the recycling is relatively high and that's partially at least because there's not yet that many modules to recycle. this means and places without legislation, like the usa or china, it's still cheaper to throw alt modules into landfills,

including all the valuable materials they're made with. recycling needs to become profitable poll. we might have a real problem on our hands. there would be many, many, many solar panels that alleged here. i can imagine that you lost the ceo of rosie sola french thought up. that's come up with a new recycling process and focuses on recovering the most valuable materials at high purity with a recycling methods, the company says these materials could be recovered and to profits, and then go back into making more solar panels. the currently working on opening the 1st plants at the end of 2022. so the good news is that solar panels can be recycled. the bad news is that lots of them aren't yet. so what does this mean? well, yes, solar power is not entirely green, but that definitely doesn't mean we should turn our backs on it. its benefits are way too great for that. instead, we should open the address. it's problems and figure out how we can fix them. they

were, karen came more than full 100 nuclear power plants world wide, and they produce a lot of atomic laced the highly radioactive part of that waste is especially problematic. a single nuclear plant produces an average of 30 tons each year around the world. the search is on for a permanent storage site where this dangerous waste can safely be stored for a 1000000 years. but so far, no such place has been found. now scientists considering new technology that could help solve our nuclear waste problem. how to dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste, after more than 6 decades of nuclear energy use, it remains a contentious question. now, a new plan to neutralize atomic waste promises and answer. experts say that could be done in transmutation reactors that work like this. a neutron source of last the nuclear waste with neutrons, resulting in

a 2nd nuclear fission that would reduce the radioactivity in the atomic waste. the process is driven by a particle accelerator. when that switched off, the process stops. making it much easier to control than a conventional nuclear reactor. at the same time, it releases energy that can be converted into electricity. it sounds ingenious. so is this the nuclear energy of the future? it has a lot of potential according to nuclear engineer, vita tom, he's researching transmutation at the cars who are institute for technology or k i t u bush longer exhilaration driven. transmutation technology is very promising. in theory also for the biggest plus is that it could significantly reduce the long

time frames that we currently have to guarantee nuclear waste storage site swordfish. for right now, that's up to a 1000000 years, but we could maybe get to a time from around a 1000 years where it was beginning of like it was me, young. k, i t is still doing basic research on transmutation reactors from google. but in a few years, it could be possible to carry out large scale tests of the technology. the e u. financing the meta test facility in belgium, at an estimated cost of $1600000000.00 euros. the goal to significantly advance transmutation, but it will likely be another 30 years before the 1st reactors are up and running despite this. but at tom says, he believes in the vision of a technology that both delivers energy and help solve the problem of nuclear waste and global jojo. not an illegal, it will be some time until we have

a permanent nuclear waste stored to site for the highly radioactive waste. that's why it's really good to have this process running parallel in some countries. it's also planned to build these sites in such a way that it would be possible to retrieve some of the waste in the containers cards or who harder to even up further in doing baritone demolish. it means you'd have a larger time frame available to possibly treat this highly radioactive waste and, and i not once will go to one machine and on the planet. i'm interviewed up a 100. so is this an efficient solution to our nuclear waste storage problem? physicist christoph pisca is analyzing transmutation technology for the german government's commission on the storage of radioactive waste. he says there are still many unsolved problems with neutralizing nuclear waste. but once we'll talk soon, listen for she knew various technical procedures have to be developed for

transmutation to work in the state darlin. the 1st step involves breaking down the existing radioactive waste into its components. thus afforded music complete requires highly complex chemistry offense, because we're dealing with highly radioactive ways, up to one. then you have the actual reactors, you can go to him that you're putting large amounts of atomic waste into the reactors. which means you have to look at the risk of an accident while the reactor is in uses. this believes then there's the fact that trance mutations can't neutralize 100 percent of long life nuclear waste. that's also why christopher pisca doesn't think much of using the technology in germany. he says it's too expensive, too complicated and too dangerous. in his you, it's more efficient for germany to focus on a permanent nuclear waste disposal site. what would it, even though incredibly transmutation doesn't solve the problem of a permanent stored site and at best, it would reduce the amount of radioactive waste that has to go into permanent

storage. and so it's only worthwhile if we're talking about long term large scale use of nuclear energy, then transmutation could help reduce the problems even if it's not a complete solution before sending lose and bite ha good. but for that the technology needs to work. and as long as the atomic waste problem remains unsolved, it's further development seems to make sense. if not for germany than for other european countries preserved established us in personally, i don't see much of a future for transmutation technology in germany. oh, good. good from on the other hand, oh, well, i do see potential for european countries that want to stay a nuclear energy. com, for example, france in the czech republic for them. it could be a way to mitigate the problem of nuclear waste storage in the long term, global polar markets and shell from us as mine, as it is in my view, this can only be an option for countries that are committed to using nuclear energy for many more decades to comment nikki woodson for all other countries that have decided to phase out this technology or that only intend to use it for

a few more years than going. i don't see transmutation as a sensible alternative or additional to traditional reactors with atkinson flank and the experts agree as it stands. now, transmutation is not the miracle solution to our nuclear waste problem. that's it for this edition. join us again next week for to morrow to day d w. sign show until then stay curious. ah ah, ah, with

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