1 00:00:01,766 --> 00:00:03,666 ♪ ♪ 2 00:00:07,533 --> 00:00:09,033 MILES O'BRIEN: What would it take 3 00:00:09,033 --> 00:00:12,066 to convert our technology 4 00:00:12,066 --> 00:00:15,533 and reach a once-unimaginable goal? 5 00:00:15,533 --> 00:00:17,600 We are at a critical point in our history right now. 6 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:20,966 O'BRIEN: Zero-carbon by 2050. 7 00:00:20,966 --> 00:00:22,633 So what do we need to do to actually meet that goal? 8 00:00:22,633 --> 00:00:24,866 O'BRIEN: We'll need to move fast. 9 00:00:24,866 --> 00:00:26,533 Shall we? Yeah, let's go. 10 00:00:26,533 --> 00:00:27,533 O'BRIEN: And in some ways, we are. 11 00:00:27,533 --> 00:00:28,533 Let's go fast. 12 00:00:28,533 --> 00:00:29,866 ♪ ♪ 13 00:00:29,866 --> 00:00:31,266 We need our electricity, our power plants 14 00:00:31,266 --> 00:00:33,600 to be zero-carbon. 15 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:37,300 O'BRIEN: So we have to keep floating new ideas. 16 00:00:37,300 --> 00:00:38,700 HABIB DAGHER: There's enough offshore wind capacity 17 00:00:38,700 --> 00:00:40,333 to power the country four times over. 18 00:00:40,333 --> 00:00:43,700 O'BRIEN: And giant batteries to keep everything still going. 19 00:00:43,700 --> 00:00:44,800 YET-MING CHIANG: This is something that 20 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:45,933 just a few years ago 21 00:00:45,933 --> 00:00:47,433 was considered impossible. 22 00:00:47,433 --> 00:00:49,933 O'BRIEN: Running our homes without lighting a flame. 23 00:00:49,933 --> 00:00:52,066 DONNEL BAIRD: We want to turn buildings into Teslas. 24 00:00:52,066 --> 00:00:53,566 We want to make them smart, 25 00:00:53,566 --> 00:00:55,133 green, healthy, all-electric. 26 00:00:55,833 --> 00:00:59,533 O'BRIEN: No technological breakthroughs required. 27 00:00:59,533 --> 00:01:02,466 We just have to get down to business right away. 28 00:01:02,466 --> 00:01:06,133 O'BRIEN: "Chasing Carbon Zero," right now on "NOVA." 29 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,966 ♪ ♪ 30 00:01:30,566 --> 00:01:34,066 O'BRIEN: We're departing late on a long journey. 31 00:01:34,066 --> 00:01:37,100 Our destination is 2050. 32 00:01:37,100 --> 00:01:40,600 Scientists say that's the deadline for putting the brakes 33 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:43,600 on greenhouse gas emissions. 34 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:46,700 It is arguably the most important challenge 35 00:01:46,700 --> 00:01:48,500 humanity has ever faced, 36 00:01:48,500 --> 00:01:52,533 and that is why I want to understand how we'll get there. 37 00:01:52,533 --> 00:01:55,266 I'm Miles O'Brien, 38 00:01:55,266 --> 00:01:57,466 and I've been a reporter on the climate beat 39 00:01:57,466 --> 00:01:59,300 for 30 years. 40 00:01:59,300 --> 00:02:01,633 I've borne witness to it all: 41 00:02:01,633 --> 00:02:05,100 dead coral reefs, melting ice, 42 00:02:05,100 --> 00:02:09,166 rising seas, catastrophic storms. 43 00:02:09,166 --> 00:02:10,833 The main evacuation center in New Orleans 44 00:02:10,833 --> 00:02:12,000 is the Superdome. 45 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:14,666 O'BRIEN: Epic wildfires. 46 00:02:14,666 --> 00:02:17,966 I've watched this slow-motion train wreck. 47 00:02:17,966 --> 00:02:19,300 And so have you. 48 00:02:20,633 --> 00:02:24,100 And now the question is, can we stop what we started 49 00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:27,333 at the dawn of the industrial age before it's too late? 50 00:02:27,333 --> 00:02:28,866 ♪ ♪ 51 00:02:28,866 --> 00:02:31,833 To do that, as much as we can, 52 00:02:31,833 --> 00:02:34,033 we need to stop burning things. 53 00:02:34,033 --> 00:02:35,833 ♪ ♪ 54 00:02:35,833 --> 00:02:38,300 Stop emitting greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. 55 00:02:38,300 --> 00:02:40,666 Or we will have made our planet 56 00:02:40,666 --> 00:02:43,400 a very uncomfortable place to live. 57 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:45,300 But how to avoid that? 58 00:02:45,300 --> 00:02:48,433 What is the road to carbon-zero? 59 00:02:49,633 --> 00:02:50,966 It's a long trip, 60 00:02:50,966 --> 00:02:54,233 but it's not beyond our range. 61 00:02:55,566 --> 00:02:57,633 ♪ ♪ 62 00:02:57,633 --> 00:02:59,166 Let's start in Detroit. 63 00:03:00,533 --> 00:03:02,300 The Motor City. 64 00:03:02,300 --> 00:03:03,333 My hometown. 65 00:03:03,333 --> 00:03:07,166 ♪ ♪ 66 00:03:07,166 --> 00:03:08,900 A city built on the power, utility, 67 00:03:08,900 --> 00:03:11,800 and reliability of internal combustion 68 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:15,466 is now embarking on a new journey. 69 00:03:15,466 --> 00:03:18,900 Welcome to the Electric Motor City. 70 00:03:18,900 --> 00:03:21,466 It's my first stop, because on the road to zero, 71 00:03:21,466 --> 00:03:23,400 I'm going to need a ride. 72 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:26,233 I want to test-drive with you. 73 00:03:26,233 --> 00:03:29,066 This will be a special ride in the Lightning. 74 00:03:29,066 --> 00:03:30,400 All right? Let's go! 75 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,333 With Lightning's mama, so to speak, right? 76 00:03:32,333 --> 00:03:34,566 (laughs): Sounds good. 77 00:03:34,566 --> 00:03:38,433 O'BRIEN: I met Linda Zhang at the Ford Rouge Center 78 00:03:38,433 --> 00:03:39,966 west of downtown. 79 00:03:39,966 --> 00:03:43,633 She is the chief engineer for the all-electric Ford F-150. 80 00:03:43,633 --> 00:03:45,200 Shall we? Yeah, let's go. 81 00:03:46,300 --> 00:03:48,000 O'BRIEN: The truck they call the Lightning. 82 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:49,666 ZHANG: Let's go fast. 83 00:03:49,666 --> 00:03:51,233 O'BRIEN: I gotta tell you, you never get tired of that, right? 84 00:03:51,233 --> 00:03:54,566 That's always a fun and smooth acceleration. Yeah-- yeah. 85 00:03:54,566 --> 00:03:57,300 What is the official zero to 60 anyway? 86 00:03:57,300 --> 00:03:59,833 It's just under four seconds. 87 00:03:59,833 --> 00:04:01,333 Really? It's pretty exciting. 88 00:04:01,333 --> 00:04:04,500 ZHANG: That torque is really instant. 89 00:04:04,500 --> 00:04:06,533 You step on it and you go. 90 00:04:06,533 --> 00:04:08,866 O'BRIEN: Electric motors don't just 91 00:04:08,866 --> 00:04:10,766 cut out tailpipe emissions from vehicles. 92 00:04:10,766 --> 00:04:14,833 They're also much more efficient than internal combustion engines 93 00:04:14,833 --> 00:04:19,900 at converting energy into motion-- 85% to 90%, 94 00:04:19,900 --> 00:04:22,466 as opposed to about 40%. 95 00:04:22,466 --> 00:04:26,200 And the acceleration is lightning-fast. 96 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:28,633 ZHANG: The propulsion's definitely there. 97 00:04:28,633 --> 00:04:30,766 So it's almost, like, a shame if you don't use it. 98 00:04:30,766 --> 00:04:33,966 O'BRIEN: Demand is strong. 99 00:04:33,966 --> 00:04:36,000 O'BRIEN: So how often are you seeing your vehicles 100 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:37,566 on the road these days? 101 00:04:37,566 --> 00:04:39,300 It's still a small percentage, right? 102 00:04:39,300 --> 00:04:42,966 Um, yeah, there's definitely more and more on the road. 103 00:04:42,966 --> 00:04:45,633 And I always love seeing them on the road. 104 00:04:45,633 --> 00:04:48,900 I have to be honest with you, it's like seeing, um, 105 00:04:48,900 --> 00:04:51,000 seeing, you know, one of my kids off. 106 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:52,733 (both laughing) 107 00:04:52,733 --> 00:04:54,600 ♪ ♪ 108 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,366 O'BRIEN: The F-150 is a Ford mainstay, 109 00:04:57,366 --> 00:05:02,066 a vehicle favored by loyal owners who use it for work. 110 00:05:02,066 --> 00:05:03,533 Did you feel like 111 00:05:03,533 --> 00:05:06,900 it was a risky thing to electrify something as iconic 112 00:05:06,900 --> 00:05:08,533 as an F-150? 113 00:05:08,533 --> 00:05:09,933 Yeah, absolutely. 114 00:05:09,933 --> 00:05:11,800 This was a big risk for us, but at the same time, 115 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:13,133 it came with big rewards. 116 00:05:13,133 --> 00:05:15,266 You know, being able to take this product 117 00:05:15,266 --> 00:05:18,666 that is already America's favorite truck, 118 00:05:18,666 --> 00:05:20,966 but electrifying it, really helps 119 00:05:20,966 --> 00:05:24,166 bring this into the light for, for customers 120 00:05:24,166 --> 00:05:27,366 that didn't know much about electrification. 121 00:05:27,366 --> 00:05:30,033 We're now taking this electrification concept 122 00:05:30,033 --> 00:05:33,000 and really making it a mass adoption. 123 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:34,933 ♪ ♪ 124 00:05:34,933 --> 00:05:37,066 O'BRIEN: That's happening right now. 125 00:05:37,066 --> 00:05:41,700 In the U.S., more than five percent of new cars now sold 126 00:05:41,700 --> 00:05:43,466 are all-electric. 127 00:05:43,466 --> 00:05:45,033 That may not seem like much, 128 00:05:45,033 --> 00:05:48,566 but it is a marketing milestone, 129 00:05:48,566 --> 00:05:51,833 the line between novelty and mass adoption. 130 00:05:51,833 --> 00:05:53,500 But internal-combustion cars 131 00:05:53,500 --> 00:05:57,600 stay on the road for 14 years on average. 132 00:06:00,166 --> 00:06:03,600 Reaching zero tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks 133 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:05,566 will take some time. 134 00:06:07,500 --> 00:06:10,233 MELISSA LOTT: So we're headed towards net zero, but we're on 135 00:06:10,233 --> 00:06:12,700 the local train-- need to hop over to the express. 136 00:06:12,700 --> 00:06:17,233 O'BRIEN: Melissa Lott is an engineer focused on energy. 137 00:06:17,233 --> 00:06:18,800 LOTT: So I take the energy used in this train... 138 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:20,533 O'BRIEN: Really focused. 139 00:06:20,533 --> 00:06:22,600 LOTT (echoing): Metal, plastic, paper, glass in the windows... 140 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:26,033 O'BRIEN: Everywhere she looks, she sees embedded carbon. 141 00:06:26,033 --> 00:06:28,133 LOTT: I can probably figure out the carbon footprint of that... 142 00:06:28,133 --> 00:06:29,666 O'BRIEN: It's a superpower. 143 00:06:29,666 --> 00:06:31,333 LOTT: Like 20 people average per car... 144 00:06:31,333 --> 00:06:33,066 O'BRIEN: Or is it an obsession? 145 00:06:33,066 --> 00:06:35,900 LOTT: I see energy in everything I'm looking at. 146 00:06:35,900 --> 00:06:38,133 I actually enjoy it and I don't even notice it that much. 147 00:06:38,133 --> 00:06:40,000 I really, it's just something that I'm running 148 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:41,500 kind of in the background all the time. 149 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:44,400 So, as it turns out, this obsession 150 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:46,166 actually comes in handy in my line of work. 151 00:06:46,166 --> 00:06:48,566 Good to see you! 152 00:06:48,566 --> 00:06:50,133 LOTT: I'm the director of research at the Center 153 00:06:50,133 --> 00:06:53,600 on Global Energy Policy here at Columbia University. 154 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:55,733 O'BRIEN: And that's where I met her-- I figured she can help me 155 00:06:55,733 --> 00:07:00,100 understand where we are in the chase to carbon-zero. 156 00:07:02,100 --> 00:07:04,333 So when we look at where our emissions come from today, 157 00:07:04,333 --> 00:07:07,400 we see a couple of big wedges on this pie. 158 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:11,633 O'BRIEN: There are three big, nearly equal pieces of the pie. 159 00:07:11,633 --> 00:07:13,133 The first one is transportation. 160 00:07:13,133 --> 00:07:17,066 O'BRIEN: Transportation: planes, trains, automobiles, 161 00:07:17,066 --> 00:07:19,566 trucks, and ships. 162 00:07:19,566 --> 00:07:22,100 The next wedge on this pie is going to be our electric power, 163 00:07:22,100 --> 00:07:23,600 our power plants. 164 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,666 O'BRIEN: Electric power: about 60% is still generated 165 00:07:26,666 --> 00:07:29,266 with fossil fuels. 166 00:07:29,266 --> 00:07:30,766 After that, we're looking at industry, 167 00:07:30,766 --> 00:07:32,266 so how we create all the things 168 00:07:32,266 --> 00:07:33,933 that we use day to day. 169 00:07:33,933 --> 00:07:37,366 O'BRIEN: Industry: manufacturing and construction. 170 00:07:37,366 --> 00:07:40,700 And two smaller pieces remain. 171 00:07:40,700 --> 00:07:42,100 LOTT: The rest of this pie 172 00:07:42,100 --> 00:07:44,066 is actually our buildings, so the homes we live in 173 00:07:44,066 --> 00:07:45,933 and the offices we work in. 174 00:07:45,933 --> 00:07:47,766 And then also our agricultural system. 175 00:07:47,766 --> 00:07:49,300 So how we produce food. 176 00:07:49,300 --> 00:07:51,466 O'BRIEN: These wedges represent 177 00:07:51,466 --> 00:07:53,433 total greenhouse gas emissions 178 00:07:53,433 --> 00:07:56,533 the U.S. is releasing into the atmosphere, 179 00:07:56,533 --> 00:08:00,333 more than six billion metric tons a year. 180 00:08:00,333 --> 00:08:02,166 What would be better? 181 00:08:02,166 --> 00:08:04,466 The idea is called "Net Zero," 182 00:08:04,466 --> 00:08:09,033 meaning first, we reduce our carbon output as far as we can. 183 00:08:09,033 --> 00:08:11,333 Then, for the most stubborn sources, 184 00:08:11,333 --> 00:08:14,466 develop techniques to capture and store the carbon, 185 00:08:14,466 --> 00:08:16,233 netting zero. 186 00:08:16,233 --> 00:08:19,200 Most experts agree it's really the only way 187 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,200 to avoid a worsening climate disaster. 188 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:26,800 The U.S. goal is to get halfway to Net Zero by 2030. 189 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:28,766 And here's a surprise-- 190 00:08:28,766 --> 00:08:33,300 as of 2023, we are further down the road than I thought. 191 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:37,066 LOTT: Compared to 2005, which is our baseline, 192 00:08:37,066 --> 00:08:40,433 we've already reduced emissions by about 18%. 193 00:08:40,433 --> 00:08:43,066 And thanks to cheap solar, cheap wind, 194 00:08:43,066 --> 00:08:46,100 cheap natural gas replacing coal, and cheap storage, 195 00:08:46,100 --> 00:08:49,000 we're working our way towards 25% reduction. 196 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:50,600 ♪ ♪ 197 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:54,066 O'BRIEN: Getting the rest of the way to zero won't be easy. 198 00:08:54,066 --> 00:08:57,566 The pie gives us an idea of how we can make some headway. 199 00:08:57,566 --> 00:08:59,466 But where do we start? 200 00:08:59,466 --> 00:09:02,900 Close to home: buildings. 201 00:09:02,900 --> 00:09:04,233 LOTT: Buildings represent 202 00:09:04,233 --> 00:09:07,133 13% of total emissions in this country. 203 00:09:07,133 --> 00:09:09,133 When we look at buildings overall, 204 00:09:09,133 --> 00:09:10,600 there's a couple of things we can do. 205 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:12,533 We can move ahead with electrifying our buildings, 206 00:09:12,533 --> 00:09:14,333 with taking natural gas out of our buildings 207 00:09:14,333 --> 00:09:16,133   and replacing it with other technologies we have, 208 00:09:16,133 --> 00:09:18,500 for cooking, for heating and cooling our air, 209 00:09:18,500 --> 00:09:19,966 for heating our water. 210 00:09:19,966 --> 00:09:22,800 O'BRIEN: So what's the best alternative? 211 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:24,800 All-electric homes. 212 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:26,400 MAN: Here you go. 213 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,166 O'BRIEN: On rooftops all over New York City, 214 00:09:28,166 --> 00:09:31,833 there is evidence that electricity is gaining currency. 215 00:09:31,833 --> 00:09:33,966 In 2022, 216 00:09:33,966 --> 00:09:38,466 Americans bought more heat pumps than gas furnaces. 217 00:09:38,466 --> 00:09:42,766 Landlord Lincoln Eccles was thinking about his son Ace 218 00:09:42,766 --> 00:09:46,400 when he made the decision. 219 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:50,500 We've built an infrastructure based on oil and gas. 220 00:09:50,500 --> 00:09:52,600   Burning things-- that's what we're used to. 221 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:54,400 But it doesn't have to be that way. 222 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:58,000 O'BRIEN: It's the third iteration for the early-20th-century building 223 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:00,900 he owns in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. 224 00:10:00,900 --> 00:10:05,100 When it was built, they burned coal in a boiler to stay warm. 225 00:10:05,100 --> 00:10:08,766 Now there's a heat pump for each of the 14 units. 226 00:10:08,766 --> 00:10:12,500 Heat pumps work not by creating heat, 227 00:10:12,500 --> 00:10:15,833 but by moving it from one place to another. 228 00:10:15,833 --> 00:10:18,466 Inside, there's a fluid called refrigerant 229 00:10:18,466 --> 00:10:22,800 that boils at 40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. 230 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:26,100 As long as it is warmer than minus 40 outside, 231 00:10:26,100 --> 00:10:31,233 the refrigerant picks up heat from air as it becomes a gas. 232 00:10:31,233 --> 00:10:33,700 It flows into an electric compressor, 233 00:10:33,700 --> 00:10:38,233 where it is put under pressure, adding more warmth to the gas. 234 00:10:38,233 --> 00:10:41,466 The warm gas flows into the room unit. 235 00:10:41,466 --> 00:10:45,266 As it heats the space, the gas itself condenses 236 00:10:45,266 --> 00:10:47,100 back into a liquid. 237 00:10:47,100 --> 00:10:50,933 Now the liquid travels back out, flowing through a valve 238 00:10:50,933 --> 00:10:54,233 that lowers the pressure and thus the temperature. 239 00:10:54,233 --> 00:10:56,833 And the cycle starts all over again. 240 00:10:56,833 --> 00:11:00,466 So in the winter, it can pump heat inside. 241 00:11:00,466 --> 00:11:01,600 And in the summer? 242 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:03,500 The process is reversed 243 00:11:03,500 --> 00:11:06,633 to pump heat outside, cooling the room. 244 00:11:06,633 --> 00:11:11,633 In Lincoln's building, each unit has its own wireless thermostat. 245 00:11:11,633 --> 00:11:14,166 Set the temperature, boop. 246 00:11:14,166 --> 00:11:16,433 O'BRIEN: Easy enough for his son to operate. 247 00:11:16,433 --> 00:11:21,733 Lincoln hopes Ace will be the landlord here someday. 248 00:11:21,733 --> 00:11:24,366 O'BRIEN: So you think when Ace is your age, everything around us here 249 00:11:24,366 --> 00:11:26,833 will be electric? ECCLES: Definitely. 250 00:11:26,833 --> 00:11:28,633 These two behind us are green. 251 00:11:28,633 --> 00:11:31,800 These developments over here, they're green. 252 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:33,066 If they could do my building, 253 00:11:33,066 --> 00:11:35,466 they could do every building on the block. 254 00:11:35,466 --> 00:11:37,533 O'BRIEN: But heat pumps are not cheap. 255 00:11:37,533 --> 00:11:39,166 And for us to reach net zero, 256 00:11:39,166 --> 00:11:42,700 nearly every building will need to make the transition. 257 00:11:42,700 --> 00:11:47,700 So how can this technology become accessible to everyone? 258 00:11:47,700 --> 00:11:51,033 That is precisely the goal for Donnel Baird. 259 00:11:51,033 --> 00:11:52,500 BAIRD: If we can do one building, 260 00:11:52,500 --> 00:11:54,100 we can do a whole block of buildings. 261 00:11:54,100 --> 00:11:55,966 And if we do a block of buildings, 262 00:11:55,966 --> 00:11:56,966 we can do a whole city. 263 00:11:56,966 --> 00:11:58,733 O'BRIEN: He is the C.E.O. 264 00:11:58,733 --> 00:12:01,533 of a startup called BlocPower. 265 00:12:01,533 --> 00:12:05,100 BlocPower wants to turn buildings into Teslas. 266 00:12:05,100 --> 00:12:07,100 We want to make them smart, green, healthy, all-electric. 267 00:12:07,100 --> 00:12:09,600 O'BRIEN: Founded in 2014, 268 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,100 BlocPower is making it more affordable 269 00:12:12,100 --> 00:12:14,666 for landlords to make the switch. 270 00:12:14,666 --> 00:12:16,800 Lincoln Eccles' old building 271 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:20,033 is one of about 2,000 conversions the company says 272 00:12:20,033 --> 00:12:22,966 it has spearheaded so far. 273 00:12:22,966 --> 00:12:26,133 BAIRD: We have everything that we need to green all the buildings now. 274 00:12:26,133 --> 00:12:28,700 That's why it's so important that we focus on buildings, 275 00:12:28,700 --> 00:12:30,633 because we don't need any more innovation. 276 00:12:30,633 --> 00:12:32,233 You know, when there is some data... 277 00:12:32,233 --> 00:12:35,500 O'BRIEN: Donnel was able to mix the pressing needs of a landlord 278 00:12:35,500 --> 00:12:38,633 with a bad boiler-- and a planet boiling over-- 279 00:12:38,633 --> 00:12:41,866 into something attractive to Wall Street investors. 280 00:12:41,866 --> 00:12:44,466 It's a company committed 281 00:12:44,466 --> 00:12:46,400 to executing the conversion at scale, 282 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:48,900 bundling a lot of projects together 283 00:12:48,900 --> 00:12:51,900 to lower the cost and lower the risk. 284 00:12:51,900 --> 00:12:53,333 BAIRD: We show up and we say, "Look, 285 00:12:53,333 --> 00:12:55,966 "we've got capital from Goldman Sachs and Microsoft 286 00:12:55,966 --> 00:12:59,533 "to finance moving you to a functioning, better system. 287 00:12:59,533 --> 00:13:01,366 "And it costs you nothing. 288 00:13:01,366 --> 00:13:02,866 "As a matter of fact, you're going to save money 289 00:13:02,866 --> 00:13:06,166 "because the payment that you make to us over 15 years 290 00:13:06,166 --> 00:13:08,233 "is going to be less than what you would pay 291 00:13:08,233 --> 00:13:10,066 "to the oil company or to the gas company 292 00:13:10,066 --> 00:13:12,033 as an alternative." 293 00:13:12,033 --> 00:13:13,533 O'BRIEN: The arithmetic relies 294 00:13:13,533 --> 00:13:15,966 on incentives from the government 295 00:13:15,966 --> 00:13:17,800 and assumptions that the cost of heat pump 296 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:21,133 manufacturing and installation will decline. 297 00:13:21,133 --> 00:13:25,566 For BlocPower, the goal and the risks are big. 298 00:13:25,566 --> 00:13:27,833 He's in favor! 299 00:13:27,833 --> 00:13:29,833 O'BRIEN: Lincoln Eccles says it's working for him. 300 00:13:29,833 --> 00:13:32,266 ECCLES: They just made it work at the end of the day. 301 00:13:32,266 --> 00:13:36,166 It was a lot of back and forth, but it can be done. 302 00:13:36,166 --> 00:13:38,500 It's not an impossible task. 303 00:13:38,500 --> 00:13:41,733 O'BRIEN: BlocPower's mission is altruistic, 304 00:13:41,733 --> 00:13:45,366 but it is also a startup hoping to make a profit. 305 00:13:45,366 --> 00:13:47,900 It makes a percentage on financing, 306 00:13:47,900 --> 00:13:50,400 charges fees to manage electrification projects, 307 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:53,266 and eventually hopes to market 308 00:13:53,266 --> 00:13:56,733 the very heat pumps it installs as producers 309 00:13:56,733 --> 00:13:58,500 of carbon credits. 310 00:13:58,500 --> 00:13:59,900 BAIRD: This is capitalism 311 00:13:59,900 --> 00:14:03,933 deciding that there are trillion-dollar companies 312 00:14:03,933 --> 00:14:07,133 to be made addressing the climate crisis, 313 00:14:07,133 --> 00:14:08,766 that entrepreneurs who figure it out 314 00:14:08,766 --> 00:14:10,300 are going to make money. 315 00:14:10,300 --> 00:14:13,033 And there's going to be so much money to be made 316 00:14:13,033 --> 00:14:15,766 by bringing those solutions into the economy 317 00:14:15,766 --> 00:14:18,433 that we are going to make our venture capital returns. 318 00:14:18,433 --> 00:14:20,766 And you can choose to do business and make profits 319 00:14:20,766 --> 00:14:23,733 in a sector and in a way that helps people. 320 00:14:23,733 --> 00:14:29,733 O'BRIEN: Spoken like the Columbia Business School grad that he is. 321 00:14:29,733 --> 00:14:31,966 That, combined with his roots in Bedford-Stuyvesant, 322 00:14:31,966 --> 00:14:35,366 are what gave him the inspiration for BlocPower. 323 00:14:35,366 --> 00:14:40,400 The furnace in his building never worked. 324 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:41,666 Ultimately, when it got really cold, 325 00:14:41,666 --> 00:14:43,666 we'd have to heat our apartment with our oven. 326 00:14:43,666 --> 00:14:45,700 We would turn on the gas oven, 327 00:14:45,700 --> 00:14:48,066 turn on the burner on top of the oven, 328 00:14:48,066 --> 00:14:51,400 open up the oven door to let the heat into the apartment. 329 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,500 I really empathize with a lot of our customers, 330 00:14:54,500 --> 00:14:59,300 because I know how uncomfortable it is to be cold, 331 00:14:59,300 --> 00:15:01,633 and how difficult it is to, like, 332 00:15:01,633 --> 00:15:03,933 sleep through the night when you're freezing. 333 00:15:03,933 --> 00:15:07,333 O'BRIEN: The road to zero, by definition, 334 00:15:07,333 --> 00:15:11,433 must pass through neighborhoods like this. 335 00:15:11,433 --> 00:15:13,366 BAIRD: There isn't going to be 336 00:15:13,366 --> 00:15:14,933 a green revolution in America 337 00:15:14,933 --> 00:15:17,200 without working-class and poor people. 338 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:21,333 So there must be a financial solution that includes them. 339 00:15:23,433 --> 00:15:26,766 O'BRIEN: In New York City, buildings account for around 70% 340 00:15:26,766 --> 00:15:30,600 of greenhouse gas emissions if you include electricity. 341 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:34,966 The city is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. 342 00:15:34,966 --> 00:15:38,400 And there are several laws designed to make that happen. 343 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,600 One eliminates the burning of fossil fuels 344 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:44,933 in all new buildings by 2027. 345 00:15:44,933 --> 00:15:48,200 But there is an important asterisk: 346 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:52,266 the city's commercial kitchens are exempt. 347 00:15:52,266 --> 00:15:55,900 Here, gas stoves and ovens dominate. 348 00:15:57,233 --> 00:16:00,033 So the biggest polluter in these buildings are the kitchens. 349 00:16:00,033 --> 00:16:02,733 So why would you exempt the biggest polluters? 350 00:16:04,266 --> 00:16:07,200 O'BRIEN: Chef Chris Galarza has years of experience 351 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:11,100 working in kitchens at popular high-end restaurants. 352 00:16:11,100 --> 00:16:13,066 You're dripping sweat! 353 00:16:13,066 --> 00:16:14,566 O'BRIEN: In this case, art has found a recipe 354 00:16:14,566 --> 00:16:17,600 for imitating life. 355 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:19,800 Whether it's "Hell's Kitchen" or "The Bear," 356 00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:22,166 Hollywood has made it clear to all of us, 357 00:16:22,166 --> 00:16:24,000 if you can't take the heat, 358 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,066 you really should get out of the kitchen. 359 00:16:27,066 --> 00:16:28,800 What you notice is as soon as you open the door 360 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:31,033 going from, say, the dining room to the kitchen, 361 00:16:31,033 --> 00:16:32,500 is this wall of heat. 362 00:16:32,500 --> 00:16:35,066 I have looked down at my thermometer in my chef coat 363 00:16:35,066 --> 00:16:36,966 and it would read 135 degrees Fahrenheit. 364 00:16:36,966 --> 00:16:40,033 So I can't tell you how many times that, after a rush, 365 00:16:40,033 --> 00:16:42,200 we would be rushing to the bathroom to throw up. 366 00:16:43,300 --> 00:16:46,466 O'BRIEN: The main ingredient of natural gas is methane, 367 00:16:46,466 --> 00:16:49,600 and research shows burning it in a kitchen 368 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:52,166 can be harmful to human health, 369 00:16:52,166 --> 00:16:55,933 because it triggers a reaction between nitrogen and oxygen 370 00:16:55,933 --> 00:17:00,200 which creates nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, 371 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:04,500 pollutants collectively known as NOx gases. 372 00:17:04,500 --> 00:17:06,866 They can cause all sorts of cardiovascular 373 00:17:06,866 --> 00:17:12,133 and respiratory illnesses, including asthma. 374 00:17:12,133 --> 00:17:16,633   The no-gas alternative looks and feels very different. 375 00:17:16,633 --> 00:17:19,833 It's lunchtime at Chatham University's 376 00:17:19,833 --> 00:17:22,633 Eden Hall campus near Pittsburgh. 377 00:17:22,633 --> 00:17:25,266 What I need is the cook's tour-- literally. Okay. 378 00:17:25,266 --> 00:17:30,266 O'BRIEN: The kitchen here is quiet, cool, and all-electric. 379 00:17:30,266 --> 00:17:32,633 This is our four-burner range, like, there's two of them. 380 00:17:32,633 --> 00:17:34,366 This is the workhorse of the kitchen. 381 00:17:34,366 --> 00:17:36,900 This is now the tilt skillet, also induction. 382 00:17:36,900 --> 00:17:39,466 Two steamers, two electric convection oven, 383 00:17:39,466 --> 00:17:41,166 triple-deck oven with two built-in proofers 384 00:17:41,166 --> 00:17:42,600 for breads, pizzas, pastries, 385 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:44,066 and things like that. 386 00:17:44,066 --> 00:17:47,100 O'BRIEN: Chris was the executive chef here in 2016 387 00:17:47,100 --> 00:17:49,366 when the school opened this dining hall. 388 00:17:49,366 --> 00:17:52,533 The university built the Eden Hall campus 389 00:17:52,533 --> 00:17:55,966 as a showcase for sustainable solutions. 390 00:17:55,966 --> 00:17:57,700 So there's not a single 391 00:17:57,700 --> 00:18:00,166 lit flame in this kitchen. 392 00:18:00,166 --> 00:18:01,533 Not a single one. 393 00:18:01,533 --> 00:18:04,466 O'BRIEN: The cooktops here use a technology 394 00:18:04,466 --> 00:18:07,500 called induction. 395 00:18:07,500 --> 00:18:09,133 I had my own bias, as well, and it wasn't until 396 00:18:09,133 --> 00:18:12,433 I experienced induction cooking that I became a fan. 397 00:18:12,433 --> 00:18:15,833 O'BRIEN: Traditional electric stoves create heat 398 00:18:15,833 --> 00:18:19,000 by simply resisting the electric current. 399 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,100 But newer induction cooktops use electricity 400 00:18:22,100 --> 00:18:24,300 to create a magnetic field. 401 00:18:24,300 --> 00:18:27,666 The electrons inside pots and pans that contain iron 402 00:18:27,666 --> 00:18:29,700 try to align with the magnet, 403 00:18:29,700 --> 00:18:32,933 vibrating tens of thousands of times per second, 404 00:18:32,933 --> 00:18:35,700 creating friction and heat. 405 00:18:35,700 --> 00:18:39,833 The result is better energy efficiency, faster cooking, 406 00:18:39,833 --> 00:18:42,533 and no combustion fumes. 407 00:18:42,533 --> 00:18:44,700 They have caught on in commercial kitchens 408 00:18:44,700 --> 00:18:47,133 in Europe and Asia, but in the U.S., 409 00:18:47,133 --> 00:18:48,866 chefs are skeptical. 410 00:18:48,866 --> 00:18:50,333 GALARZA: The rest of the world is 411 00:18:50,333 --> 00:18:52,800 looking at us going, "What are you complaining about?" 412 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:54,700 Because effectively, we're arguing about 413 00:18:54,700 --> 00:18:57,700 how to get a piece of metal hot so we can cook. 414 00:18:57,700 --> 00:19:00,666 O'BRIEN: The fossil fuel industry has done a good job 415 00:19:00,666 --> 00:19:02,466 at inducing resistance. 416 00:19:02,466 --> 00:19:05,533 ♪ Cooking with gas, cooking with gas ♪ 417 00:19:05,533 --> 00:19:07,133 We all remember the rap in the '80s. 418 00:19:07,133 --> 00:19:09,966 ♪ We all cook better when we're cooking with gas ♪ 419 00:19:09,966 --> 00:19:10,966 It's cringeworthy. 420 00:19:10,966 --> 00:19:12,233 ♪ Cooking with gas ♪ 421 00:19:12,233 --> 00:19:13,366   ♪ Cooking with gas ♪ 422 00:19:13,366 --> 00:19:14,433 ♪ We all cook better ♪ 423 00:19:14,433 --> 00:19:16,333 ♪ When we're cooking with gas ♪ 424 00:19:16,333 --> 00:19:18,100 There's a lot to unpack there. 425 00:19:18,100 --> 00:19:19,166 ♪ I cook with gas 'cause it costs us 426 00:19:19,166 --> 00:19:20,500   ♪ Much less than 'lectricity ♪ 427 00:19:20,500 --> 00:19:21,633 GALARZA: But you know what? 428 00:19:21,633 --> 00:19:23,533 That was effective. 429 00:19:23,533 --> 00:19:25,900 What was said in there still gets said today. 430 00:19:25,900 --> 00:19:28,433 Cooking with gas is cheaper, it's more precise. 431 00:19:28,433 --> 00:19:30,100 All these things, which are, which are just not true. 432 00:19:30,100 --> 00:19:32,133 ♪ We're cooking with gas ♪ 433 00:19:32,133 --> 00:19:36,033 O'BRIEN: Today, Chris is an independent consultant 434 00:19:36,033 --> 00:19:38,300 who travels the country promoting induction 435 00:19:38,300 --> 00:19:40,000 in commercial kitchens. 436 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,800 He gave me a quick demonstration. 437 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:43,933 O'BRIEN: Okay, so this has 438 00:19:43,933 --> 00:19:45,533 been in the freezer? Correct. 439 00:19:45,533 --> 00:19:48,333 So this is just to show how quickly these come up to temp. 440 00:19:48,333 --> 00:19:49,533 So we're going to dump this. 441 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:54,233 Oh, yeah, it's cold. 442 00:19:54,233 --> 00:19:56,633 So just getting the water off, you can tell, 443 00:19:56,633 --> 00:19:58,666 things are hot. I see, oh. 444 00:19:58,666 --> 00:19:59,833 How hot? 445 00:19:59,833 --> 00:20:01,133 (sizzling) 446 00:20:01,133 --> 00:20:02,333 All right, that was in the matter of, what? 447 00:20:02,333 --> 00:20:03,966 Seconds? Yeah. 448 00:20:03,966 --> 00:20:05,433 Right? So there's no more preheating. 449 00:20:05,433 --> 00:20:07,300 It's just straight hot. 450 00:20:07,300 --> 00:20:08,500 And it doesn't take long. 451 00:20:08,500 --> 00:20:10,766 Now your shrimp. 452 00:20:10,766 --> 00:20:11,866 Got some good color on it. 453 00:20:11,866 --> 00:20:13,333 Add our sauce. 454 00:20:13,333 --> 00:20:14,333 (pan sizzling) 455 00:20:14,333 --> 00:20:15,700 And there you go. 456 00:20:15,700 --> 00:20:17,933 That was dinner in about two minutes. 457 00:20:17,933 --> 00:20:20,266 In a fraction of the time, and here's the beautiful thing. 458 00:20:20,266 --> 00:20:21,500 We just did all of that. 459 00:20:21,500 --> 00:20:22,966 Not a sweat on you. 460 00:20:22,966 --> 00:20:27,200 Nothing gets hot except for the pan itself. 461 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,966 So it's time for us to evolve, to get together, 462 00:20:30,966 --> 00:20:33,100 and say, "What's better for our world?" 463 00:20:33,100 --> 00:20:35,966 And cooking with a flame is not. 464 00:20:35,966 --> 00:20:40,000 O'BRIEN: Dousing the home fires will take a lot longer 465 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:43,100 than that stir fry, for sure. 466 00:20:43,100 --> 00:20:44,333 LOTT: When we look at 467 00:20:44,333 --> 00:20:46,066 the buildings that will be here in 2050, 468 00:20:46,066 --> 00:20:47,433 most of them are already built today. 469 00:20:47,433 --> 00:20:50,333 Retrofitting this building is not going to be cheap 470 00:20:50,333 --> 00:20:51,766 and it's going to take a lot of work 471 00:20:51,766 --> 00:20:52,766 and it's going to be disruptive. 472 00:20:52,766 --> 00:20:54,333 But what we can do 473 00:20:54,333 --> 00:20:55,800 in the next seven years is set up 474 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:57,766 our building codes and our regulations 475 00:20:57,766 --> 00:20:59,400 so that we can retrofit and build buildings 476 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:02,433 in a way that is net-zero-compliant from day one. 477 00:21:03,866 --> 00:21:06,533 O'BRIEN: When it is burned, the methane in natural gas 478 00:21:06,533 --> 00:21:09,300 is converted to carbon dioxide. 479 00:21:09,300 --> 00:21:10,966 That's problem enough. 480 00:21:10,966 --> 00:21:14,900 But unburned methane is an even greater concern. 481 00:21:14,900 --> 00:21:18,133 It doesn't last as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, 482 00:21:18,133 --> 00:21:19,800 but over 20 years, 483 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:24,933 methane traps about 80 times more heat than CO2. 484 00:21:24,933 --> 00:21:28,366 So methane is currently responsible for nearly a third 485 00:21:28,366 --> 00:21:31,933 of human-caused global warming. 486 00:21:31,933 --> 00:21:33,833 LOTT: So when we look at overall greenhouse gas emissions, 487 00:21:33,833 --> 00:21:35,333 methane is a big player. 488 00:21:35,333 --> 00:21:38,033 And it's also something that we can address right away. 489 00:21:38,033 --> 00:21:40,133 It's one of these gases where 490 00:21:40,133 --> 00:21:42,400 the more and more we look at it, we realize that a ton of it 491 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:44,566 is just being wasted, thrown into the air. 492 00:21:44,566 --> 00:21:47,900 ♪ ♪ 493 00:21:47,900 --> 00:21:51,333 O'BRIEN: On a rooftop observatory in West Harlem, 494 00:21:51,333 --> 00:21:53,400 Róisín Commane, 495 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,533 an assistant professor in Earth and environmental sciences 496 00:21:56,533 --> 00:21:59,266 at Columbia, is using a suite of sensors 497 00:21:59,266 --> 00:22:01,666 to measure air quality. 498 00:22:01,666 --> 00:22:03,466 O'BRIEN: This is like the Mauna Kea 499 00:22:03,466 --> 00:22:04,866 of New York, huh? Right? (laughs): Yes, it is. 500 00:22:04,866 --> 00:22:06,900 The observatory! 501 00:22:06,900 --> 00:22:09,800 O'BRIEN: We are at the Advanced Science Research Center 502 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:12,666 of the City University of New York. 503 00:22:12,666 --> 00:22:15,333 O'BRIEN: Do you try to make excuses to come here on nice days 504 00:22:15,333 --> 00:22:16,466 to check the gear? 505 00:22:16,466 --> 00:22:17,566 It's usually on bad pollution days 506 00:22:17,566 --> 00:22:18,666 when we get dragged here, 507 00:22:18,666 --> 00:22:21,066 but yes, it's lovely to be here. 508 00:22:21,066 --> 00:22:22,300 O'BRIEN: It's early, 509 00:22:22,300 --> 00:22:25,000 and chimneys in Harlem are billowing. 510 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,966 Puffs of proof the city that never sleeps 511 00:22:27,966 --> 00:22:31,533 is, in fact, waking up. 512 00:22:31,533 --> 00:22:34,600 As you look out over the city, what are you looking for? 513 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:36,000 On a day like today, 514 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:37,933 you can kind of see a lot of, of chimneys. 515 00:22:37,933 --> 00:22:39,333 Mm-hmm. Or you can see the smoke 516 00:22:39,333 --> 00:22:40,866 coming from chimneys. Yeah, we did. 517 00:22:40,866 --> 00:22:42,800 And what we've been trying to figure out is, 518 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:44,733 where is all the methane coming from, 519 00:22:44,733 --> 00:22:47,633 and is it from these chimneys? 520 00:22:47,633 --> 00:22:49,666 O'BRIEN: It's not just gas appliances. 521 00:22:49,666 --> 00:22:52,933 Methane leaks from wastewater treatment facilities, 522 00:22:52,933 --> 00:22:55,500 power plants, and landfills. 523 00:22:55,500 --> 00:22:57,133 What are the challenges you face? 524 00:22:57,133 --> 00:22:58,433 Why is it so difficult? 525 00:22:58,433 --> 00:22:59,633 There's so much of it. 526 00:22:59,633 --> 00:23:01,600 It could be a mixture of, 527 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:03,066 there's a wastewater treatment plant 528 00:23:03,066 --> 00:23:06,800 that has a power plant with natural gas as part of it. 529 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,066 And then between there and here are a whole bunch of boilers. 530 00:23:10,066 --> 00:23:13,133 So everything is just mashed together so much 531 00:23:13,133 --> 00:23:14,366 that that's what we 532 00:23:14,366 --> 00:23:16,133 spend our time trying to figure out, 533 00:23:16,133 --> 00:23:18,600 is how to pull all that apart. 534 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:19,933 COMMANE: Well, how does it look today? 535 00:23:19,933 --> 00:23:21,466 O'BRIEN: Scientists are measuring more than 536 00:23:21,466 --> 00:23:25,100 twice as much methane as the E.P.A. can account for. 537 00:23:25,100 --> 00:23:26,500 Well, they've got a pretty good throughput. 538 00:23:26,500 --> 00:23:29,100 They're about a liter a minute each. 539 00:23:29,100 --> 00:23:30,566 COMMANE: So we're either missing a sector 540 00:23:30,566 --> 00:23:32,766 or we're getting the wrong numbers for certain things. 541 00:23:32,766 --> 00:23:34,566 And that's what I've been working on, 542 00:23:34,566 --> 00:23:36,233 is to try and make sure, do we have the right number? 543 00:23:36,233 --> 00:23:40,200 O'BRIEN: The sensor technology has dramatically improved 544 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:41,700 in the past few years, 545 00:23:41,700 --> 00:23:44,133 making the devices she uses 546 00:23:44,133 --> 00:23:47,300 much more sensitive and more portable. 547 00:23:47,300 --> 00:23:48,966 COMMANE: Now we can just put this thing in a backpack 548 00:23:48,966 --> 00:23:51,533 and walk around and get really, really sensitive measurements. 549 00:23:51,533 --> 00:23:55,966 O'BRIEN: And so she and her team carry sensors, 550 00:23:55,966 --> 00:24:00,166 chasing zero on foot. 551 00:24:06,566 --> 00:24:12,700 ♪ ♪ 552 00:24:12,700 --> 00:24:15,566 About 2,000 miles away, in Texas, 553 00:24:15,566 --> 00:24:18,966 there is another kind of methane hunt underway. 554 00:24:20,500 --> 00:24:22,566 This is the Permian Basin, 555 00:24:22,566 --> 00:24:24,766 the largest oil field in America, 556 00:24:24,766 --> 00:24:29,333 about 86,000 square miles spanning Texas and New Mexico. 557 00:24:31,033 --> 00:24:34,166 There are tens of thousands of oil wells here. 558 00:24:34,166 --> 00:24:39,633 And there is no mystery where the methane is coming from. 559 00:24:39,633 --> 00:24:43,800 This is happening because they developed the technology 560 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,700 to frack oil and gas from shale. 561 00:24:46,700 --> 00:24:49,300 If they hadn't done that, 562 00:24:49,300 --> 00:24:52,933 we would have converted to clean energy a long time ago. 563 00:24:52,933 --> 00:24:56,200 O'BRIEN: Sharon Wilson is an environmental advocate 564 00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:00,400 who is bearing witness to an ongoing greenhouse gas disaster 565 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,500 in the Permian Basin. 566 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,766 When oil rises to the surface under pressure, 567 00:25:06,766 --> 00:25:10,766 it comes with a witches' brew of hydrocarbon gases, 568 00:25:10,766 --> 00:25:13,600 including methane. 569 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,500 In the U.S., oil and natural gas production and distribution 570 00:25:16,500 --> 00:25:20,266 is the largest industrial source of methane emissions. 571 00:25:20,266 --> 00:25:22,700 And the Permian may be the largest 572 00:25:22,700 --> 00:25:26,900 methane-emitting oil and gas basin in the country. 573 00:25:26,900 --> 00:25:29,233 WILSON: And we call this a climate bomb. 574 00:25:29,233 --> 00:25:32,400 The industry cannot stop this pollution. 575 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,266 Methane is a volatile gas. 576 00:25:35,266 --> 00:25:39,366 It will not stay inside a closed, unpressurized system. 577 00:25:39,366 --> 00:25:41,433 And so you have to release it, 578 00:25:41,433 --> 00:25:43,166 or it will blow the equipment up. 579 00:25:43,166 --> 00:25:47,366 O'BRIEN: Methane is invisible and odorless. 580 00:25:47,366 --> 00:25:50,033 Working with the nonprofit Earthworks, 581 00:25:50,033 --> 00:25:53,200 Sharon is using a $100,000 camera 582 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,600 that gives her superpower vision. 583 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,733 I'm going to get one more video. 584 00:25:58,733 --> 00:26:00,766 O'BRIEN: The camera records the spectral signature 585 00:26:00,766 --> 00:26:04,733 of hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds. 586 00:26:04,733 --> 00:26:08,300 So what looks like this in visible light 587 00:26:08,300 --> 00:26:11,733 becomes this in Sharon's viewfinder. 588 00:26:11,733 --> 00:26:16,400 WILSON: I am seeing a lot of methane blasting out 589 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:21,366 from that flare that is barely lit. 590 00:26:21,366 --> 00:26:24,166 Unfortunately, this is not unusual. 591 00:26:24,166 --> 00:26:26,533 There's just way too much methane. 592 00:26:26,533 --> 00:26:31,033 O'BRIEN: Even though methane is the primary ingredient 593 00:26:31,033 --> 00:26:33,533 of natural gas, here in the Permian Basin, 594 00:26:33,533 --> 00:26:35,900 it's mostly considered waste. 595 00:26:35,900 --> 00:26:38,766 To reduce methane emissions, 596 00:26:38,766 --> 00:26:42,933 operators are supposed to burn it in flare stacks like this. 597 00:26:42,933 --> 00:26:46,833 This converts methane-- CH4-- into CO2, 598 00:26:46,833 --> 00:26:49,833 reducing its impact on the climate crisis. 599 00:26:49,833 --> 00:26:55,966 But frequently the flare stacks flicker, falter, or fail. 600 00:26:55,966 --> 00:26:58,900 Cracking down on unlit flares 601 00:26:58,900 --> 00:27:03,466 and enabling innovative, cost- effective leak detection systems 602 00:27:03,466 --> 00:27:06,633 are the cornerstones of a new E.P.A. rule 603 00:27:06,633 --> 00:27:10,033 aimed at curbing methane emissions. 604 00:27:10,033 --> 00:27:13,366 What, in your view, is the solution? 605 00:27:13,366 --> 00:27:16,233 The best available control technology for methane 606 00:27:16,233 --> 00:27:17,733 is to keep it in the ground. 607 00:27:17,733 --> 00:27:20,766 Never, never drill that hole in the first place, 608 00:27:20,766 --> 00:27:22,733 because once you drill that hole, 609 00:27:22,733 --> 00:27:25,166 that's where it all starts. 610 00:27:25,166 --> 00:27:28,666 O'BRIEN: But is it practical to hit the brakes 611 00:27:28,666 --> 00:27:30,366 on oil and gas production? 612 00:27:30,366 --> 00:27:35,266 If we're out of gas, can we reach the finish line? 613 00:27:35,266 --> 00:27:36,733 LOTT: Even in a net-zero world, 614 00:27:36,733 --> 00:27:39,933 we will probably use some amount of oil and gas. 615 00:27:39,933 --> 00:27:42,266 It will certainly be less than today, 616 00:27:42,266 --> 00:27:43,800 but we can't go from one to zero 617 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:45,333 and all of a sudden just shut it all off. 618 00:27:45,333 --> 00:27:47,133 ♪ ♪ 619 00:27:47,133 --> 00:27:50,100 O'BRIEN: While we need gas and oil for now, 620 00:27:50,100 --> 00:27:54,033 eventually we must eliminate burning as much as possible. 621 00:27:54,033 --> 00:27:56,266 And the easiest way to do that 622 00:27:56,266 --> 00:27:59,300 is to take fossil fuels out of power plants 623 00:27:59,300 --> 00:28:00,966 and off the grid. 624 00:28:00,966 --> 00:28:02,800 LOTT: The question is, how are we going to get 625 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:04,900 those emissions off the board? 626 00:28:04,900 --> 00:28:07,500 So today, we produce a little over a third 627 00:28:07,500 --> 00:28:10,066 of our electricity using zero-carbon resources. 628 00:28:10,066 --> 00:28:14,500 We want to get that number up by 2030 to 75%. 629 00:28:14,500 --> 00:28:16,600 What we're going to see is explosive growth 630 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,400 in both wind and solar. 631 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:22,200 Those are the big ones that are driving down emissions. 632 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:26,266 O'BRIEN: There are now more than 70,000 633 00:28:26,266 --> 00:28:29,000 utility-size wind turbines on U.S. soil-- 634 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,866 enough to power about 39 million homes. 635 00:28:32,866 --> 00:28:36,466 But the best places to put the wind farms are often far 636 00:28:36,466 --> 00:28:40,033 from the population centers that use the electricity. 637 00:28:40,033 --> 00:28:43,400 This is helping drive wind power offshore, 638 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,600 beyond the horizon, the turbines connected 639 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,166 to the power grid with submerged cables. 640 00:28:50,166 --> 00:28:54,133 The federal government is auctioning leases 641 00:28:54,133 --> 00:28:59,066 for 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030 642 00:28:59,066 --> 00:29:03,833 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035. 643 00:29:03,833 --> 00:29:07,100 The promised electricity should be enough to power 644 00:29:07,100 --> 00:29:10,000 roughly 15 million homes. 645 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:13,033 Floating wind is a relatively new idea 646 00:29:13,033 --> 00:29:16,633 that opens up waters deeper than about 200 feet, 647 00:29:16,633 --> 00:29:20,100 which is the limit for turbines fixed to the bottom. 648 00:29:20,100 --> 00:29:24,366 This technology appears ripe for rapid growth. 649 00:29:24,366 --> 00:29:26,366 DAGHER: It's really a big physics experiment. 650 00:29:26,366 --> 00:29:30,400 What you try to do is try to get as much valuable data 651 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:32,066 as you can at a small scale. 652 00:29:32,066 --> 00:29:33,066 Is it 500-year? 653 00:29:33,066 --> 00:29:35,533 It's gonna be 50-year. 654 00:29:35,533 --> 00:29:37,166 O'BRIEN: Habib Dagher is executive director 655 00:29:37,166 --> 00:29:38,533 of the University of Maine's 656 00:29:38,533 --> 00:29:41,333 Advanced Structures and Composites Center. 657 00:29:41,333 --> 00:29:44,733 He and his team are deploying a unique 658 00:29:44,733 --> 00:29:46,800 wind and wave simulator to test a scale model 659 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:52,366 of a floating hull for wind turbines called VolturnUS. 660 00:29:52,366 --> 00:29:53,633 DAGHER: We have load cells 661 00:29:53,633 --> 00:29:55,466 on the very top and bottom of the tower 662 00:29:55,466 --> 00:29:56,866 that tell us how much stress 663 00:29:56,866 --> 00:29:58,466 the tower is really seeing at that time. 664 00:29:58,466 --> 00:30:01,466 O'BRIEN: The base of the full-size version 665 00:30:01,466 --> 00:30:03,900 will be made of concrete, 666 00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:07,500 and inside some of the hulls are counterweights 667 00:30:07,500 --> 00:30:10,066 attached to springs and actuators. 668 00:30:10,066 --> 00:30:13,933 They are designed to negate the motion of the rolling sea. 669 00:30:13,933 --> 00:30:15,833 DAGHER: You want to make sure it doesn't move too much. 670 00:30:15,833 --> 00:30:17,266 So we're trying to minimize the motions 671 00:30:17,266 --> 00:30:19,933 at the turbine level and we're trying to reduce 672 00:30:19,933 --> 00:30:22,466 the pitch of the hull so it doesn't pitch too much over. 673 00:30:22,466 --> 00:30:27,000 O'BRIEN: In 2013, they moored a floating 20-kilowatt 674 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,400 one-eighth-scale model offshore for more than a year. 675 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,433 It got hammered during the long Maine winter, 676 00:30:33,433 --> 00:30:38,166 but never tilted more than five degrees. 677 00:30:38,166 --> 00:30:42,400 Habib hopes to have a bigger, 11-megawatt turbine 678 00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:44,600 floating in the next few years. 679 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,300 DAGHER: So you want to make it lighter. 680 00:30:46,300 --> 00:30:48,300 You want to make it easier to build. 681 00:30:48,300 --> 00:30:50,166 So it's not just about designing something 682 00:30:50,166 --> 00:30:51,366 and making sure it works. 683 00:30:51,366 --> 00:30:52,600 You got to figure out how to build it. 684 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,533   How to build it in an automated fashion. 685 00:30:55,533 --> 00:30:58,633 We built the lab to try to answer those questions. 686 00:30:58,633 --> 00:31:03,300 O'BRIEN: The allure of offshore floating wind is multifaceted. 687 00:31:03,300 --> 00:31:05,366 The turbines are built onshore, 688 00:31:05,366 --> 00:31:09,333 reducing construction cost and environmental impact. 689 00:31:09,333 --> 00:31:12,666 They can be towed to wherever the wind is more consistent, 690 00:31:12,666 --> 00:31:17,000 but the water too deep for fixed-bottom installations. 691 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:18,833 You can go 20 or 30, 40 miles offshore. 692 00:31:18,833 --> 00:31:20,366 You can't do that with fixed-bottom ones. 693 00:31:20,366 --> 00:31:22,600 You can put them in places where people can't see them 694 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:24,466 and you can design them to put them in places 695 00:31:24,466 --> 00:31:26,533 where you minimize the impact on the environment-- 696 00:31:26,533 --> 00:31:29,833 the birds, the bats, and the fisheries and the mammals. 697 00:31:29,833 --> 00:31:32,900 It gives you a lot more places to work with. 698 00:31:32,900 --> 00:31:36,566 O'BRIEN: Floating offshore turbines also make it possible 699 00:31:36,566 --> 00:31:40,300 to develop wind energy on the west coast of the U.S., 700 00:31:40,300 --> 00:31:43,333 where the waters are precipitously deeper. 701 00:31:43,333 --> 00:31:44,666 DAGHER: Within 50 miles 702 00:31:44,666 --> 00:31:46,966 of the U.S. coasts-- both east and west coast-- 703 00:31:46,966 --> 00:31:50,266 there's enough offshore wind capacity, theoretically, 704 00:31:50,266 --> 00:31:51,833 to power the country four times over. 705 00:31:51,833 --> 00:31:56,066 O'BRIEN: But even if there is, in fact, enough wind, 706 00:31:56,066 --> 00:32:00,533 it alone won't be enough. 707 00:32:00,533 --> 00:32:02,700 LOTT: So when I think about a zero-carbon grid 708 00:32:02,700 --> 00:32:04,566 and how we get to zero-carbon electricity, 709 00:32:04,566 --> 00:32:05,900 I think of it as a team sport. 710 00:32:05,900 --> 00:32:08,266 You need a lot of different types of technologies 711 00:32:08,266 --> 00:32:10,500 all playing together if you want to win the game. 712 00:32:10,500 --> 00:32:12,233   So you're going to have variable renewables, 713 00:32:12,233 --> 00:32:13,800 you're going to have wind and solar. 714 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:15,533 So when they're around, they're cheap, that's great. 715 00:32:15,533 --> 00:32:17,033 But they fade sometimes-- 716 00:32:17,033 --> 00:32:18,666 the wind goes away, the sun sets. 717 00:32:18,666 --> 00:32:20,300 So you complement them with other team members, 718 00:32:20,300 --> 00:32:21,833 like energy storage. 719 00:32:21,833 --> 00:32:27,400 O'BRIEN: So how best to give electricity some shelf life? 720 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:28,966 Batteries. 721 00:32:28,966 --> 00:32:31,866 The challenge is making them big enough and cheap enough 722 00:32:31,866 --> 00:32:33,566 to work at scale. 723 00:32:33,566 --> 00:32:35,933 Yet-Ming Chiang is a professor 724 00:32:35,933 --> 00:32:38,266 in the Department of Materials Science 725 00:32:38,266 --> 00:32:40,433 and Engineering at M.I.T. 726 00:32:40,433 --> 00:32:44,333 and co-founder of a company called Form Energy. 727 00:32:44,333 --> 00:32:45,500 He's aiming to eliminate 728 00:32:45,500 --> 00:32:47,766 some of the gaps in energy availability 729 00:32:47,766 --> 00:32:51,700 when the weather isn't right for solar or wind. 730 00:32:51,700 --> 00:32:54,700 CHIANG: What you see are gaps of several days. 731 00:32:54,700 --> 00:32:59,366 We're now able to tackle those multi-day intervals, 732 00:32:59,366 --> 00:33:01,233 those 100-hour intervals. 733 00:33:01,233 --> 00:33:04,033 And I want to point out that this is something 734 00:33:04,033 --> 00:33:06,833 that just a few years ago was considered impossible. 735 00:33:06,833 --> 00:33:10,233 O'BRIEN: For the past 30 years, researchers have focused on 736 00:33:10,233 --> 00:33:12,366 lithium-ion battery technology. 737 00:33:12,366 --> 00:33:15,666 The chemistry enables a high energy density. 738 00:33:15,666 --> 00:33:19,033 Powerful for their size and weight, 739 00:33:19,033 --> 00:33:22,266 they are perfect for laptops, phones, and cars. 740 00:33:22,266 --> 00:33:25,666 But they're not well suited for multi-day storage on the grid. 741 00:33:25,666 --> 00:33:28,700 To compete with a natural gas power plant, 742 00:33:28,700 --> 00:33:31,733 a 100-hour battery pack must cost 743 00:33:31,733 --> 00:33:35,666 no more than $20 per kilowatt-hour. 744 00:33:35,666 --> 00:33:38,633 CHIANG: But if we take a lithium-ion battery pack, 745 00:33:38,633 --> 00:33:43,166 the cost of that pack today is about $200 per kilowatt-hour. 746 00:33:43,166 --> 00:33:45,600 In order to do multi-day storage, 747 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,833 we have to have batteries that cost about one-tenth or less 748 00:33:48,833 --> 00:33:51,700 than that of today's lithium-ion battery packs. 749 00:33:51,700 --> 00:33:54,966 O'BRIEN: So they found a novel way 750 00:33:54,966 --> 00:33:58,400 to harness the energy released when air interacts with iron. 751 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:02,333 It's the power of rust. 752 00:34:02,333 --> 00:34:04,400 That's right, rust. 753 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,000 It's called an iron-air battery. 754 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:08,266 Iron-air batteries were, you know, 755 00:34:08,266 --> 00:34:09,900 first studied back in the '60s. 756 00:34:09,900 --> 00:34:14,433 O'BRIEN: At that time, no one saw a practical application 757 00:34:14,433 --> 00:34:17,033 for a very cheap, very heavy battery. 758 00:34:17,033 --> 00:34:22,600 The grid may be the problem this solution was waiting for. 759 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:24,833 Air is still free. (laughs) 760 00:34:24,833 --> 00:34:28,400 And iron is one of the most widely produced, 761 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,100 lowest-cost materials in the world. 762 00:34:30,100 --> 00:34:32,133 So the iron-air battery 763 00:34:32,133 --> 00:34:34,533 is the lowest-cost rechargeable battery chemistry 764 00:34:34,533 --> 00:34:36,000 that we know of today. 765 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:40,166 O'BRIEN: The battery contains an iron metal anode 766 00:34:40,166 --> 00:34:42,100 and an air-breathing cathode. 767 00:34:42,100 --> 00:34:45,033 They sit in an electrolyte solution, 768 00:34:45,033 --> 00:34:47,700 a permeable separator between them. 769 00:34:47,700 --> 00:34:50,333 When the iron is exposed to the oxygen in air, 770 00:34:50,333 --> 00:34:54,000 it triggers a chemical process called oxidation. 771 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,133 We call this rust. 772 00:34:56,133 --> 00:34:59,300 That oxidation process releases electrons 773 00:34:59,300 --> 00:35:01,533 that are separated and sent to the grid-- 774 00:35:01,533 --> 00:35:06,200 electricity when the demand exceeds renewable production. 775 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,600 When there is excess power from wind or solar, 776 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:13,500 the process is reversed-- electrons flow in, 777 00:35:13,500 --> 00:35:18,300 releasing the oxygen, causing the iron to "unrust." 778 00:35:18,300 --> 00:35:21,233 CHIANG: We put in electricity, 779 00:35:21,233 --> 00:35:24,533 we provide electrons to that iron electrode 780 00:35:24,533 --> 00:35:28,100 and turn it back into iron metal. 781 00:35:28,100 --> 00:35:30,400 That's why we refer to the, you know, iron-air battery 782 00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:34,366 as the rusting and unrusting of iron, you know, 783 00:35:34,366 --> 00:35:37,266 carried out in a very intentional and deliberate way. 784 00:35:37,266 --> 00:35:39,533 So these are full-scale iron-air batteries. 785 00:35:39,533 --> 00:35:42,333 O'BRIEN: Form Energy co-founder 786 00:35:42,333 --> 00:35:43,900 and chief technology officer Billy Woodford... 787 00:35:43,900 --> 00:35:45,366 There are oxygen bubbles. 788 00:35:45,366 --> 00:35:49,066 O'BRIEN: ...showed me what the batteries look like. 789 00:35:49,066 --> 00:35:51,000 And these have got four of those iron anodes inside of them. 790 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,833 O'BRIEN: He says their iron-air batteries are working 791 00:35:53,833 --> 00:35:56,400 just fine in the lab, 792 00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,733 but they haven't been tried on the grid yet. 793 00:35:58,733 --> 00:36:00,200 WOODFORD: We need to scale up the manufacturing of this 794 00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:02,433 and really build the next generation 795 00:36:02,433 --> 00:36:04,833 of larger systems and deploy them. 796 00:36:04,833 --> 00:36:07,100 And that really brings us to utility-scaled systems. 797 00:36:07,100 --> 00:36:09,966 O'BRIEN: They plan on building their rust batteries 798 00:36:09,966 --> 00:36:11,400 in the Rust Belt, 799 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,600 where the infrastructure and transportation network 800 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,200 are already tailor-made for it. 801 00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:20,633 The first plant will be built beside the Ohio River 802 00:36:20,633 --> 00:36:22,700 in Weirton, West Virginia, 803 00:36:22,700 --> 00:36:29,266 750 good-paying jobs promised in a place of broken promises. 804 00:36:29,266 --> 00:36:31,733 CHIANG: And so this will, you know, 805 00:36:31,733 --> 00:36:34,933 create real manufacturing jobs in parts of the country 806 00:36:34,933 --> 00:36:38,666 that have seen a great loss of jobs from, you know, 807 00:36:38,666 --> 00:36:40,000 traditional industries, 808 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,266 and may not have seen themselves 809 00:36:42,266 --> 00:36:45,666 as part of this green revolution. 810 00:36:45,666 --> 00:36:49,066 O'BRIEN: So the road to zero will pass through an old steel town 811 00:36:49,066 --> 00:36:51,700 in the heart of coal country. 812 00:36:51,700 --> 00:36:55,900 Now there's some irony. 813 00:36:55,900 --> 00:36:58,166 Batteries are just one storage idea. 814 00:36:58,166 --> 00:36:59,500 There are many other technologies 815 00:36:59,500 --> 00:37:01,266 in development globally. 816 00:37:01,266 --> 00:37:03,266 LOTT: The point of energy storage is saying, "You know what? 817 00:37:03,266 --> 00:37:05,400 "I can produce electricity right now, but I don't need it. 818 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,000 "Well, let me hold on to it. 819 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:08,766 Let me put it in a savings account and cash it out later." 820 00:37:08,766 --> 00:37:11,100 And then you complement those technologies 821 00:37:11,100 --> 00:37:14,666 with firm dispatchable power, which is a nerdy way of saying 822 00:37:14,666 --> 00:37:17,800 something that's around 24/7, 365. 823 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:19,733   This is things like big hydro power plants, 824 00:37:19,733 --> 00:37:20,933 and it's things like nuclear power 825 00:37:20,933 --> 00:37:22,466 and geothermal power-- 826 00:37:22,466 --> 00:37:25,033 power plants that are around when our wind and our solar 827 00:37:25,033 --> 00:37:26,933 and our batteries aren't quite enough 828 00:37:26,933 --> 00:37:28,700 to keep the lights on and prices low. 829 00:37:28,700 --> 00:37:34,033 O'BRIEN: Experts say that current nuclear and hydroelectric power 830 00:37:34,033 --> 00:37:36,666 are important energy sources to maintain, 831 00:37:36,666 --> 00:37:41,733 but are impractical to grow much in time to reach our 2030 goal. 832 00:37:41,733 --> 00:37:45,533 Geothermal may be a different story. 833 00:37:45,533 --> 00:37:48,000 ♪ ♪ 834 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,233 Welcome to California's Salton Sea, 835 00:37:51,233 --> 00:37:54,666 one of the largest geothermal fields in the world. 836 00:37:54,666 --> 00:37:59,266 It's renewable, carbon-free, and it's always on. 837 00:37:59,266 --> 00:38:02,666 So exploring new ways to tap into this resource 838 00:38:02,666 --> 00:38:06,933 is now a very hot field. 839 00:38:06,933 --> 00:38:10,866 Geothermal is the residual heat left over 840 00:38:10,866 --> 00:38:12,966 from the formation of the planet 841 00:38:12,966 --> 00:38:15,533 and from the decay of radioactive particles 842 00:38:15,533 --> 00:38:18,066 deep below the Earth's surface. 843 00:38:18,066 --> 00:38:20,933 At a geothermal electric power plant, 844 00:38:20,933 --> 00:38:24,066 they drill down far enough to reach very hot water, 845 00:38:24,066 --> 00:38:26,966 a source of steam to generate power. 846 00:38:26,966 --> 00:38:30,966 Another well injects the water back into the ground. 847 00:38:30,966 --> 00:38:35,600 Historically, geothermal power has only been practical 848 00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:38,433 in seismically active places like this, 849 00:38:38,433 --> 00:38:42,000 where fault lines allow lots of hot water to rise 850 00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:44,333 relatively close to the surface. 851 00:38:44,333 --> 00:38:49,500 Elsewhere, adequate heat is found at much greater depth. 852 00:38:49,500 --> 00:38:50,866 So that's going down 10,000 feet. 853 00:38:50,866 --> 00:38:52,666 JEFF TESTER: 10,000 feet, right. 854 00:38:52,666 --> 00:38:54,633 It's not just, we drill a well and we're done. 855 00:38:54,633 --> 00:38:56,133 We have to know what's going on under the ground. 856 00:38:56,133 --> 00:38:57,266 You want to listen to the system, 857 00:38:57,266 --> 00:38:59,033 you want to have it talk to you. 858 00:38:59,033 --> 00:39:02,433 O'BRIEN: Cornell University engineer Jeff Tester 859 00:39:02,433 --> 00:39:03,766 is pushing new ways 860 00:39:03,766 --> 00:39:07,800 to harness geothermal heat to generate electricity. 861 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:10,233 TESTER: If we could drop the costs of drilling 862 00:39:10,233 --> 00:39:12,566 to a very, very low value, 863 00:39:12,566 --> 00:39:16,066 and if we could use our knowledge of the subsurface 864 00:39:16,066 --> 00:39:18,333 in a way where we can engineer systems effectively, 865 00:39:18,333 --> 00:39:19,800 I think we certainly could do it. 866 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:21,566 We're not there yet, though. 867 00:39:21,566 --> 00:39:26,600 O'BRIEN: Jeff Tester has led the charge developing something called 868 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:31,233 enhanced geothermal systems, or E.G.S. 869 00:39:31,233 --> 00:39:36,000 The idea: drill two deep wells into hot rock. 870 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:37,800 If the rock is not naturally permeable, 871 00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:41,500 fracture it in between to create an artificial reservoir, 872 00:39:41,500 --> 00:39:43,700 and then pump water into the cracks. 873 00:39:43,700 --> 00:39:47,666 It returns to the surface hot enough to generate electricity. 874 00:39:47,666 --> 00:39:50,433 If the technique proves out, 875 00:39:50,433 --> 00:39:53,266 it could make geothermal power generation 876 00:39:53,266 --> 00:39:56,000 possible almost anywhere. 877 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,333 But the cost of drilling must drop dramatically. 878 00:39:58,333 --> 00:40:01,500 And once again, an ironic twist: 879 00:40:01,500 --> 00:40:03,933 the shale fracking boom-- 880 00:40:03,933 --> 00:40:06,733 responsible for producing so much oil and gas-- 881 00:40:06,733 --> 00:40:12,233 may have put this zero-emissions technology within reach. 882 00:40:12,233 --> 00:40:13,500 CINDY TAFF: If we can crack the nut 883 00:40:13,500 --> 00:40:14,900 on this low-temperature geothermal, 884 00:40:14,900 --> 00:40:16,500 we can put it anywhere. 885 00:40:16,500 --> 00:40:20,966 O'BRIEN: Petroleum engineer Cindy Taff is a 36-year veteran 886 00:40:20,966 --> 00:40:22,633 of the oil business. 887 00:40:22,633 --> 00:40:27,466 Now she is C.E.O. of Houston-based Sage Geosystems. 888 00:40:27,466 --> 00:40:30,933 Near McAllen, Texas, they're drilling down 889 00:40:30,933 --> 00:40:32,400 on a geothermal concept 890 00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:37,233 that they hope will close the business case on E.G.S. 891 00:40:37,233 --> 00:40:38,866 TAFF: That's the most important part, 892 00:40:38,866 --> 00:40:41,900 is, we have to get it cost- effective to wind and solar. 893 00:40:41,900 --> 00:40:46,566 O'BRIEN: Conventional geothermal power plants must harvest 894 00:40:46,566 --> 00:40:51,400 underground water between 300 and 700 degrees Fahrenheit. 895 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:55,200 Cindy says Sage's design is targeting rock 896 00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:57,466 that is 30% cooler. 897 00:40:57,466 --> 00:41:03,000 A key feature: this small, desk-sized turbine. 898 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,700 Instead of spinning the blades with steam from water, 899 00:41:05,700 --> 00:41:11,333 it uses carbon dioxide under pressure inside a closed loop. 900 00:41:11,333 --> 00:41:14,733 In a separate pipe, water is pumped into 901 00:41:14,733 --> 00:41:16,900 fractured cracks in the rock. 902 00:41:16,900 --> 00:41:19,933 Now hot, the water flows into a heat exchanger, 903 00:41:19,933 --> 00:41:23,800 raising the temperature of the CO2. 904 00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:26,400 At around 88 degrees Fahrenheit-- 905 00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:28,633 less than half the heat required to boil water-- 906 00:41:28,633 --> 00:41:32,633 the CO2 can become "supercritical," 907 00:41:32,633 --> 00:41:36,266 meaning it has properties of both a gas and a liquid, 908 00:41:36,266 --> 00:41:40,066 and it is able to spin a high-RPM turbine. 909 00:41:40,066 --> 00:41:41,100 TAFF: What we're excited about 910 00:41:41,100 --> 00:41:44,366 with this supercritical CO2 turbine 911 00:41:44,366 --> 00:41:47,133 is that it is double the efficiency 912 00:41:47,133 --> 00:41:49,233 of converting that heat to electricity. 913 00:41:49,233 --> 00:41:54,266 O'BRIEN: Sage envisions an array of about 18 wells 914 00:41:54,266 --> 00:41:55,833 spaced roughly ten feet apart; 915 00:41:55,833 --> 00:41:59,866 combined, able to produce more than 50 megawatts. 916 00:41:59,866 --> 00:42:01,433 If it works as they hope, 917 00:42:01,433 --> 00:42:05,633 enough to power more than 40,000 homes. 918 00:42:05,633 --> 00:42:06,966 TAFF: What we're trying to do 919 00:42:06,966 --> 00:42:11,266 is turn geothermal from an art into a science. 920 00:42:11,266 --> 00:42:15,800 O'BRIEN: One of Sage's partners lives nearby. 921 00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:17,733 JAMES MCALLEN: Being a good steward of the land 922 00:42:17,733 --> 00:42:21,100 is, is making sure that the land is sustainable. 923 00:42:21,100 --> 00:42:26,866 O'BRIEN: James McAllen is the manager of land his family has owned 924 00:42:26,866 --> 00:42:29,400 since 1791. 925 00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:32,366 MCALLEN: There's a lot of things around me every day 926 00:42:32,366 --> 00:42:35,900 built by my ancestors, by my dad, by my grandfather. 927 00:42:35,900 --> 00:42:38,766 Fences that were built by my great-grandfather. 928 00:42:38,766 --> 00:42:40,933 So there's little reminders everywhere 929 00:42:40,933 --> 00:42:44,200 of people that have come before me. 930 00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:45,766 O'BRIEN: He may be steeped in family history, 931 00:42:45,766 --> 00:42:50,233 but James is a forward-thinking steward of their land. 932 00:42:50,233 --> 00:42:52,533 He has installed a solar array to sell electricity 933 00:42:52,533 --> 00:42:54,033 back to the grid, 934 00:42:54,033 --> 00:42:58,833 and now Sage is poised to drill wells on his property. 935 00:42:58,833 --> 00:43:00,133 MCALLEN: You have to look forward, 936 00:43:00,133 --> 00:43:02,133 because if you don't look forward, 937 00:43:02,133 --> 00:43:04,400 you're not going to have this for very long. 938 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:05,933 Yeah. 939 00:43:05,933 --> 00:43:08,166 So, and that's what this geothermal project's 940 00:43:08,166 --> 00:43:09,566   all about, is looking forward. 941 00:43:09,566 --> 00:43:13,500 I think it's exciting that we're getting into something 942 00:43:13,500 --> 00:43:15,933 that I think is now the next level. Mm-hmm. 943 00:43:15,933 --> 00:43:18,966 I think it's a game-changer. 944 00:43:20,633 --> 00:43:22,400 LOTT: So there's two things going on with power 945 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,033 that we need to make sure we understand. 946 00:43:24,033 --> 00:43:26,000 The first is, as we go to net zero, 947 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:27,566 we need our electricity, 948 00:43:27,566 --> 00:43:29,833 our power plants, to be zero-carbon. 949 00:43:29,833 --> 00:43:32,033 The second is, we're going to need more of them, 950 00:43:32,033 --> 00:43:34,800 because in our homes, our cars, a lot of the economy, 951 00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:36,866 we're going to use more electricity. 952 00:43:36,866 --> 00:43:39,233 So we need more electricity and we need it all 953 00:43:39,233 --> 00:43:40,933 to be clean at the same time. 954 00:43:40,933 --> 00:43:42,333 So if we have all these technologies 955 00:43:42,333 --> 00:43:44,900 on the field together, we get affordable, reliable, 956 00:43:44,900 --> 00:43:46,333 zero-carbon power. 957 00:43:46,333 --> 00:43:49,333 If we take any one of these different teammates 958 00:43:49,333 --> 00:43:51,333 off the field, we won't win the game. 959 00:43:51,333 --> 00:43:54,066 We end up with unaffordable or unreliable power. 960 00:43:54,066 --> 00:43:56,633 ♪ ♪ 961 00:43:56,633 --> 00:43:58,366 O'BRIEN: Many of the technologies 962 00:43:58,366 --> 00:44:01,100 to get us to net-zero emissions by 2050 963 00:44:01,100 --> 00:44:02,933 are already here, 964 00:44:02,933 --> 00:44:06,333 and many more are well along in their development. 965 00:44:06,333 --> 00:44:09,500 But as I discovered on the road with the Ford Lightning, 966 00:44:09,500 --> 00:44:13,133 there are still some speed bumps left to navigate. 967 00:44:13,133 --> 00:44:15,200 The technology's existence 968 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:19,600 is only half the battle. 969 00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:21,866 You have to strategize when you're doing a long trip 970 00:44:21,866 --> 00:44:24,400 with an electric vehicle. 971 00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:26,600 It makes you think a little more about your trip 972 00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:28,066 than you would otherwise. 973 00:44:28,066 --> 00:44:30,400 ♪ ♪ 974 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:33,900 Ford loaned me the truck for a weeklong test drive. 975 00:44:33,900 --> 00:44:38,100 Producer Will Toubman and I decided to stress-test 976 00:44:38,100 --> 00:44:39,800 the E.V. charging network, 977 00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:42,866 so we drove the Lightning from the Boston area 978 00:44:42,866 --> 00:44:47,166 to Orono, Maine, to film that floating wind turbine prototype. 979 00:44:47,166 --> 00:44:51,833 Ford promotes the truck as a backup power supply at home. 980 00:44:51,833 --> 00:44:54,333 But on the road, getting electricity 981 00:44:54,333 --> 00:44:59,066 into the vehicle quickly can be a challenge. 982 00:44:59,066 --> 00:45:00,600 We are headed for Portland, 983 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,566 which will get us there right around 6:00 p.m. 984 00:45:03,566 --> 00:45:05,266 Good time to get a bite. 985 00:45:05,266 --> 00:45:06,766 There's a fast charger there. 986 00:45:06,766 --> 00:45:09,200 We slogged through some traffic, 987 00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:12,000 arrived at the fast charger, 988 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:13,266 plugged in, and went to dinner. 989 00:45:13,266 --> 00:45:16,633 Returned 90 minutes later. 990 00:45:16,633 --> 00:45:17,833 The fast charger 991 00:45:17,833 --> 00:45:20,466 was set to turn off after one hour. 992 00:45:20,466 --> 00:45:22,300 We needed more than an hour. 993 00:45:22,300 --> 00:45:24,800 As it turns out, 994 00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,266 we currently have 123 miles of range 995 00:45:27,266 --> 00:45:28,900 and we have 133 miles to go. 996 00:45:28,900 --> 00:45:32,500 We re-upped, plugged in, and waited: 997 00:45:32,500 --> 00:45:35,466 a watched pot of electrons. 998 00:45:35,466 --> 00:45:37,900 We've been charging now for 30 minutes. 999 00:45:37,900 --> 00:45:42,433 We have increased our range by 33 miles. 1000 00:45:42,433 --> 00:45:43,766 So about a mile a minute. 1001 00:45:43,766 --> 00:45:48,033 Nothing fast about this fast charger. 1002 00:45:48,033 --> 00:45:52,066 A dozen unused Tesla superchargers across the lot, 1003 00:45:52,066 --> 00:45:53,900 incompatible with the Lightning, 1004 00:45:53,900 --> 00:45:57,566 seemed to gloat in silence. 1005 00:45:57,566 --> 00:46:02,800 We resumed our journey with a promise of 153 miles of range. 1006 00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:06,500 A few hours and 133 miles later, 1007 00:46:06,500 --> 00:46:11,566 we arrived at the only fast charger I could find in Bangor, 1008 00:46:11,566 --> 00:46:13,033 at a car dealership. 1009 00:46:13,033 --> 00:46:14,200 This could be it. 1010 00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:15,533 O'BRIEN: It was about 11:00 p.m., 1011 00:46:15,533 --> 00:46:18,866 we had only about 20 miles of range remaining, 1012 00:46:18,866 --> 00:46:23,100 and we were in no mood for this. 1013 00:46:23,100 --> 00:46:24,333 Okay, so it says cash only. 1014 00:46:24,333 --> 00:46:26,166 It's the right kind of charger. 1015 00:46:26,166 --> 00:46:29,366 Let's see if I put a card in the mix here, 1016 00:46:29,366 --> 00:46:33,866 if it will do anything for me. 1017 00:46:33,866 --> 00:46:36,733 "Swipe error." Oh, boy. 1018 00:46:36,733 --> 00:46:39,600 So, uh... 1019 00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:41,866 I think we're seeing the problem here, aren't we? 1020 00:46:41,866 --> 00:46:46,833 Plan B: a charger at another car dealership nearby. 1021 00:46:46,833 --> 00:46:49,600 So, let's pull in, see what this looks like. 1022 00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:51,466 ♪ ♪ 1023 00:46:51,466 --> 00:46:53,833 Oh, no. 1024 00:46:53,833 --> 00:46:55,833 "Not in service." 1025 00:46:55,833 --> 00:46:57,800 Come on. 1026 00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,566 Looks like it's brand-new or something. 1027 00:47:00,566 --> 00:47:03,833 Supposedly there was another one here. 1028 00:47:03,833 --> 00:47:05,166 Supposedly. 1029 00:47:05,166 --> 00:47:09,600 And it too is, looks like it's brand-new 1030 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:11,933 and still not online. 1031 00:47:11,933 --> 00:47:19,633 So we've got two chargers coming to a dealership near you soon. 1032 00:47:19,633 --> 00:47:22,566 Again, not much help to us now 1033 00:47:22,566 --> 00:47:27,866 with 18 miles of range at 11:23 at night. 1034 00:47:27,866 --> 00:47:32,066 O'BRIEN: Plan C: a slow charger a few miles away 1035 00:47:32,066 --> 00:47:35,833 at a Maine Department of Transportation maintenance yard. 1036 00:47:35,833 --> 00:47:36,833 Hopefully this thing works. 1037 00:47:36,833 --> 00:47:41,033   Pop this bad boy in. 1038 00:47:41,033 --> 00:47:42,733 And let's make sure we're charging. 1039 00:47:42,733 --> 00:47:45,700 Yes, we are. 1040 00:47:45,700 --> 00:47:47,566 We are charging. (chuckles) 1041 00:47:47,566 --> 00:47:52,000 O'BRIEN: We stopped to charge eight times. 1042 00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:54,933 The nearly 500-mile round trip took twice as long 1043 00:47:54,933 --> 00:47:58,233 as it would have in an internal combustion vehicle. 1044 00:47:58,233 --> 00:48:02,533 And there were a lot of mental gymnastics. 1045 00:48:02,533 --> 00:48:04,266 (echoing): 13 miles per hour... 1046 00:48:04,266 --> 00:48:05,500 Ten hours or so... 1047 00:48:05,500 --> 00:48:07,266 46 kilowatts... It will be 90% full... 1048 00:48:07,266 --> 00:48:09,366 30 miles and change of range... 1049 00:48:09,366 --> 00:48:12,233 19 kilowatt-hours... 1050 00:48:12,233 --> 00:48:13,900 I feel like we've learned about nine lessons 1051 00:48:13,900 --> 00:48:17,300 in the last 24 hours about how not to do this. 1052 00:48:17,300 --> 00:48:20,100 Since 2010, Americans have bought 1053 00:48:20,100 --> 00:48:21,666 about three-and-a-quarter million 1054 00:48:21,666 --> 00:48:25,000 plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles. 1055 00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:29,366 The government goal by 2030: half of new cars sold 1056 00:48:29,366 --> 00:48:31,100 will be electric. 1057 00:48:31,100 --> 00:48:32,966 So, the charging infrastructure 1058 00:48:32,966 --> 00:48:35,166 will need to grow fast to keep up. 1059 00:48:35,166 --> 00:48:39,666 Across the country right now, there are more than 130,000 1060 00:48:39,666 --> 00:48:41,966 publicly available E.V. chargers. 1061 00:48:41,966 --> 00:48:45,766 The 2030 goal: a half-million public chargers, 1062 00:48:45,766 --> 00:48:50,100 a nearly fourfold increase. 1063 00:48:50,100 --> 00:48:53,233 Engineers and entrepreneurs are seeing opportunities. 1064 00:48:53,233 --> 00:48:56,233 We found one company that is installing chargers 1065 00:48:56,233 --> 00:48:59,200 on utility poles, 1066 00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:00,966 just one clean-tech innovation 1067 00:49:00,966 --> 00:49:05,166 amid thousands that are bubbling up with possible solutions. 1068 00:49:05,166 --> 00:49:06,566 CHIANG: These are all entirely new 1069 00:49:06,566 --> 00:49:08,433 industries that are being created. 1070 00:49:08,433 --> 00:49:10,500 And, you know, investors want to be part of 1071 00:49:10,500 --> 00:49:13,866 this new industrial revolution, as it were-- 1072 00:49:13,866 --> 00:49:15,066 the Green Industrial Revolution. 1073 00:49:15,066 --> 00:49:17,833 O'BRIEN: A green industrial revolution: 1074 00:49:17,833 --> 00:49:21,866 it's a reminder that this is how we evolve. 1075 00:49:21,866 --> 00:49:25,300 Humanity has made big energy transitions before: 1076 00:49:25,300 --> 00:49:26,300 from wood 1077 00:49:26,300 --> 00:49:27,833 to coal 1078 00:49:27,833 --> 00:49:29,000 to oil. 1079 00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:34,233 And oil is just what's familiar now. 1080 00:49:34,233 --> 00:49:36,866 Is it natural to, like, dig up dead dinosaurs 1081 00:49:36,866 --> 00:49:40,666 and burn them in our kitchen in 2022? 1082 00:49:40,666 --> 00:49:42,600 This isn't ancient Mesopotamia. 1083 00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:45,033 There's better ways to cook. 1084 00:49:45,033 --> 00:49:47,866 There's better ways to heat up hot water 1085 00:49:47,866 --> 00:49:49,833 and provide heating and air conditioning to our homes. 1086 00:49:49,833 --> 00:49:54,333 O'BRIEN: The transition from fossil fuels to renewables 1087 00:49:54,333 --> 00:49:55,633 is all but inevitable. 1088 00:49:55,633 --> 00:49:59,433 After all, the wells will go dry one day 1089 00:49:59,433 --> 00:50:00,633 if we keep pumping. 1090 00:50:00,633 --> 00:50:03,700 And do we really have that luxury? 1091 00:50:03,700 --> 00:50:05,800 GALARZA: Climate change is not a crisis for the planet, 1092 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:07,166 it's a crisis for us as human beings. 1093 00:50:07,166 --> 00:50:08,466 It's an existential crisis. 1094 00:50:08,466 --> 00:50:10,000 Because if we don't do something, 1095 00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:13,300 the Earth is just going to shake us off like fleas and move on. 1096 00:50:13,300 --> 00:50:15,633 O'BRIEN: But change can be frightening 1097 00:50:15,633 --> 00:50:17,233 when you are in the throes of it. 1098 00:50:17,233 --> 00:50:21,266 And fear can beget apathy in the absence of good leaders. 1099 00:50:21,266 --> 00:50:24,633 WILSON: If we stop the methane, 1100 00:50:24,633 --> 00:50:25,833 very quickly, 1101 00:50:25,833 --> 00:50:27,433 it can make a huge dent. 1102 00:50:27,433 --> 00:50:30,900 It's the low-hanging fruit in solving the climate problem. 1103 00:50:30,900 --> 00:50:34,466 The only thing we lack is the political will. 1104 00:50:34,466 --> 00:50:38,000 O'BRIEN: And yet there are some signs of a course correction. 1105 00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:41,933 The U.S. now has climate and infrastructure laws 1106 00:50:41,933 --> 00:50:43,133 that set things in motion. 1107 00:50:43,133 --> 00:50:47,333 But do we need to go faster? 1108 00:50:47,333 --> 00:50:49,966 We don't have a sense of urgency yet enough to do this. 1109 00:50:49,966 --> 00:50:53,066 When we had to fight in World War II, 1110 00:50:53,066 --> 00:50:54,233 there was no question 1111 00:50:54,233 --> 00:50:56,300 things were going to happen quickly. 1112 00:50:56,300 --> 00:51:00,166 I think we just have to get down to business right away. 1113 00:51:00,166 --> 00:51:03,000 O'BRIEN: A route to zero is clearly marked. 1114 00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:05,733 First, focus on energy efficiency, 1115 00:51:05,733 --> 00:51:09,500 and then plug as many things as possible into the grid 1116 00:51:09,500 --> 00:51:12,766 while pulling fossil fuels off the grid 1117 00:51:12,766 --> 00:51:15,400 and adding zero-carbon power production 1118 00:51:15,400 --> 00:51:18,100 as fast as we can. 1119 00:51:18,100 --> 00:51:20,233 It'll get us close to 50%. 1120 00:51:20,233 --> 00:51:23,000 We hope it'll get us all the way to 50% by 2030, 1121 00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:25,200 but it'll put us on the pathway we need to be on 1122 00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:27,366 to get to net zero by 2050. 1123 00:51:27,366 --> 00:51:30,866 O'BRIEN: No breakthroughs required for that. 1124 00:51:30,866 --> 00:51:33,900 At the same time, push for the innovations 1125 00:51:33,900 --> 00:51:35,400 that can tackle the thorniest problems, 1126 00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:36,700 like industry, 1127 00:51:36,700 --> 00:51:43,433 aviation, shipping, and agriculture, by 2050. 1128 00:51:43,433 --> 00:51:45,666 Do I know that we're going to get to 50% reduction by 2030? 1129 00:51:45,666 --> 00:51:46,666 No. 1130 00:51:46,666 --> 00:51:49,133 I think it's going to be close. 1131 00:51:49,133 --> 00:51:52,600 We could overshoot it if a couple of things go right. 1132 00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:54,833 We might undershoot it. 1133 00:51:54,833 --> 00:51:57,100 But when I look back at what we thought 1134 00:51:57,100 --> 00:51:58,500 we'd be doing by this time, 1135 00:51:58,500 --> 00:52:01,166 we're so much further along the road. 1136 00:52:01,166 --> 00:52:04,100 This all gives me cause for a lot of optimism. 1137 00:52:04,100 --> 00:52:06,566 ♪ ♪ 1138 00:52:31,733 --> 00:52:39,266 ♪ ♪ 1139 00:52:43,100 --> 00:52:50,633 ♪ ♪ 1140 00:52:52,266 --> 00:52:59,800 ♪ ♪ 1141 00:53:01,500 --> 00:53:09,033 ♪ ♪ 1142 00:53:14,766 --> 00:53:21,933 ♪ ♪