The Future of Electric Cars

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Right now in the US, the battery segment that's growing the most rapidly is behind the meter but in commercial buildings. People have maybe half and half of a lot of batteries at the solar plant, at the wind farm, in a centralized location for the grid. We also have a lot at the edge. And those benefits are things like if there's a power outage, it keeps the power up and maybe it does for the neighborhood. It has other benefits like the electricity lines that run to your home and your neighborhood. They're probably pretty close to full at 4pm to 8pm, but they're empty at midnight. So we can fill up the battery in your region at midnight with

The Earth is heating up, and it’s our fault. But human beings are not always complete idiots (occasional contrary evidence notwithstanding), and sometimes we can even be downright clever. Dare we imagine that we can bring our self-inflicted climate catastrophe under control, through a combination of technological advances and political willpower? Ramez Naam is optimistic, at least about the technological advances. He is a technologist, entrepreneur, and science-fiction author, who has been following advances in renewable energy. We talk about the present state of solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources, and what our current rate of progress bodes for the near and farther future. And maybe we sneak in a little discussion of brain-computer interfaces, a theme of the Nexus trilogy.

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Ramez Naam worked for 13 years at Microsoft, helping to develop early versions of Outlook, Explorer, and Bing. He founded Apex Technologies, which develops software for use in molecular design. He holds 19 patents. His science-fiction trilogy Nexus was awarded several prizes. He is chair of Energy and Environmental Systems at Singularity University.

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