The Powerful Promise of Earth’s Harshest Places | Lei Zhang  ## Metadata - Author: [[TED Talks Daily]] - Full Title: The Powerful Promise of Earth’s Harshest Places | Lei Zhang - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/9e6b3b90-6f85-4e62-b043-bcf240b0ec88 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Lei Zhang's Gobi Desert Vision** - Lei Zhang loves the Gobi Desert because he believes it can fuel humanity's next leap forward with renewable energy. - While others see barrenness, he sees an abundant resource for clean energy innovation. Transcript: Speaker 1 Terms and more at applecard.com. My favorite place is in the Mongolia Gobi Desert. It's most mass-like in the planet. Barren and empty. Wind blows all year round. Sandstorms happen often. In the winter, temperature is as low as minus 40 degrees. In the summer, it reaches 40 degrees. It's useless. But it's my most favorite place. I come to Gobi with a belief. I believe this could be the new space for our civilization. ([Time 0:02:13](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b1b02fa6-0901-4b82-9e19-4079efe36ea0)) - **Energy Drives Prosperity** - Abundant renewable energy in harsh places like deserts can drive civilization's prosperity. - Economic growth correlates directly with energy consumption, which renewables can massively increase. Transcript: Speaker 1 Abundance. If you look at the barren desert, it is filled up with abundant renewable energy. The strong wind and the shining sun. They are infinite and never end. I found out the important equation between energy and our prosperities. 2,000 years before the Industrial Revolution, our global GDP only grew five times. Why? Because we are only able to use five times energy. Natural energy, agriculture then transferred to muscle power. Since the Industrial Revolution, our global GDP expanded 100 times because we are using 100 times more energy. ([Time 0:03:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7d8a248c-fec9-4f56-84df-09ca5ed1f3a0)) - **Harness Desert Energy Smartly** - Capture rough desert winds with wind turbines designed to survive harsh conditions. - Avoid costly long-distance grid lines by integrating wind, solar, and storage into off-grid renewable systems using AI. Transcript: Speaker 1 Because when our solar radiation is able to meet our entire annual demand of energy, it is free and it is green. In front of Gobi, we have to solve three challenges. The first one, How can we capture the rough and the raw wind energy? Just as steam engine is able to turn coal energy into motion, we end up with a wind turbine to capture wind energy to turn into electricity. Most importantly is to really design the wind turbine that is able to survive in extreme wind conditions in the desert. Secondly, how can we build, avoiding to build a long-distance or thousands of miles transmission lines, which is costly and extremely expensive, we end up with the largest off-grid Renewable system by integrating wind turbine solar panel storage with AI orchestrations. ([Time 0:05:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8c8de8b4-c179-4bd5-acaa-842656b9cfc4)) - **Green Molecules Unlock Decarbonization** - Producing green hydrogen and ammonia locally turns abundant renewable electricity into storable energy molecules. - Green molecules are crucial to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors like steel and aviation. Transcript: Speaker 1 We end up with a solution to build net zero industrial park, which is going to produce energy intensive products like batteries and green hydrogen and ammonia, those green molecules. Why green ammonia? One ton of green ammonia is able to hold 10,000 kilowatt hour electricity. Most importantly, the green molecule is so important for us to decarbonize our economic system. It's the most difficult, hard-to segment. The green hydrogen is going to be used to making green steel, to make natural chemicals, to make green aviation and shipping. So, what's about today? Just right in the heart of Gobi Desert, the first natural industrial park has been built. It is totally off-grid, 100% by renewable energy. It is making the state-of battery. But most importantly, it is the lowest cost of battery among all in region production base. ([Time 0:06:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/61002fef-b2ae-4ea1-87b6-00bb957cf029)) - **Gobi's Off-Grid Renewable Industry** - In Gobi Desert, the world's largest off-grid green hydrogen project produces batteries and green molecules fully from renewables. - This facility offers the lowest-cost batteries in the region powered by abundant desert energy. Transcript: Speaker 1 Just right in the heart of Gobi Desert, the first natural industrial park has been built. It is totally off-grid, 100% by renewable energy. It is making the state-of battery. But most importantly, it is the lowest cost of battery among all in region production base. Why? Because it's tremendous, abundant renewable energy. And we are also building in the desert the largest green hydrogen project in the world. 1.5 million ton green hydrogen and green ammonium. The first phase 300,000 ton is commissioning now. We are not supposed to build the largest. Our goal is to make the cheapest. To make green hydrogen as cheap as green. Why the cost is so vital? Because history told us this 100 times energy growth is a result of cost reductions. In order to unlock these tremendous renewables, we have to make renewable energy much lower than fossil fuel. ([Time 0:07:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/34c1a947-80a8-4c48-8d67-3552329641d8)) - **Innovate to Cut Energy Costs** - Reduce costs by redesigning equipment: AI-regulated wind turbines, hybrid energy storage, efficient electrolyzers, and modular hydrogen plants. - Use AI to automate grid management and weather prediction for optimal energy use. Transcript: Speaker 1 But there's still another battle, is green molecule. It's about two or three times expensive than green molecule from coal and gas. We have to make as cheap as possible, have this cost parity to the gray. So we should redesign the entire energy system and redesign the equipment, then reduce costs significantly. So first, we designed AI-regulated wind turbines, which is able to capture more energy while reducing costs significantly. We are also designing the world's first hybrid energy storage system by combining lithium battery with supercapacitor. It's able to support the grid with much less cost. And we are improving the efficiency of electrolyzer by innovating membranes and electrodes significantly. In order to make the construction work in the desert much easier, much cheaper, we designed a modular prefabricated hydrogen plant, which made construction work in the desert as easy As stacking Legos. And we are also developing AI physical model, starting from predicting weather, and solar to manage grid automatically. ([Time 0:09:46](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3b2bbe5c-4298-4b10-b7f7-5497bf449575)) - **Cost Parity Is a Milestone** - Achieving cost parity for green molecules with fossil fuels will remove the last barrier to renewables expansion. - This breakthrough will open the gate to massive new possibilities for humanity. Transcript: Speaker 1 But there are still some gaps. I believe within three years, by 2028, we are able to make such cost parity to grade. Why I'm so convinced? If you look at last 20 years, the cost of wind and solar has been reduced 90%. For the last five years, the cost of energy storage has been reduced 90%. At the end of the day, the green electricity still be the majority cost of green hydrogen. So by combining the significant improvement on the electrolyzer and the hydrogen factory, we are for sure to achieve such a cost parity. By the time we are achieving cost parity to grade for molecules, it is going to be a milestone for our humanity because we're going to remove the last bottleneck which preventing us to Unlock tremendous renewable energy. ([Time 0:11:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c7e6c778-7967-45ac-96a3-a76c188e367b)) - **100x Energy Could Transform World** - A 100-fold energy increase in the next century could enable AI superintelligence, water desalination, ending poverty, climate reversal, and interstellar travel. - Desert-based renewables hold infinite, free energy to support these advancements. Transcript: Speaker 1 Just imagine, as we repeated in history, within the next 100 years, if we are able to use 100 times more energy, how the world will look like? We are going to harvest the superintelligence with AI data center everywhere. We are going to desalinate seawater and turn the desert into green oasis. We are going to remove poverty even by producing our food and protein in the basement. We are going for sure to reverse climate crisis by taking carbon from the air and turning to building materials. ([Time 0:13:18](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b78bef6c-4da9-4fb7-8603-afe5bf4ce0ad))