Just Have a Think, a YouTube channel created by Dave Borlace, is one of my best sources for news about, and analysis of, the world energy transition. Here are some hopeful developments I’ve enjoyed learning about.
Solar Wind and Wave. Can this ocean hybrid platform nail all three?
New energy storage tech breathing life and jobs back into disused coal power plants
Agrivoltaics. An economic lifeline for American farmers?
Solar PV film roll. Revolutionary new production technology
All of Dave’s presentations are carefully researched and presented. A detail that has long fascinated me: how the show displays source material. Dave often cites IPCC reports and other sources that are, in raw form, PDF files. He spices up these citations with some impressive animated renderings. Here’s one from the most recent episode.
The progressive rendering of the chart in this example is an even fancier effect than I’ve seen before, and it prompted me to track down the original source. In that clip Dave cites IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, so I visited their site, looked for the cited report, and found it on page 8 of World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022. That link might or might not take you there directly, if not you can scroll to page 8 where you’ll find the chart that’s been animated in the video.
The graphical finesse of Just Have a Think is only icing on the cake. The show reports a constant stream of innovations that collectively give me hope we might accomplish the transition and avoid worst-case scenarios. But still, I wonder. That’s just a pie chart in a PDF file. How did it become the progressive rendering that appears in the video?
In any case, and much more importantly: Dave, thanks for the great work you’re doing!
