The Breakthrough in Renewable Energy

The Breakthrough in Renewable Energy

2016, Environment  -   19 Comments
Ratings: 7.82/10 from 176 users.

Clean energy is becoming less exotic and more practical than ever before thanks to the efforts of a few key countries. Collectively, they're greasing the wheels for a worldwide revolution. The Breakthrough in Renewable Energy, a new documentary produced by the acclaimed VPRO Backlight series, takes us inside the corporate offices and production lines where this groundbreaking work is being done, and examines what it could mean for the future of energy consumption on Earth.

What main factor will ultimately determine the widespread acceptance and use of solar and wind energy? In a word: cost. Once upon a time, investments in these alternative energy sources were considered an extremely risky proposition. After all, the cost to the consumers was many times that of energy powered by natural gas and other traditional fossil fuels. However, as argued by the film's impressive panel of expert industrialists and other energy entrepreneurs, new and untested technologies are always priced high on the outset. Once the research, innovation and production of these technologies begin to progress and mature, the costs go down. This is where the industry stands today.

The filmmakers travel the globe to discover where these seismic advancements are taking place. In China, where air pollution has reached catastrophic levels, the government has made unprecedented investments in the development of solar and wind powered technologies. Their efforts are beginning to pay off in a big way, and reverberate throughout the rest of the world. Thanks to increased production savvy and volume, the cost of solar energy has now dipped by more than 80%, and wind energy has decreased by 50%. As the cost of these resources begin to fall well below that of natural gas, how long will it take for other regions of the world to opt in?

The industry's fight to acquire the hearts and minds of consumers can only be won through simple economics; consumers will begin to embrace green technologies when the dollars make sense. With great insight and access, The Breakthrough in Renewable Energy shows us how this battle is being waged and won everywhere from Abu Dhabi to the Netherlands to California.

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19 Comments / User Reviews

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  1. caleb winchester

    the electronic that we use everyday like computers have energy because it has a charger and when it needs charged it powers up

    1. Ironslav

      I really hope this is sarcasm ... To be old enough to read and right and believe that energy comes from charging plug-ins? Sarcasm, I bet ... unless ...

  2. Bob Canada

    Watch the MONEY MASTERS to find out what is really happening.
    Knowledge is POWER.
    Central Banksters now control every Countries Banking except three (3).
    Iran, Cuba, and North Korea.
    The only terrorists are Bankers Charging Interest on Printing Every Countries Currency.
    1968 Pierre Trudeau invited to Bilderberg Group.
    1974 Canada's Public Bank (only G7/G8 country with a Public Bank) Total Debt: $18 Billion.
    1974 Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada gave control of Canada's Public Bank currency printing to the World Central Banksters.
    2017 Canada's Total Debt: Over $1.8 TRILLION. 1,000 times the Total Debt due to compound interest.
    Peter Jacob's:
    Total World Debt: about $200 TRILLION.
    Total World Currency in Circulation: about $80 TRILLION. Taxes from Taxpayers are the Collateral Countries Use to guarantee the Loans to Pay Banksters to Print Every Countries Currency.
    If there is MORE DEBT than CURRENCY in the WORLD, DEBT will NEVER END, which means we Taxpayers are all slaves.]
    You WON'T Print this, but I did my part. Knowledge is Power and it is "FREE" for now.
    Rothchild's Money holdings now exceed $500 TRILLION, making Jeff Bezos look poor.
    It is up to the individual to learn as much about what is happening to avoid problems as we can and share what we learn with others.

  3. Joan

    I wanted to know more about the trees they talked about that help burn off black carbons I didn't get the name of this tree but it replaced using up to 250 of other trees to just one of these to do the same job. Awesome if you can get me the name of this tree. Thank you.

  4. DustUp

    For those that are weary of big oil and gas, and haven't figured out how to attach enough solar panels to your car. Most anyone can make ethanol. Skip past the usa propaganda fake studies full of holes by university professors who likely have grants from big oil or the Rockefeller cabal. Go directly to where it is being done, Brazil, where they obtain 6-8 times the energy output as they put in, including manufacturing the farm tractors. Reference alcoholcanbeagas along with the typical internet suffix. Ethanol is carbon neutral, has no RADIOACTIVE waste to deal with. If you spill it, it mixes with water unlike gasoline and oil. It can be used in both gasoline and diesel engines. Henry Ford stated it was the perfect automotive fuel. Why aren't we using it? We were until Rockefeller funded the gals that got prohibition passed, enabling Rockefeller to unload his oil refinery waste product called gasoline onto the masses cornering the market. Unfortunately people would rather be subservient to big oil and whine about it rather than form a co-op and make their own fuel that won't be priced at the whim of big oil. Ethanol is basically a liquid form of solar energy, as it can be made from most soft vegetative matter; including post processed types like old donuts and bread. The food vs. fuel debate is not a debate at all but a lie used by futures market manipulators running up the price of everything including grains at that time. The protein is not consumed in making ethanol, only the carbohydrates which you don't need to be eating that much of anyway. The protein is typically fed to farm animals or used as a natural weed stunting fertilizer rather than using herbacides like roundup.

    Another really DUMB thing done in the usa is chlorinating sewage then dumping it in the rivers. There is a lot of energy which could be produced from it instead. Unfortunately big oil and gas has their hand up legislatures and congress like a sock puppet. Don't blame big oil, blame yourself for not seeing to it wise honorable people are running for all offices.

  5. Aniket

    I am interested in screening this movie along with some other movies for sensitizing the students and people in my country - India.
    Can you please guide me if I need to purchase any screening license for showcasing the movie or I can showcase the movie in public without any licenses.
    Thank You

  6. Richard Lane

    Now all we need is to changed farm engines and transport from oil and gas. This would make new jobs for people and help even more.

  7. Rona Te Pania

    Solar energy panels which has been on the market in Australia and New Zealand for more than 5 years now. However it only benefits the wealthy people, due to those household income earners on middle and below average wagers who cannot afford Solar Energy Panels. Particularily to the families who live on and below the poverty lines definiately cannot afford SEP. In my opinion I think that this documenatry specificly targets "all the fat cats" the ones that leave their partners at home. These "Fat Cats" are busy getting their front and behind wax or geased by massagers in their Solar Energy Panel Bungalows lol. Have you heard of the "Pull Push Pull" theory, or the "Poke A Want" theory sounds similar to Pokemon lol.

    Wait up Arabs or are you's playing pure dumb did you hear what that "Fat Cat" investor from Germany is saying that he's basicly got you's where he wants you. Meaning that if anything was to happen to the oil or SEP he gets not only 30% cut also the money that he has invested. I also view this that the Germany investor making the C.E.O of Electricity of Dubai look and sound dumb. Never ever bow down to a White person who's country supported Bristish in WW1. Back in those days it was the Bristish who confiscated the oil wells in Iraq and Iran, this is how the Gulf war started. I want people who read this to think about the pro's and con's and the forecast/future. Even though Dubai has made an investment into SEP's, however; on a global world view without oil and gas the world will stop beating. The world stilll needs to function with oil, gas and petrol in terms of transport, logistics, supply chain management.

  8. Christian

    'Every where you go, people give you banana's and food for free, if they can do so can we'..
    Sadly, those inhabitants (or should I say leaders) made the island sustainable for the people there, that is not the case in ANY westerns society.
    Western society values profit above everything else, which is evident by legislation over the past 100 years resulting in 50% of the worlds wealth being in the hands of less than 100 people, for that very same reason; No, we cannot do what they did on the Island.

  9. Ace_vsr

    Forget solar and wind. Thorium powered nuclear reactors are the future

    1. that one guy

      Thorium all the way, that's how we are going to achieve interstellar exploration! Solar isn't effective in parts of the world that are too far north or south, and wind requires lots of maintenance and also less effective in some areas.

  10. DustUp

    Utrecht? Netherlands? UNWISE idea to use car batteries as storage. Unless of course you want to be paying for a new battery replacement for YOUR car much sooner. Current battery tech has a limited cycling life. Making that system and kilowatts, rather killa battery a lot, MUCH more expensive. This is the problem when tree huggers who don't investigate ...or don't care what happens to the average person. Symbolism over substance.
    Not one thing new in the video except the falling price and those deciding it is worth it now. Where there is no water to pump higher for storage you can winch dead weight uphill. Or like was proposed in California, LA I think, which has hills all around and some unused train tracks, a train load of rocks with generators in the locomotives or some such thing. However, these large scale systems mean the big boys still get to send you an electric bill.
    What will govt do when the price of energy falls? They will say they need to tax it more because you can afford to pay more, since you were before.
    The ONLY answer for those who prefer freedom, which in much of the world equates to keeping as much of your money as possible, so govt cannot use it against you to buy votes with, is to have your OWN energy production. This will create bountiful jobs in the manufacturing, selling, installing, and servicing of such systems. That eliminates the UGLY grid of power poles, wires, and their expense ...not to mention the large swath of no longer huggable trees cut down through tree-ville to put in a new energy corridor consisting of those big tall metal power line holder uppers, slated to go in.
    I wonder if you could convince enough people to turn a generator if you paid them so much a kilowatt. That might convince a few of us who need to go to the gym, to go.

  11. Les

    excellent info . Lets make the transition to clean energy as quick as we can and even make money doing it. If the big bad money guys can still make some money it will make the whole thing move faster

  12. NewNRG

    Where are the functioning cold-fusion reactors ?

  13. bluetortilla

    It's right around the corner Ks. We've already won- the market will do the rest. What we have left is some SERIOUS damage control from CO2 plus the re-engineering of agriculture.

  14. KsDevil

    That's very clever of the islanders.
    Wind and solar to provide electricity to run the pumps and a man made hydro power system to compensate for calm and over cast days.
    A model that can be duplicated in many areas on the planet.
    But, I'm still hoping solar technology will advance so that I will be able to upgrade my motor home to get the same size as my 100 watt panels but have double the output at half the cost.
    And that battery technology will do the same.

  15. bluetortilla

    Yeah, in part of this you can still fell the heavy greed of the corportists. They'd never spend a penny 'for the good of the world' but they'll invest if only if they can make a buck. As long as we allow jugheads like to run our economy, we'll never have peace.
    Other parts were touching (the last third) and educational (look at what China's doing). All in all, this doc gave me a lot of hope, And indeed, let's all hug a tree. What kind of person doesn't love trees???

  16. ProudinUS

    They're using the Okchems Razor theory to explain their position on this one. Energy is 90% h20, and 10% carbon.

  17. User1

    Geezzz, I never thought being labeled as a "tree hunger" would be construed as being negative.