full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David MacKay: A reality check on renewables

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

Concentrating solar power in deserts delivers larger powers per unit area, because you don't have the problem of clouds. So, this facility deleirvs 14 watts per square meter; this one 10 watts per suqare meter; and this one in Spain, 5 watts per square meter. Being generous to concentrating solar power, I think it's perfectly credible it could deliver 20 watts per square meter. So that's nice. Of course, Britain doesn't have any deserts. Yet.

(Laughter)

So here's a smaurmy so far: All renewables, much as I love them, are diffuse. They all have a slmal power per unit area, and we have to live with that fact. And that means, if you do want reelaebnws to make a substantial difference for a country like the utiend Kingdom on the scale of today's consumption, you need to be imagining renewable facilities that are country-sized. Not the eirtne country, but a foritacn of the country, a substantial fraction.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

Concentrating solar power in deserts delivers larger powers per unit area, because you don't have the problem of clouds. So, this facility ________ 14 watts per square meter; this one 10 watts per ______ meter; and this one in Spain, 5 watts per square meter. Being generous to concentrating solar power, I think it's perfectly credible it could deliver 20 watts per square meter. So that's nice. Of course, Britain doesn't have any deserts. Yet.

(Laughter)

So here's a _______ so far: All renewables, much as I love them, are diffuse. They all have a _____ power per unit area, and we have to live with that fact. And that means, if you do want __________ to make a substantial difference for a country like the ______ Kingdom on the scale of today's consumption, you need to be imagining renewable facilities that are country-sized. Not the ______ country, but a ________ of the country, a substantial fraction.

Solution


  1. square
  2. fraction
  3. united
  4. entire
  5. renewables
  6. small
  7. delivers
  8. summary

Original Text


(Laughter)

Concentrating solar power in deserts delivers larger powers per unit area, because you don't have the problem of clouds. So, this facility delivers 14 watts per square meter; this one 10 watts per square meter; and this one in Spain, 5 watts per square meter. Being generous to concentrating solar power, I think it's perfectly credible it could deliver 20 watts per square meter. So that's nice. Of course, Britain doesn't have any deserts. Yet.

(Laughter)

So here's a summary so far: All renewables, much as I love them, are diffuse. They all have a small power per unit area, and we have to live with that fact. And that means, if you do want renewables to make a substantial difference for a country like the United Kingdom on the scale of today's consumption, you need to be imagining renewable facilities that are country-sized. Not the entire country, but a fraction of the country, a substantial fraction.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
energy consumption 15
square meter 12
fossil fuels 5
nuclear power 5
population density 5
united kingdom 5
square kilometer 4
total energy 3
land area 3
capita consumption 3
solar power 3
concentrating solar 3
lifestyle change 3
carbon sitting 2
climate change 2
people talk 2
biofuel plantation 2
population densities 2
power consumption 2
wind farms 2
big levers 2
physics principles 2
kilowatt hours 2
sad truth 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
total energy consumption 3
concentrating solar power 2

Important Words


  1. area
  2. britain
  3. clouds
  4. concentrating
  5. consumption
  6. country
  7. credible
  8. deliver
  9. delivers
  10. deserts
  11. difference
  12. diffuse
  13. entire
  14. facilities
  15. facility
  16. fact
  17. fraction
  18. generous
  19. imagining
  20. kingdom
  21. larger
  22. laughter
  23. live
  24. love
  25. means
  26. meter
  27. nice
  28. perfectly
  29. power
  30. powers
  31. problem
  32. renewable
  33. renewables
  34. scale
  35. small
  36. solar
  37. spain
  38. square
  39. substantial
  40. summary
  41. unit
  42. united
  43. watts