What will it take to generate the electricity our society needs, without generating carbon emissions? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Climate), Dr. Magdalena Klemun at the MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to begin exploring this question, starting with wind and solar power. What exactly are wind and solar power? What challenges do we currently face when trying to use wind and solar to generate most of our electricity? What’s the role of energy storage, and what could our future zero-carbon energy mix look like?

TIL about wind and solar

Get smart quickly on climate change. This award-winning MIT podcast, Today I Learned: Climate, breaks down the science, technologies, and policies behind climate change, how it’s impacting us, and what our society can do about it. Each quick episode gives you the what, why, and how on climate change — from real scientists — to help us all make informed decisions for our future.

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Hydrogen gas acts like a fossil fuel, but with no carbon emissions. Is it the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? To prepare for some new listener questions about hydrogen energy, we're re-airing this season four episode in which Prof. Svetlana Ikonnikova of the Technical University of Munich explains how hydrogen works and its potential in the energy transition.

An introduction to hydrogen energy (re-air)

MIT Professor Michael Howland returns to the podcast to answer a listener's question about the risks of wind energy to birds—and explain how wind turbines compare to coal plants, power lines, office towers, housecats, and other threats to birdlife in the modern world.

Do wind turbines kill birds?

You might have heard how wind turbines failed in Texas during a terrible cold front in 2021. Does this mean we can’t rely on this clean, renewable source of energy when the weather turns extreme?

Do wind turbines freeze up in the cold?

Plants take in CO2 from the air to grow—and today’s atmosphere has about 50% more CO2 than it did before we started burning massive amounts of fossil fuels. So, is that great news for plants?

Won’t more CO2 help plants grow?

People all around the world write into our team with questions about climate change. So this season, we’re working with scientists and experts at MIT and beyond, to answer those questions in language we can all understand.

TIL about wind and solar

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