The world is racing to shift how it makes electricity, away from burning fossil fuels and towards energy drawn from the sun, the wind and moving water. This episode explains how the main renewable technologies actually work — and the real engineering challenge they still face.

You’ll come away understanding how solar panels and wind turbines turn nature into electricity, why hydro is the quiet giant of renewables, what “intermittency” means, and why energy storage is the key that unlocks the whole transition.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: International Energy Agency – “Renewables” reports; CSIRO – “Renewable energy”; David MacKay, Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air.