Time: 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, February 24th

Join us on: Zoom or YouTube Live

Speakers: Minghao Qiu, Brooks Clingman, Siyu Chen

Graphics: Jovana Andrejevic

In December 2020, Massachusetts published the 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap with the goal of combating climate change by reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. How will we reach these goals? This talk will present three tools that may lead the way: batteries, wind power, and new strategies for reducing road traffic. Renewable energy sources are very important and powerful, but the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind does not always blow. We can use batteries to store energy for rainy days, and this lecture will discuss a newer, possibly less expensive type of battery for this purpose. Next, we will highlight the more immediate benefits of the switch towards wind power, including improved air quality and human health well before 2050. However, generating and storing clean energy isn’t the whole solution — we also need to reduce energy waste! The cost of wasted fuel and time because of traffic congestion is about $100 billion per year, so we will also discuss potential strategies to reduce traffic by paying people not to travel.