Understanding the world · Environment & the future

The energy transition: what is still holding it back?

Solar has become the cheapest energy in history. Storing it is the hard part.

Toward carbon neutrality3 min read5 partsQuiz of 8 questions
Read in the app Available in 30 languages
Diego Delso · Paneles solares en Cariñena, España, 2015-01-08, DD 09-12 PAN · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction

For a long time humanity changed its energy source by choice, for efficiency: from wood to coal, then from coal to oil. Today's energy transition is different: for the first time it is imposed by a question of survival, climate change.

This course explores how the world is trying to replace fossil fuels with cleaner sources, and why that shift is as hard as it is necessary.

The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
  1. 21.5°C: the target that drives everything
  2. 3The spectacular fall in prices
  3. 4The new obstacles: storage and rare metals
  4. 5Toward a new energy mix
Open-book quiz8 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary12 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.