6,600,000,000: that’s how many people live on earth today.
9,200,000,000: that’s the world population forecast for the year 2050.

The population increase will be primarily in the less developed nations. Not only is our population growing, but the demand for energy in the less developed world is growing at an unprecedented rate.

It’s clear that we live in an increasingly energy-hungry world. How do we meet this rising demand without inflicting permanent damage to the fragile environment that supports our life on earth? What energy resources are available, which ones should we invest in, and at what level?

At Smart Energy, we try to answer these questions through interviews with the world’s leading scientists, engineers and policy makers. We discuss new ideas and new technologies from wind, solar, tidal energy, and other renewables to fossil fuels to solutions for transport. Our aim is to present information in an unbiased way, focussing on data and research, not politics. We hope to help you sift through the sometimes conflicting and biased information found in traditional media.

About Margot

Margot Gerritsen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. Together with her colleagues and students, she works to develop computational tools to optimize the development of energy resources. She is active in large scale solar development, wind farm optimization, marine energy, as well as mitigation of the harmful environmental impacts of oil and gas production. Margot is an expert in energy resources, fluid dynamics and computational mathematics, and teaches courses in these areas. She regularly advises NGOs, VCs, policy makers and the energy industry.You can reach her at margot.gerritsen@stanford.edu

About Smart Energy’s Advisory Board

Smart Energy is very happy to have the support and advice of three wonderful people:

• Clay Hamilton, co-director and producer, Stanford University, CA
  

  Clay is an experienced producer, cameraman and graphics designer. He is responsible for all the professional editing, video work and design done on Smart Energy (and I am to blame for the non-professional elements!). Clay is very interested in disseminating scientific research to the general public.

• Thomas Harter, advisory board, UC Davis, CA
  

  Thomas is a professor in subsurface hydrology and specializes in groundwater pollution and management. He advises SE on water issues.

• John Dawson, advisory board, Palo Alto, CA
  

  John is a successful enterpreneur in Silicon Valley, and board member of several NGOs in the areas of energy and water.

Welcome to the show!