Renewables, Batteries & Storage Videos Hacker News Recommends

talk#229

Václav Smil at Driva Climate Investment Meeting 2019

Nysnø Klimainvesteringer

“Here's a fascinating talk by Václav Smil at the Driva Climate Investment Meeting in 2019”

3 HN recommenders · 2019–2024

explainer#245

Why Heat Pumps are Immensely Important Right Now

Technology Connections

“If you want an (entertaining) deep dive into heat pumps, I can recommend Technology Connection's”

9 HN recommenders · 2022–2023

documentary#322

Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | A Film by Jeff Gibbs | Full Documentary

Michael Moore

“Strongly recommended.”

7 HN recommenders · 2020–2024

explainer#452

Ground Source / Geothermal Heat Pumps and Other Info

Technology Connections

“He made several excellent videos explaining residential heat pumps”

6 HN recommenders · 2021–2026

explainer#558

You are being misled about renewable energy technology.

Technology Connections

“Alec Watson’s recent, and excellent, Technology Connections YouTube piece on renewable energy.”

12 HN recommenders · 2026

documentary#602

Pulling Power from the Sky: The Story of Makani [Feature Film]

X, The Moonshot Factory

“There's a beautiful feature film about the story of Makani. It's a great watch with plenty of technical details”

6 HN recommenders · 2020–2025

explainer#720

Heat Pumps are Not Hard: Here's what it will take to start pumping

Technology Connections

“If you want an (entertaining) deep dive into heat pumps, I can recommend Technology Connection's”

5 HN recommenders · 2022–2023

explainer#725

Connecting Solar to the Grid is Harder Than You Think

Practical Engineering

“Just watch this Practical Engineering video [1], if you are not familiar with the topic.”

4 HN recommenders · 2024–2025

lecture#751

Why Vertical Farming Won't Save the Planet

Utah State University Extension

“he does give hard numbers to do the math that shows that vertical farming is not as good as its proponents have made it out to be”

4 HN recommenders · 2017–2025

talk#792

Energy Investments Dialogue | Bill Gates | Global Energy Forum

Stanford ENERGY

“which I highly recommend watching”

3 HN recommenders · 2019–2020

explainer#862

Are Electric Cars Worse For The Environment? Myth Busted

Engineering Explained

“This video crunches the numbers pretty thoroughly”

5 HN recommenders · 2018–2023

tutorial#939

Revolutionary Paint: How to Make Surfaces Stay Cool in the Sun

Tech Ingredients

“Great video about making home-made high reflectivity paint”

5 HN recommenders · 2023–2026

explainer#944

The Truth about Hydrogen

Real Engineering

“This video gives a good breakdown on how the inefficiencies in hydrogen fuel cell based cars add up.”

5 HN recommenders · 2018–2021

explainer#1013

World's Largest Batteries - (Pumped Storage)

Practical Engineering

“There's a good watch on pumped hydro, and how it is kinda sucky”

4 HN recommenders · 2020–2024

commentary#1019

EV Road Trips Suck Now (Except in a Tesla)

Aging Wheels

“Aging Wheels did an excellent video[1] on how frustrating the experience can be.”

4 HN recommenders · 2023–2026

explainer#1168

The Unfortunate Truth About Toyota's Hydrogen V8 Engine

Engineering Explained

“Here's a very factual explanation of why hydrogen internal combustion engines won't work”

3 HN recommenders · 2022–2024

lecture#1170

Turning Photons Into Food

Apogee Instruments Inc.

“an extremely deep dive into the exact scientific measurements at which certain plant markets become viable at certain energy prices you will find this half hour very well spent”

3 HN recommenders · 2020–2021

explainer#1217

The Problem with Solar Energy in Africa

Real Engineering

“A very good video from Real Engineering explains that no, not really”

4 HN recommenders · 2021–2024

talk#1231

Energy From Thorium: A Nuclear Waste Burning Liquid Salt Thorium Reactor

Google TechTalks

“If you don't know about the LFTR, check out this talk by Kirk Sorensen”

3 HN recommenders · 2009–2011

talk#1244

A reality check on renewables - David MacKay

TED-Ed

“I found this ted talk on the feasibility of various renewable energy sources quite eye opening”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2021

talk#1282

Why renewables can’t save the planet | Michael Shellenberger | TEDxDanubia

TEDx Talks

“it's what changed my mind and therefore in my opinion the best delivery of the argument I'm aware of.”

3 HN recommenders · 2019–2020

explainer#1319

Are Electric Planes Possible?

Real Engineering

“did a detailed analysis of the current operating limitations with electric planes”

4 HN recommenders · 2018–2024

explainer#1373

California's Renewable Energy Problem

Real Engineering

“Walks through the numbers on what it would take to run California on renewables + storage alone.”

4 HN recommenders · 2019–2022

talk#1388

Tesla Battery Day

Tesla

“for anyone even remotely interested in this space and this topic, I think it is an essential watch.”

3 HN recommenders · 2020–2021

lecture#1515

"Energy Revolution? More like a Crawl" - Dr. Vaclav Smil

Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design

“I really suggest watching this talk by Smil”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2022

demo#1575

Fun with ultracapacitors!!

Afrotechmods

“This video is a good demonstration”

3 HN recommenders · 2013–2020

talk#1579

Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air with David MacKay

Harvard University

“The author also gave a talk a few years ago that is very approachable[2].”

3 HN recommenders · 2015–2017

explainer#1602

A Complete Beginner's Guide to Electric Vehicles

Technology Connections

“I was particularly swayed by the technology connections video on this topic I watched before buying my first EV”

3 HN recommenders · 2022–2026

talk#1609

Clean Disruption - Why Energy & Transportation will be Obsolete by 2030 - Oslo, March 2016

Tony Seba

“the linked reference is a well argued version of the near future of transportation and energy. Highly recommended”

3 HN recommenders · 2016–2018

talk#1621

The Liquid Metal Battery: Innovation in stationary electricity storage

School of Convergence Science

“It's an hour long, but it's well worth the time investment.”

3 HN recommenders · 2019–2021

explainer#1622

The Future of Humanity's Energy No One Knows About | Terraform

S3 | Science, Startups, & Stories

“Excellent S3 piece on Terraform [20min]”

3 HN recommenders · 2024

documentary#1700

"This Machine Greens" - Bitcoin Documentary - Online Premiere

Swan Bitcoin

“This video also does a great job of addressing the "waste" by elaborating on "unforgable costliness”

5 HN recommenders · 2021–2022

documentary#1857

New Earthships capture more energy, water & food at lower cost

Kirsten Dirksen

“this fun video about a net zero desert house”

3 HN recommenders · 2020–2026

demo#1919

Vertical Bifacial Solar Panel Performance Results Part 1

Projects With Everyday Dave

“this person did a side by side experiment on their property with both angled and vertical bifacial with some interesting results.”

3 HN recommenders · 2024–2025

explainer#2219

Risking My Life To Settle A Physics Debate

Veritasium

“The visual that made it click for me was at 18:54 in the original video”

5 HN recommenders · 2021–2023

explainer#2579

Power Satellites & Space Based Solar Power

Isaac Arthur

“Issac Arthur usually has the best overview of topics like this”

2 HN recommenders · 2020–2024

explainer#2669

The Great Stranding: How Inaccurate Mainstream LCOE Estimates are Creating a Trillion-Dollar Bubble

RethinkX

“Eye-opening video”

2 HN recommenders · 2022–2025

demo#2827

Solar Powered Air Conditioner!

Tech Ingredients

“built a dessicant-based air conditioning system with enough info to DIY one.”

2 HN recommenders · 2021–2023

lecture#2856

Professor Jeff Dahn | WIN Seminar Series

Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology

“This lecture (1h, 13m) goes into it in detail, including how it can be prevented, ways of testing, and more”

2 HN recommenders · 2015–2017

tutorial#3034

Scavenging rechargeable lithium cells from the roadside

bigclivedotcom

“BigClive scavenging cells from vapes. (Basically where I got the idea from)”

2 HN recommenders · 2022–2024

explainer#3102

Why Teslas Are Bad At Towing (Today)

Engineering Explained

“Engineering Explained did a good video on EV towing”

2 HN recommenders · 2020–2024

explainer#3190

Hydrogen Will Not Save Us. Here's Why.

Sabine Hossenfelder

“Her point is that it is not a good choice for decarbonization”

2 HN recommenders · 2023

explainer#3431

What *Really* happens to used Electric Car Batteries? - (you might be surprised)

JerryRigEverything

“I'm actually really impressed with where recycling is today”

2 HN recommenders · 2023–2025

demo#3460

TOTAL teardown of a lithium phone battery.

bigclivedotcom

“Big Clive does a really amazing (and dangerous) tear down of what's inside a Lithium Ion cell”

1 HN recommenders · 2016–2024

explainer#3490

The LED's Challenge to High Pressure Sodium

Technology Connections

“Here's a quite good video about the pros and cons of LED vs high/low-pressure sodium street lamps”

2 HN recommenders · 2018–2021

talk#3584

Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power...

Google TechTalks

“it's an intense, fast-paced, insightful, and (likely) final public look into his mind, his work, and his character.”

1 HN recommenders · 2011–2022

explainer#3618

The Problem with Biofuels

Real Engineering

“But watch the video for the full story”

2 HN recommenders · 2021–2023

documentary#3629

Orkney 'Surf n Turf' | Fully Charged

Everything Electric CARS

“Orkney in particular has so much renewable energy that they're encouraging people to get EVs to soak up the excess”

1 HN recommenders · 2017–2020