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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at be And.

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Speaker 2: Last month, I'm sorry to report we set a new

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Speaker 2: household record at the Tame's place. Blame the baby, the

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Speaker 2: extra washing, the old house, the cold weather, the dehumidifier

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Speaker 2: and whatever whatever else. But despite booking an hours of

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Speaker 2: free electricity across the month between the gas heating and

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Speaker 2: the electricity at our place, our family energy bill for

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Speaker 2: June twenty twenty five was the single highest bill it

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Speaker 2: has ever been, five hundred and forty dollars. There. Look,

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Speaker 2: I know that relative to lots of other families, we

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Speaker 2: have no reason to complain. We're pretty comfortable, right, But

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Speaker 2: even so five hundred and forty bucks? Are you serious?

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Speaker 2: That has to change? But while, of course there are

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Speaker 2: things that we as a family can do to improve,

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Speaker 2: I'm really aware that there are only so many gains

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Speaker 2: to be one from policing light switches and shower times.

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Speaker 2: I am seriously wondering about solar I read this amazing

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Speaker 2: article and this amazing set of stats in the New

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Speaker 2: Yorker magazine this week about the scale and development of

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Speaker 2: solar energy around the world. I've done that really insufferable

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Speaker 2: thing where I've sent the article to one thousand people

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Speaker 2: knowing that about two of them will actually read the article,

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Speaker 2: and I share these stats with you because they are amazing. Now,

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Speaker 2: it's mainly big picture stuff. Okay, so the kind of

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Speaker 2: big industrial solar farms rather than household solar. But a

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Speaker 2: couple of these numbers absolutely blew me away. So, first

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Speaker 2: of all, solar power is now growing faster than any

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Speaker 2: other power source in history. Globally, a gigawatts worth of

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Speaker 2: solar panels is being installed every fifteen hours on average,

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Speaker 2: which means that if you set a stop watch running

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Speaker 2: right now, okay, right this minute, you set to stop

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Speaker 2: watch going right now, new solar panels equal to the

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Speaker 2: entire electricity generation capacity of our country. So the entire

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Speaker 2: electricity generation capacity of New Zealand. New solar panels equivalent

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Speaker 2: to that will be installed and running by midnight on

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Speaker 2: Thursday night next week, exactly the same thing, the week

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Speaker 2: after that exactly the same, and the week after that,

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Speaker 2: and the week after that and the week after that.

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Speaker 2: Another fact, it took sixty eight years from the invention

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Speaker 2: of solar panels for the world to install the first

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Speaker 2: terra watt of solar generation capacity, So that was twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two. It took just two years to install the

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Speaker 2: second terra wat of generation, and it's going to take

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Speaker 2: a year to eighteen months to install the third by

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Speaker 2: next year. The International Energy Agency, which is not some

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Speaker 2: big woofy lefty greenee pocket mulching organization, the International Energy Agency,

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Speaker 2: says solar energy will generate more electricity than all of

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Speaker 2: the world's nuclear power plant it's combined. By twenty twenty nine,

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Speaker 2: solar will do more than hydro dams, by twenty thirty one,

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Speaker 2: more than gas, and by twenty thirty two more than coal. Globally,

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Speaker 2: we are generating a third more energy through wind and

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Speaker 2: solar than this time last year. It's crazy how fast

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Speaker 2: this is accelerating. And of course the Chinese are miles

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Speaker 2: ahead of everyone else on this, but even gas guzzling

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Speaker 2: America is changing incredibly quickly. And why, you might ask,

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Speaker 2: are we doing it because it's the right thing? Are

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Speaker 2: we doing it because it's the moral thing, the climate

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Speaker 2: conscious thing we're all thinking of Paris twenty fifty. No, no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 2: none of that. The huge surgeon solar is being driven

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Speaker 2: by economics. Put simply, solar power is way, way, way

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Speaker 2: cheaper than other forms of electricity generation, and between batteries

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Speaker 2: and solar panels, the technology is only getting better and

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Speaker 2: only getting cheaper. Ten years from now. As reported in

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Speaker 2: that article, the International Energy Agency says solar power will

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Speaker 2: become the world's main source of all energy, so not

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Speaker 2: just all electricity, all energy. Solar is going to be

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Speaker 2: number one. Now. Look, I'm not naive about sola's limitations.

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Speaker 2: I mean, few of us need reminding, especially given the

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Speaker 2: last couple of weeks, that there are times when the

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Speaker 2: sun doesn't shine so much, and right now, in the

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Speaker 2: depths of winter, when our family's energy bill is at

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Speaker 2: its highest, is the time of year when solar panels

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Speaker 2: on our rooftop would likely be generating the least electricity.

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Speaker 2: But if I just step back for a moment and

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Speaker 2: think about SOLA in the context of the whole year,

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Speaker 2: it makes increasing economic sense. In summer, I reckon I

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Speaker 2: could wipe off a massive chunk from our energy bill,

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Speaker 2: and whatever savings I make then can contribute to offsetting

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Speaker 2: the bills in the middle of winter. All I know,

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Speaker 2: or all I knew when I looked at My energy

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Speaker 2: bill this week is at five hundred and forty bucks.

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Speaker 2: The status quo isn't going to be sustainable for our family,

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Speaker 2: and rather than debating if we will go to solar,

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Speaker 2: the only question for us now is when.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks d B from nine am Saturday, or

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