Energy

Iain Stewart investigates a new and controversial energy rush for the natural gas found deep underground. Getting it out of the ground involves hydraulic fracturing - or fracking. We travel to America to find to find out what it is, why it is a potential game changer and what we can learn from the US experience". Sometimes, this is right under the places people live in. He meets some of the people who have become rich from fracking as well as the communities worried about the risks. Director Jeff Wilkinson

The meteoric rise of renewable energy has consequences for our electricity supply. While coal and gas fired power stations can generate electricity whenever you need it, renewables are intermittent by nature. So we need a backup plan for when the wind stops or the sun goes down.
All over the world, engineers and scientists are racing to solve one key problem; how to safely and efficiently store electricity at a huge scale but at a low cost. The quest is producing some truly remarkable ideas and this episode details three of them.

We face one of the greatest challenges in the history of humanity, to eliminate the fuels that have driven progress and technology for over a century, while our thirst for energy only grows. The sun is the biggest source of energy in the solar system. It's like a nuclear reactor in the sky, and it provides endless power. If we can harvest just fractions of this, it can power all our consumption. Innovators are searching for new ways to capture more of the sun’s power, and make it available through the night, everywhere.

As tides rise and fall twice a day, vast amounts of water swirl around the earth. This is a huge energy source that's currently largely untapped. An estimated 3000 gigawatts are available to be harvested globally, enough to power a third of the earth's homes. Yet compared to wind and solar, the technology needed to harness tidal power is still in its infancy. The power of the ocean’s tides is the last great untapped energy source on Earth. From sub-sea kites to floating platforms, teams of engineers are racing to perfect the technology to harness the vast flows of water.