Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. 20. July 2016
Manuel is a traditional salt miner, braking loose flakes of salt with his chisel. He is worried about how lithium mining operations will affect the area. According to Bolivian law, the local community is entitled to a 15% cut of lithium revenues. Since 2016 local communities have not received anything.
What will Salar de Uyuni look like in 5 years time?
And what can 'the white gold' ultimately bring Bolivia?

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. 29. March 2017
Salt miners from a Tavua village are loading their truck with salt.
Local people living around Salar de Uyuni will get the most effected by the lithium mining in the area which is using most of their fresh water.
What will happen to these communities as countries all over the world are shifting from petrol cars to EVs?

Harbin, China. 23. December 2017
An aerial view of the polluted city of Harbin in North Eastern China. Not unlike many other Chinese cities they are ravaged by air pollution. 200 million cars jostle the Chinese roads, creating great health hazards, in addition to the climate impact.

Heihe, China. 23. December 2017
Taking the future for a test spin in one of the coldest regions on earth. This is the site of winter testing for a number electric-car manufacturers, like this prototype of Chinese Slovenian joint venture APG Elaphe.

Bergen, Norway. 15. October 2018
Oil rich Norway is in the midst of a turnaround, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50 % by 2030. A part of this the electrification of all public and private transport. Here at a dinner at the Zero CO2 Maritime conference in Bergen where new laws and legislations are being made to pave the way for electrification of all ferries in this country of fjords.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. 26. July 2016
The boom of battery driven devices is causing the market for its core component lithium to soar, creating a modern-day gold rush with geo-strategic consequences. Boliva’s salt deserts are rich on Lithium. Brine is pumped into large evaporation pools where it is left to evaporate for months.

Hellisheiði geothermal power plant, Ölfus, Iceland. 29. July 2019
Clouds of steam coming out of Hellisheiði geothermal power plant, one of the largest in the world. It is also world’s first negative emissions power plant turning carbon dioxide into rocks and pumping it deep below the surface (joint venture with Climeworks). 
99% Iceland’s electricity derives from renewable hydroelectric and geothermal sources.

Open Hydro, Orkney Islands, UK. 12 September 2019
The Orkney Islands are geographically and meteorologically unique. Their location at the meeting point of the Atlantic ocean and the North Sea leaves the islands exposed to incessant heavy winds and waves and exceptionally strong currents and tides.
Abandoned test site for tidal energy at the Fall of Warness off the island of Eday. The open centred turbine was installed in 2006 and was the first tidal turbine to deliver electricity UK’s national grid.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. 20. July 2016
Vehicle tracks scar the salt flats claimed to contain the world's largest lithium reserves, the key component to fuel the 21st century.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. 25. July 2016
A room full of lithium carbonate, or “desert gold,” as workers at Planta Llipi refer to it. The plant refines brine into lithium carbonate.

Havøysund, Norway. 17. March 2019
The electricity grid of oil exporter Norway is filled solely by renewable energy sources. Hydropower topping the list, wind is number two and growing at a rapid rate, with expansive projects all over the country.

Desjará Dam, Iceland. 03. August 2019
The Dam is a part of the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant – the largest power plant in Iceland. The damming of the rivers Jökulsá á Dal and Jökulsá í Fljótsdal has been the subject of frequent protests by environmentalists. The area is one of the largest unspoiled wilderness areas in Europe covering about 1,000 square kilometres. The rivers running into these reservoirs flow from Vatnajökull, one of Europe's largest glaciers.

Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, South France. 07. October 2020
At the ITER project, 35 nations are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic thermo nuclear fusion device, designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun.
Here looking down to the centre of the pit in the lower cylinder of the Cryostat.

Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, Tonopah, Nevada USA. 10 May 2018
17.500 mirrors reflect sunlight onto a 160 meters tall tower filled with molten salt. The heated salt in turn flows to a water tank, producing steam, and finally electricity. It is one of the first of this type of CSPs (Concentrated Solar Power Plant). It is not yet fully operational, but when it starts fully running, it will produce 110 megawatts of electricity and have 1.1 gigawatt-hours of energy storage.

Klemetsrud, Oslo, Norway. 25. March 2019
Fortum Varme heating and incineration plant on the outskirts of Oslo is the source of approximately twenty percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (400.000 tons) produced by the Norwegian capital. The plant runs a pilot project aiming to capture and store carbon dioxide. The technology itself is becoming increasingly widespread, yet it has thus far – due to high costs and unreliability – been regarded with a fair amount of skepticism.

Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, South France. 07. October 2020
ITER will produce fusion energy ten times hotter than the sun. The heat is contained by two layers of magnetic coils made of niobium-tin and niobium-titanium. These are the only ITER components manufactured on-site. With diameters between 17 and 24 meters, they are too large to be built elsewhere and transported.
That silver structure is a cryogenic chamber that will stress-test the coils.

Linyi County, China. 19. December 2017
There are more than 200 electric-vehicle manufacturers in China. ZD is one of the first to penetrate the heavily regulated European market. Working with their Italian business partners who also designed the vehicles, they run a car sharing service. 
One of their three EV production line at Linyi county.

Bergen, Norway. 16. October 2018
In a country surrounded by sea and with a strong maritime tradition, the rise of electric vehicles is being closely followed by the development of fully electric boats: ferries, passengers ships, fishing vessels and service boats. It will be impossible to enter a Norwegian fjord with a fossil fuel driven vessel after 2026.
Horgefjord, is one of the first all electric ferries, here on its maiden journey.

Hinwill, Switzertland. 25. July 2019
The startup company Climeworks has placed turbines on the roof of an incineration plant, sucking up CO2 directly from the air. Right next to the incineration plant, lies a complex of green-houses that uses their captured CO2 for the boosting if production of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and egg-plants.

Strem, Austria. 06. February 2020
The remote location and high costs of power supply drove the community to experiment with alternative energy sources. Here is a plant producing biogas from various organic substrates and waste. The biogas containing a high percentage of methane is then fed into generators producing electricity and heat for the citizens of Strem.