The powerful promise of Earth’s harshest places

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Lei Zhang |

TED Countdown Summit 2025

• June 2025

Clean energy visionary Lei Zhang loves the Gobi Desert — the most Mars-like place on Earth. Why? Because of the promise it holds to provide the free, abundant solar and wind energy to fuel humanity’s next leap forward. Sharing the story behind one of the world’s largest green hydrogen projects, Zhang shows how Earth’s harshest landscapes could unlock more energy reserves than the world consumes today, and encourages us all to get a little more creative in how we think about the future.