Moving to Electric Everything is possible heres how.
[Music]
[Music]
this little fourth grader
is trying to do her homework
but it’s really hard to see
let alone learn when there’s only a
candle and the wind keeps catching the
flame
i work here
on the right you see
puerto rico in the middle is the
dominican republic and this is haiti
other than the glow of the capital it’s
hard to see the land from the sea
but there are seven million people
living there in that darkness
around the world a billion people rely
on flames for lighting
two billion people
are cooking with fuels like wood
charcoal
and dung
being in a room with a kerosene lamp is
the equivalent of smoking 40 cigarettes
a day
and cooking over a smoky flame
is even worse
of course women are most affected by
this and the soot from that smoke
is a powerful climate warmer
hundreds of times more powerful than
carbon dioxide
there are solutions to these problems
we turned on haiti’s first solar micro
grid in 2015. it delivers 24-hour
reliable affordable electricity to 2000
people in a rural town
some people claim
that we need fossil fuels
to solve energy poverty
but in our first year of operations our
grid was over 98 solar powered
it was either directly from the sun or
from the sun stored in batteries for use
at night
the other one and a half percent was
from a diesel generator but that was the
expensive and big hassle part so we’re
working on phasing that part out
behind these statistics of course
there are stories
this mother is holding up her son to
turn on electric light in their home for
the first time imagine that
and when we turned on that grid it
created local jobs it cleaned up the air
and it saved families and businesses a
lot of money
in 2015
the economist magazine sent a film crew
to this town of les anglais to highlight
the solar pioneers
they were solving energy access with
solar energy
in 2016
les anglais was again in the
international press
it was the town
where hurricane matthew made landfall in
haiti as a category 4 storm
a year and a half into our operations
we were hit with a 50-year storm
the happy highlight is that all of our
team and all of our customers lived
microgrids are supposed to be resilient
energy infrastructure
and technically they are
but what we learned from matthew is that
resilient energy systems are only as
resilient as the business systems behind
them
our physical system actually fared
pretty well
but it took me over a year to raise the
financing to build that grid back we did
it’s serving the town again powered up
and we’re about to turn on our second
grid just down the coast we’re also
working on our next 22 grids over the
next three years at this scale we’ll be
able to have the insurance packages and
the business systems that will enable us
to better weather those storms
when electricity arrives in a town for
the first time it’s a pivotal moment
and a lot can change
this is rosanne she’s the grid
ambassador in les anglais that means
she’s the face of electricity for her
town she’s also the first level of
customer service
when we turned on the grid in les
anglais
we got a customer call to the hotline a
man couldn’t turn on his
lights i was in town and i got to go
with rosanne on her first customer
service call
she got there she greeted the man she
assessed the situation
she pulled on the string attached to the
light
light flooded the room
the man hadn’t been pulling on the
string hard enough
it was a simple case but to that man it
was like wow this woman just invented
electricity
it was great and i like to think that
two things happened in that home right
then
one
that man got electricity for the first
time
and two he saw a woman from his
community
in a completely new light
this is part of what i like to call
feminist electrification
men and women are equal participants in
this power system
feminist electrification also means
women can grow their businesses with
electric machinery
it’s also the electrification of cooking
remember the health and climate impacts
of that smoky cooking that we saw before
not here
and we’re just getting started
of course how we get and use electricity
is not a haitian problem
it’s a human problem
i face a lot of obstacles in building
microgrids in rural haiti
but
i have the easy job
people in haiti are anxious to change
the status quo because the status quo is
darkness
here in the states
things are different
but in haiti just like here
we are on the cusp of an energy
transition of great consequence
and a lot of importance
to solve climate change we’re going to
stop we’re going to have to stop burning
gas
and burning oil
we’re going to have to plug things in
everything
that’s a big ask and it can feel quite
personal
speaking of disrupting the status quo
i had to convince my husband here in dc
to change out our gas cooktop
it was not easy
he really likes cooking with fire
and i get it fire’s cool but the more i
learned about natural gas the more i
knew that we needed to get off of it and
the more we learned about induction
cooking the more we started to think
this is just a better technology
and so sweet steven finally came around
and in a true act of love he led the
charge in swapping out our stove
we love it and we’re now officially an
all-electric home
for heating and air conditioning we have
these boxes on our walls we don’t have
any radiators or any vents
living in an all-electric home is
convenient and super comfortable
we kind of can’t imagine going back to
the old way
we’re all electric but we’re also
spending less on electricity than the
average home here my utility bill tells
me and of course we can do this because
we did a renovation and we really
prioritized efficiency and insulation
it’s not possible to electrify
everything overnight but if you see the
future as electric
you can start to plan for it
it was only 140 years ago
when thomas edison
turned on his first microgrid in
manhattan
back then it was revolutionary to
deliver electricity
to homes and businesses
people were switching from
gas lighting to newfangled electric
light bulbs
now electricity has come a long way
since then
but the job’s not done yet
as we electrify everything we’re going
to need to
move towards renewable energy
and although renewable energy is the
fastest growing kind of electricity
we’re really far away from getting of
all of our energy from clean sources
you guys know where we are right now
here in dc
we’re at five percent
in the country we’re at 17 in the world
none of these numbers are close to 100
guys
last year
global carbon emissions rose by two and
a half percent
we’re moving in the wrong
direction
but if we go to
a hundred we’re gonna have to first get
to more than half
and
as we move towards more than half
it’s something that each of us can do
right now
now
four states and the district of columbia
and puerto rico have all passed
resolutions saying that they will get to
100 renewables sometime between 2030
and 2050. now that is charting the right
direction but it is a really long time
from now and it is not everywhere
i think we could all be getting
most of us in this room could be getting
more than half of our electricity from
clean energy sources is anybody doing
this yet does anybody have solar in this
room
or are you part of a clean energy
program
yeah it’s hard to see well great i like
to think that people getting more than
half of their electricity from renewable
sources are part of a club
and it’s a really cool and diverse club
who’s in it well you guys with your
hands up and me too
i went on the internet i did some
research and i clicked on this button
and now i switched from my utility
standard offering five percent renewable
to 100 renewable energy
it is through my utility it’s through my
same bill it was super simple and now
it’s automatic and easy
latoya here in dc bought her home got
solar on her roof at no cost then she
bought an electric car and is teaching
her kids how electricity works in a very
real way
these farmers in maryland realized it
would be a good investment to go solar
so they did and they love it
there are a lot of ways to get to more
than half and you have to do a little
bit of research but there are a lot of
people who are anxious to help in haiti
just like here
clean local energy means
local jobs cleaner air
and lower bills
of course policy matters in dc
there’s a new program where low-income
families
can cut their electricity bills in half
with efficiency and with local solar now
if this city can do it others can too
we have air pollution days where my app
tells me to not take my baby outside
that’s disgusting
we’re downwind from the midwest coal
plants we have a lot of cars that burn
gas
it doesn’t have to be this way when we
zoom out
this more than half club looks even more
interesting it’s global and super
diverse
the thing about it is though that
none of it really matters unless most of
us join my actions need your actions
to matter
if this isn’t the beginning of a
movement to fundamentally change our
energy systems well then steven just
swapped out that stove for nothing and
we’re all doomed
but
if we do come together
we can shift our energy
not only to solve the climate crisis but
also to address our other biggest
challenges
health
opportunity
growth
security
when we participate in our power systems
we can change them
that’s switching to renewable energy
it’s also making sure our leaders are
with us on this
we can do this
so what do you say are you in
join us
thank you very much