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