Can we offset climate change with solar lines
[Applause]
what if i told you
a nine-year-old could help stop climate
change
why would a nine-year-old care
well that nine-year-old was me and i
care because i love animals
my favorite animal is the north american
river otter
but i love all animals really i’m 11 now
but when i was nine i read this article
by the environmental protection agency
that said if the earth keeps getting
warmer
up to one-fourth of all plants and
animals
could be extinct within the next 100
years
that terrified me the climate
over the last 20 years has been heating
up faster than ever recorded in the
history
and we may only have as little as seven
years
to stop this current climate crisis
this is a worldwide problem that affects
everyone
one of the big reasons that this is
happening is because we use
too many sources of energy that are
harmful to the environment
like coal and petroleum and we may not
realize it
but every day we do many things that are
contributing to climate change
some big companies are doing their part
in helping solve this issue for example
microsoft pledged to be carbon negative
by 2030.
british petroleum wants to be net zero
by 2050 or sooner
in idaho power has become one of the
first publicly owned power company
energy companies to set a goal to reach
100 percent
clean energy which they plan to do by
2045
but in order to meet these ambitious
goals they’re going to need big
solutions
and even then we cannot depend on a few
people or companies to solve this
every individual every group every team
everyone needs to come together and
think of innovative solutions to this
climate crisis
i wanted to help i’ve always loved
creating and inventing
the first invention i came up with was
in second grade
i entered this competition called the
invention convention the invention
convention
is a competition where students identify
a problem
and come up with a solution through
creating an invention
that year i made it to the regional
competition
the next year i entered again and made
it to the state competition
and i won second place but
there’s this even bigger level than
national competition
and it was my dream to make it to that
so
when i was nine and learned about
climate change
i knew i wanted to do something to help
so i decided to do what i’ve been doing
for the past two years
create and invent and that’s when i
thought of solar lines
solar lines are power lines that are
flexible solar panels wrapped around
them
first i identified the problem climate
change
and then i thought about why this is
happening one of the big reasons that
this is happening
is because we use too many sources of
energy that are harmful to the
environment
so then i thought about sources of
energy that are clean
solar power is one of the cleanest and
most abundant renewable sources of
energy
some of the houses in my neighborhood
have solar panels on their roofs
but not very many do because they can be
expensive
and most people get their energy from
the power lines
power lines distribute a lot of energy
every day
but most of it is not from clean sources
i don’t have solar panels in my roof
either and it bothered me that i didn’t
have a way to access these clean
and renewable sources of energy
so then i thought what if we could make
power lines
distribute and generate these sources of
energy
so that me and lots of other people can
access clean energy
and then it came to me we need to
combine the two
solar power and power lines and that’s
how i thought of solar lines
most of the energy we use in the united
states is non-renewable
and of the limited renewable energy that
we do use
only one percent of it is solar power so
maybe wonder
if solar power is such a clean source of
energy
why do we use so little of it well i
think it’s because it’s not widely
available
if it were more accessible people would
use it
and since most people currently get
their energy from the power lines
solar lines would greatly increase the
amount of solar power
that people use all over the world by
combining the existing infrastructure of
power lines
with solar panels i had to do a lot of
research
and i came up with several variations of
my concept
for example i knew i wanted to combine
the generation of solar power
directly with the distribution so my
first thought was to attach standard
solar panels to the power lines
but through further research i became
aware of technology that allowed for
wrapping the solar panels
so then i decided to wrap flexible solar
panels around the power lines
some other modifications that i made
along the way were adding insulation
that would cool down the power lines so
the flexible solar panels can be wrapped
around
and a battery pack on the side that will
take in any extra energy on overly sunny
days
and distribute that energy on days that
are less sunny
there are over 3000 power companies in
the us
and over 5.5 million miles of power
lines
since power lines are already built once
you add the
flexible solar panels to them solar
power will be brought
right to people’s houses innovations
like solar lines
could help power companies and overall
energy users
meet their clean energy goals ultimately
helping stop climate change
after a lot of hard work and
determination
i did make it to the national invention
convention
and there i won the stanley black decker
sustainability award
it was very exciting and i’m really
proud of that award
but i know that big problems are going
to require lots of solutions
it is going to take many more
new ideas and adaptations of inventions
like mine
to solve the problems that my generation
is going to face
problems like climate change when it
comes to solving problems
no matter what age you are you can help
find the problem that you care about and
start brainstorming
for me it made me mad that something
that we were doing was harming the
environment
and it made me even more mad that we
weren’t doing enough to try and stop it
whether they are big ideas or small
ideas we are all going to need to do our
part
i came up with the solar lines concept
when i was nine
and i’m going to keep on creating and
inventing
if i can do it so can you no matter what
age you are whether you’re nine
or ninety i believe that we can solve
any problem
as long as we all care enough to try
nega
never give up and work together to come
up with solutions
so what will you do thank you