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