Reflecting during Climate Week 2019

Last August, 16 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg sat alone during her first school strike. On Friday, over 4 million people took to the streets in thousands of cities around the world striking for climate change. For over a decade, people have come together in New York for Climate Week and the UN Climate Action Summit. Thanks to Greta’s leadership and vision, leaders in government and business may finally be starting to listen.

At Sunrun, we’re excited and inspired by this energy and the efforts to bring awareness to protect the only home we have. I’ve spoken at length about the urgency to decarbonize, while also providing a clear, actionable path to get there. We have a long way to go, but, I believe we can get there by harnessing the energy we’re seeing this week in New York.

As Greta Thunberg’s leadership shows, the only way we can help push our planet in the right direction is by getting involved. Talk to your friends, your neighbors, your family, or anyone who will listen about why our energy transformation is so important. To make sure you’ve got all the information you need in your own advocacy, here’s a “Top 10” list of stats about the current state of energy, and how it impacts our country and our planet.

1. Dirty fuels disproportionately impact communities of color: Approximately 68% of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, and a report by the Clean Air Task Force found that close to 2 million Latinos live within a half-mile of energy infrastructure that emits harmful pollutants. Because of this proximity, an African American or Latino child is twice as likely to die from an asthma attack as a white child.
2. Peaker plants are expensive and inefficient: Many natural gas plants were built to run only a few hours or weeks a year to meet peak energy demand when the grid is strained. The cost of these mostly idle power plants is passed directly to consumers. Because of that inefficiency, an average home battery can meet peak energy demand at a lower cost, potentially as much as half the cost for peakers that only run 5% of the time.
3. The United States is polluting: The U.S. is responsible for emitting 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 1.6 million tons of sulfur dioxide, and 1.5 million tons of nitrogen oxide annually.
4. Our outdated energy grid will need billions of dollars to upgrade: More than 70% of America’s transmission lines and large power transformers are at least 25 years old. The Edison Electric Institute estimates that utilities need to spend as much as $2 trillion on energy infrastructure between 2010 and 2030. Yet with demand for electricity remaining relatively flat since 2010, the same amount of power ends up costing more – meaning painful monthly cost increases to everybody who pays a power bill, especially low-income households.
5. Some communities are leading the way: Simply by continuing to grow its solar installations at current rates and adding batteries, the LA Department of Water and Power can have 850 MW of solar and 1,100 MWh of storage from homes by 2029. This increase in solar installations would deliver peak generating capacity equivalent to one of the three major gas plants LADWP will be retiring.
6. People want clean energy: An Edison Electric Institute study found that 74% of the public thinks we should be using renewables “as much as possible,” and 70% believe all electricity should come from renewables like wind or solar in the near future.
7. Clean energy can save lives: Overall, reductions in pollution from clean energy prevented 7,000 lost lives and saved $56 billion dollars in healthcare costs from 2007- 2015.
8. The solar industry creates jobs: According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the solar installer will be the fastest-growing job in America over the next decade. According to the Solar Foundation, as of 2017, more than 250,000 Americans are working in solar, a 168% increase since 2010 - and in just the last five years, solar employment grew nine times faster than the overall U.S. economy.
9. Solar energy can be cheaper: A study by the Rocky Mountain Institute shows that under dynamic rates available today, customers can use technologies like batteries to reduce their bills by up to 40%. If policymakers worked to expand access to these rates, thereby better matching energy supply with energy demand, they could actually cut energy system costs by another 10-15%.
10. And there’s still so much room to grow: Solar energy generated just 2% of U.S. electricity in recent years; home solar alone could meet 40% of total U.S. electricity demand.

These facts show the importance of creating a healthier planet run on clean energy. We don't need to wait for Climate Week 2020 or the next global event on climate change to act on ideas. We can be leaders now by taking positive action that will make us all better off for years to come.

Power Forward, 

Lynn Jurich