Business and policymakers around the globe are waking up to the scope of the global warming crisis. With this crisis comes great opportunity: we currently have the technology and capital to support the transition to the next energy paradigm—the global implementation of 100-percent renewable energy.

To catalyze this shift, we propose a challenge along the lines of President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 “moonshot” challenge to land a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade. We offer a similarly ambitious and game-changing challenge: 100-percent carbon-free, nuclear-free electricity in California within 10 years.

Currently California relies heavily on a massive and delicate electricity grid that is outdated and vulnerable to natural disasters and terrorism. We propose an alternative system—one that uses as much efficiency and local power production as possible—to maximize reliability, resilience, and renewable energy.

This system is called a “microgrid,” and is currently operating at different scales across the country.

A microgrid is a small-scale electricity system with clearly defined geographic boundaries that includes power production and power use. Many experts agree that the energy system of the future should consist of interconnected microgrids.

One major challenge that is now holding back the adoption of 100-percent renewable energy is the intermittency of renewables. Microgrids with storage are a key technology that will help achieve this goal.

California can be the proving ground for the national, and global deployment of Community Microgrids. Our plan for an initial community-scale microgrid implementation in southern Santa Barbara County is called “Santa Barbara: Reliable, Resilient, 100% Renewable” or simply “SBR3”. Read more about this here.

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