Introduction
The world is facing different issues over the recent decades, with the gravest ones being climate change and global warming. Various global or national-level organizations are creating policies and solutions meant to solve climate change and related problems and the greenhouse effect. Europe is one of the most proactive regions with plans to address global warming. The proposed project is meant to curb greenhouse emissions from households by utilizing solar panels as a source of sustainable energy.
Background
History
Greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities have resulted to increase in the temperature over the decades. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as cited in Sutton (2018), the temperature will rise from a range of 1.1 to 6.4 degree Celsius, and the sea level range will increase from 18 to 59 centimeters by 2030. This indicates that built environments will be submerged as the sea level rises, while desert areas will experience more social crises, which include shortage of water and massive immigration. IPCC further reveals that climate change results in extreme weather conditions and climate events that exhibit severe intensities affecting humans and wildlife. Moreover, climate change also results in some major events such as extreme winters, tornadoes, heat waves, floods, and wildfires. While various nations and regions have witnessed the adverse effects of climate change, the actions geared toward curbing the problem have not yielded the expected outcomes.
Problem
The recent policies made by different international organizations and global leaders have been ineffective to promote low-carbon production economies. For instance, various efforts have been made by different countries to reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. The policies have failed because they do not address specific areas of interest at present times. After all, the approaches used have addressed macro-level solutions viewed from a global view. Some of the simple solutions include using solar panels that can be installed at home and used to provide energy for various households. However, these solutions that can help an individual be part of the fight against climate change are expensive to acquire. For instance, many households cannot afford to purchase and install solar panels that can provide sufficient energy required in their homes. Consequently, they continue to use fossil fuels, which are becoming more expensive and are slowly being depleted. Some cut down trees and use wood charcoal for their home needs, thus contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. If these individuals are empowered, they can finance and own their solar panels over a few years, thus becoming integral part of solving climate problems.
Solution
The Paris Agreement was meant to provide solutions that could mitigate, help adapt, and finance various efforts that try to lower carbon emissions. The withdrawal of the U.S. from the agreement in 2017 sparked serious discussions on the crucial roles of governments and non-governmental organizations in addressing climate change (Urpelainen & Van de Graaf, 2018). Sir David Attenborough stated that people have a critical role in fighting the climate menace facing the world currently (Steel et al., 2022). The 2018 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) launched the Act Now bot. The bot was meant to help individuals and communities discover what they could do to fight climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gas emissions (Fitzmaurice & Jean, 2022). Consequently, social entrepreneurship can be a significant move towards involving people in the fight against adverse climatic events. In most cases, people lack the initial capital required to set up these systems, but once they are set, they can gradually pay and meet their running costs. Thus, the existing market opportunity is to provide solar systems that the users can pay for a few years and thereby own the products for a lifetime.
Proposal
The proposed solution will involve purchasing a 5kw solar system and installing them for free for different homes and people who will be convinced with the project. Those who accept will be required to pay for the electricity they consume for the next five years, afterwards, they will retain the system. The purchased systems will have a lifetime value of 20 years, which indicates that the homeowners will use the solar panels for 15 years or more for free. The five years proposed in this case will involve covering the cost of the systems and installation and one year of profitability. Consequently, this solution should be delivered because it will assist multiple people and communities to address their energy needs for the next two decades while helping them reduce their carbon emissions.
Vision and Goals
The project envisions a world where people will become actively involved in life-changing decisions regarding climate action. Their efforts will reach a point in which homes will become zero-carbon emitters. The project is to ensure that each home will have a lasting clean energy source, thus contributing to eradicating poverty, as a millennium development goal. Consequently, this will be a dual way to achieve climate action and to positively change the lives of the people in different parts of Europe and subsequent regions the project will cover. Thus, the specific vision of the project is “To make every home have clean free energy and zero greenhouse gas emitters by 2030.” The specific goals of the project include the following:
- To solve household energy needs by the end of 2024.
- To shift public notion to adopting alternative renewable energy such as the sun and wind by 2025.
- To provide free-use energy for households starting 2028.
Deliverables
The proposed project is meant to provide solar systems to different homes that will accept to use and pay for the energy they consume from the installed panels. To achieve this, the project shall mainly deliver a complete set of the system, which comprises solar panels, batteries, wires, energy consumption devices such as cookers, bulbs, alternators, and maintenance services. The project team shall ensure that the systems deliver the required energy for each home, running all the devices and needs, day and night for a lifetime of the systems. The users will not be expected to pay any costs associated with the installation, running, and maintenance of the services, but will only pay for the energy consumed.
Timeframe
The proposed project will be conducted in phases from the inception to the end. The initial part of the project will take six months, between March 2023 and September 2023, and will involve conducting in-depth research to help inform the areas and households that need the solution for the cost-associated energy consumption. This will help in understanding if the identified communities have energy issues and their perceptions regarding the possible solutions for the current global climate change crises. The second phase of the project will take three months and done between September October 2023 and January 2024 and will involve conducting a campaign to educate the people about their collective efforts in solving global warming and the need to adopt alternative sources of energy. They will also be informed about the proposed solution and how it can help them solve their costly energy consumption. The third phase from February onwards will involve purchasing and installing the systems ordered by different households. This phase will also provide a learning platform to understand the various challenges associated with the project implementation and implications for mass installations in the future.
Resources Needed
The proposed project will require different resources including personnel and solar systems. The personnel will comprise researchers and marketers and the project management team, who will ensure the smooth flow of the operations. The project will also require the services of various professionals such as attorneys and designers to ensure compliance with all local and regional laws regarding the installation of solar systems as an energy source. Consequently, the project will need an initial capital of 1 million dollars for the first 1000 households that have the system installed.
Conclusion
The proposed research is meant to address the currently existing problem of climate change and carbon emissions from households. While there is a need to reduce carbon emissions on a large scale, households also play a crucial role in this quest, hence if their non-renewable energy consumption can be replaced with clean renewable energy, this can help in achieving this global quest. However, since most of them cannot afford the initial cost of purchasing and installing solar systems, a social entrepreneurship approach can help address this problem by providing them with the system. The households can then pay lesser fees than they pay for the energies they currently use, for a period of five years, thereby owning the systems whose lifetime value is 20 years. This approach will solve become a dual approach for solving climate change and the cost of energy in the households and communities where the systems are installed.
References
Fitzmaurice, M., & Jean, T. (2022). ‘Climate justice’ as adaptation of the human (Doctoral dissertation, Durham University).
Steel, D., DesRoches, C. T., & Mintz-Woo, K. (2022). Climate change and the threat to civilization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(42), e2210525119. Web.
Sutton, R. T. (2018). ESD Ideas: a simple proposal to improve the contribution of IPCC WGI to the assessment and communication of climate change risks. Earth System Dynamics, 9(4), 1155-1158. Web.
Urpelainen, J., & Van de Graaf, T. (2018). United States non-cooperation and the Paris agreement. Climate Policy, 18(7), 839-851. Web.