Catching the Sun

: The fucking Chevron refinery, you see the flames?

The Chevron refinery just blew up.

2: Once a-fucking-gain, once again.

: An important civil emergency message follows.

There is an emergency at Chevron Refinery.

Residents in Richmond are advised to shelter in place.

Go inside, close windows and doors,

turn off heaters, air conditioners and fans.

Stay off the telephone unless you have a life threatening emergency.

1: It is going down.

2: The refinery just blew up, dog.

3: Yeah, we gotta leave this shit.

4: The Chevron burnin'.

: A big fire at one of the country's largest oil refineries

shot giant clouds of thick smoke into the air in Richmond, California.

Fifteen thousand residents went to local hospitals complaining of health problems.

1: Follow the smoke.

2: It's chemicals from Chevron.

1: This is what happens when you live in Richmond.

: The city also claims the stigma from the Chevron fire

will affect property values and quality of life.

: Okay, you guys, let's do it.

I know, I know. I'm doing it, I'm doing it.

I'm just putting his green thing on.

Where's the pacifier?

Here you go, here you go.

-Do you remember? -Bye, love you.

Love you, too.

Hit your head? Did it hurt?

I don't see no blood.

You got extremely low income people.

You've got crime, violence...

a lot of economic desperation, you know.

You can't be in a neighborhood like this talking 'bout let's save the polar bears.

They're not, they're not gonna feel you.

: Right over there that's the refinery... belching out pollution.

The pollution based economy created a lot of haves and have nots.

If you've been in Richmond,

and you drive on that bridge over to Marin county,

it's mind blowing, like, "What is this?" You know?

They're hiding it just over the horizon.

There was organic food, solar panels,

an economy being built up around health, wellness and environment.

I said, "This is not just going to be good for the earth,

this is going to be investment opportunities, business opportunities, jobs..."

We could have a green economy strong enough

to lift people out of poverty.

And I said, "This is what I'm going to dedicate my life to."

-Hello. -Hi.

The question is who can ry the country for a green outcome for everybody?

Green For .

That's our job.

: That began this incredible coalition, Green For .

We tried to get the greenest solutions to the poorest people.

I said if we can have green jobs,

we can solve the economic problem, the ecological problem...

We said, "We need something concrete,

where people can actuy see

ordinary folks been trained to do extraordinary things."

We're litery in the shadow of the Chevron refinery.

And so you have the last century's pollution based economy,

and then you also have the next thing.

And Michele is the master of training people how to do this rk.

In Richmond, the only time you ever saw Richmond on the news

was t things,

somebody's bleeding or something's burning, right?

If the refinery has a fire, we get on the news.

And if somebody gets shot, we get on the news.

I t to create some good news in Richmond.

I figured that solar is one great antidote to pollution,

and jobs are a good antidote to violence.

And that's what inspired me to start Solar Richmond.

Green jobs are a possible solution for cities around the country

because we're creating job opportunities.

And at the same time, they're playing a part

in this global movement to clean up the planet.

This is a growth chart of the solar field.

So it's been growing at about 50% a year.

For me what that says is opportunity.

There's money in this field, right?

Since I've been laid off, that's I do is cook 'cause the wife expects it.

Right, honey?

She said "Okay."

I try to put the house in the best situation it can be

to keep the conflict down. I try to aid the conflict.

You know, I know she's going to be frustrated at times.

It's usuy at the end of the month, when the bills are due.

She's a great . She's been taking care of me.

And I think it's time for me to start taking care of her again.

So it uld be cool to get solar panels, huh?

Yeah.

: I rey uld like that. It'll bring the cost down 70 bucks a month.

With that 70 bucks we could go out maybe one more time

or t more times a month to dinner.

Or pay a bill.

Sorry.

Be practical.

: A couple of... Ten years maybe?

: No, more than that we've been together.

: Ten years... it's a long time,

but we dated longer than most people date.

Who knows why, we just did.

We're married for seven years?

No, we're married 11 years.

Eleven years right. So we've been together 13 before that,

so we've been together 24-25 years.

We're kinda like the old school, you know, you get married, you get married for life.

If you have problems you rk through 'em, that kind of thing.

Yeah, you try to rk through 'em.

We're still underwater.

We bought our house, and now it's rth

less than f of what we paid for it.

Foreclosure.

Where you see that at?

When it's foreclosed, they have those... usuy papers

on the door saying the bank takeover.

: Some of our other neighbors lost their home.

We had neighbors come to our door,

who were very upset but ted to let us know they'd be moving.

We're at the point ndering,"Okay,

who else is going to be going and will it be us?

Even though we're less than 5% of the rld's population,

we're using more than 27% of its energy.

Over f the electricity in the United States comes from coal.

Coal is the biggest source of carbon that goes into the atmosphere.

One hundred cars of coal

powers a fossil fuel burning power plant for one day.

One hour of sunlight hitting the earth

is equal to the energy

that every person on the planet consumes in a whole year.

There's no shortage of solar energy.

: We're one of the biggest residential solar companies in the country.

We have 280 employees directly.

We employ another 300 contractors around the country doing instations.

The cost of Solar has dropped precipitously

in the last five years by about 80%.

We're starting to get to a point

where clean energy will just compete without subsidies,

so as we swap out and rewire the rld,

we'll increasingly choose solar electricity because it is cheaper.

Globy, we'll be majority solar powered by 2030.

Who's going to lead that?

Who's going to benefit from that?

Where will those jobs be?

: In my village, there was no electricity.

In our house, we used kerosene and candles.

I was seven years old when electricity bring to our village.

Once they first see the electricity light,

people think this is magic.

In 2003, I started my own solar business.

For solar, there is great opportunity for growth in the market.

At Westech, we set up the researching and ufacture.

: When I started my business, I had only 15 people.

Now I have 15,000 rldwide.

We grow 50 percent every year.

Okay, thank you.

We see teamrk as one plus one equal eleven.

My daughter, she come to my office.

She said, "Hey Papa! You made a mistake!

My teacher told me one plus one is t."

I said, "Okay, one plus one is t is mathematics.

One plus one is 11 is. This is economics."

"Hello Elaine. Are you free now?"

Yes. Elaine. Yes. Are you free now?

My daughter, I will teach Green energy.

Once she grows up, I hope she joins my business.

A lot of people look at the clean tech relution

that's going on in the rld and they look at China and they say,

"Why is it that China has been able to pour of this money

and be able to deploy so quickly?"

It's actuy fear.

Energy security is national security.

If you have this much ded from people who t energy,

you have to be able to supply that amount of energy,

especiy for a country of 1.5 billion people.

If you don't have enough oil,

if you don't have enough coal or natural gas,

where we're going to end up is with riots on the street.

The only way to rey solve this problem,

and not to create conflicts down the road with other countries,

is renewable energy.

China is a step ahead in that the Chinese government believes

that the science of climate change is real.

They believe that climate change is caused by .

China is now the leading country in terms of

how fast they are implementing sustainable technology at rey large scale.

Today I believe that China now has industrial might.

It has more ufacturing capacity for wind energy

than any country in the rld.

It has more ufacturing capacity for solar energy

than any country in the rld.

Renewable energy is the largest wealth creation opportunity of the 21st century,

and the United States and China are in a huge battle

to be the largest economic power.

This rey is a race,

the first one to deploy the most solar technologies at scale, wins.

They get the most jobs,

they get the most billionaire entrepreneurs

and they become the most affordable place to do business.

A thin PV crystal is like a thin piece of glass.