Introduction

To properly introduce clean energy into the global grid, we must start small, insuring clean energy production is built with a scalable foundation, and to mitigate intermittency.

Creating a net zero carbon world and the removal of pollution and the methods that generate it has been a dream of the world for generations, many potential solutions have showed their faces but many remain unfeasible due to scale, regulations, and business. Simply getting a single government to accept a clean energy proposal is a miracle, but just one is not enough, to achieve a real change it needs to be worldwide.

Now many proposals have solutions to many problems that appear, but where I feel they go wrong, is on scale. Simply creating a worldwide movement to switch within a few years does not seem to be feasible, as utterly depressing as this is, it does not mean we stop. Even if its already to late to reverse its effects, the earth is still here and remains our home, and it will be our home for the future to come, escape is not a option. My solution was not made with being the solution but, as a base for the solution to be built upon.

I am purposing a modular energy grid system that functions on the personal level. My initial idea was a grid system that supported the non-consistent generation of clean energy, such as solar or wind, and evened out the production with a second generation method that remains consistent and functions on a larger scale, such as nucellar, or even water turbine generation.

By using a smaller scale personalized energy system with easily installable and cheaper systems such as solar and wind allows for ease of implementation, as the large scale power grids only would need to be switched fully to clean, which not ignoring the large cost of construction of such methods, the most recent construction cost of a nucellar powerplant being around 15 billion USD (The Plant Vogtle Unit 3). Although astronomical cost is bound to be a issue when purposing this to any sane government entity. This would be a issue regardless of solution as the need for the full switch would cost a incomprehensible amount.

Research

According to the World Bank Group and the International Finance Corporation, around 759 million people worldwide remain out of reach for clean energy production due to many different factors, 660 million being in Africa alone [1], mainly the lack of access to electricity in general. These Issues do not hold back plans from being developed; however, the same groups partnered with AMDA, the Canadian government, Global Infrastructure Facility, and the ESMAP to create plans that can allow for widespread adaptation of the scaling mini-Grid system, mainly around Africa. This system, on its own, is very promising and lays of a very workable system of expansion. Although the SMG is a more financially productive method of spreading clean energy, they do not change the overall goal of succeeding in a net-zero world.

In Australia, a study from MDPI showed that electric power systems are slowly becoming more decentralized, spreading production and use further, which are prime conditions for clean energy integration. MDPI’s study shows that the reason behind this is to achieve the “maximum possible cost effectiveness using the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs)”[3], and the results from the communities in Australia have been extremely positive. As More of the world looks for more cost-effective power sources, and more research is funneled into renewable energy, a natural shift to clean energy seems to be taking place within countries all over. While issues with the geological locations remain as one of the largest obsitacals its been reported by MDPI that those communities are more likely to adopt renewables on a personal grid, creating a community grid system much like the proposed SMG of the WBG. Furthermore, within this study, the authors developed a potential 100% RES system for Andros Island in the Bahamas, showing that even for a medium-sized island, a singular renewable energy system could sustain around 7,695 people (Number taken from Wikipedia), while being a realistic and cost-effective replacement to the current system.

Both of these sources have given much information on plans for the expansion of what they call RESs and SMGs, but for a more formal definition of what they really are, Green Mini-Grid explains it nicely. Both referenced options are considered Mini-Grids, that being a small-scale electric production system that both generates and store energy within an interconnected distribution network [2]. The reason they are so important and are a serious contender for worldwide adoption is that they can be operated by practically anyone, whereas larger, more widespread systems are typically run by governments directly or large corporations, and the freedom and loose definition that a mini-grid brings allows for a lot of freedom for differences in systems and regulations. Now, a micro-grid isn't only clean energy, but they are primarily run with green energy as a focus. Completely Green systems are defined as GMG, or Green Mini Grids, completely green systems. [2]

Arguments

The small scale storage and use allows for engineers to accurately find issues within the system, preventing shut down of large scale infostructure, and improving overall likelihood of a successful rollout.

The most common argument against this is that many countries already have enough geographic diversity to balance renewable energy fluctuations. This is absolutely correct, in countries such as Denmark, or Germany they already possess the necessary resources and gird system to introduce clean energy, which they have already done. Their approach to dealing with the switch is a great inspiration, and what most of my work here has been trying to achieve on a larger scale. But their systems are not perfect, the geographic diversity can reduce variability, it does not eliminate the need for storage and system control, on top of that the energy being produced is not 100% clean, and that difference between fully clean and almost clean is still significant. The small scale girds are able to fix these issues, allowing for a increase in overall control, storage, and use cases. Providing these small scale grids allow for controlled environments that deal with the issues automatically.

Transitioning to these proposed gris systems requires gigantic investments in every aspect. The projects that are purposed to be taken up on the large scale tend to stand out in this regard, sometimes costing billions if not trillions of dollars to properly introduce. Finding the policy makers to approve of these methods is even harder, with backing from private companies, and 'big oil' they often reject proposals to change power production to make it more difficult to find succuss.

This issue shaped how I approached finding a solution, if nothing large works, then make it smaller until it can be. By focusing on modularity and the potential to expand exponentially, these small energy systems hold no initial value to large corporations or governments. This is exactly what is intended of the system, to first gain approval and branch out gaining influence and recognition as the purposed system grows, so will its ability to generate not just revenue but potentially overtake the investors wallets, new technology often is a battlefield for investment companies to find the 'next big thing', and by using that to the advantage of growth can give almost total immunity of potential investment risks.

Critics argue that incremental transitions slow the progress of climate change, being to slow to make any necessary change in the current moment. To them I say its necessary for true success. The critics that argue this are correct in the fact that it would be slow, but that is required to make meaningful beyond our future, where we stand now change is heavily needed before the worlds climate becomes uncontrollable and our futures become uncertain. But what happens after that? Say our solutions is a quick fix, shut down all non-renewables and build a ton of new power generations methods, how do we control them on the same level as non-renewables? Nucellar power is a outlier, being consistent just expensive, clean, but not truly renewable. So our focus shifts to true renewables, but the issues with them are they are inconsistent with generation, fluctuations occur naturally based on the method, and controlling those methods is the goal of this solution. By creating a system that can store the energy on the correct localized scale, smoothing the renewable generation out with constant methods such as nucellar or geothermal allows for the same level of controllability. This can only be achieved by such a small scale approach, its not meant to take the place of our clean energy soliton, its purpose is to complement it by allowing for control and scalability, meaning that if earth faces such a crisis again, it can always expand, and be improved.

Soruces

[1] International Finance Corporation, Scaling Mini-Grid, Washington, DC, USA. [Online]. Available: https://www.ifc.org/en/what-we-do/sector-expertise/infrastructure/energy/scaling-mini-grid . Accessed: Mar. 8, 2026.

[2] African Development Bank, Introduction to Mini-Grids, Green Mini-Grid Developers Help Desk. [Online]. Available: https://greenminigrid.afdb.org/how-it-works/help-desk-developers-and-operators/introduction-mini-grids . Accessed: Mar. 8, 2026.

[3] M. Ghahramani, D. Habibi, S. Ghamari, H. Soleimani, and A. Aziz, “Renewable-Based Isolated Power Systems: A Review of Scalability, Reliability, and Uncertainty Modeling,” Clean Technologies, vol. 7, no. 3, art. 80, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/7/3/80

[4] A. S. Ali and S. Al Nsairat, “Sustainable Energy Challenges for Civil Engineering Management,” Energy and Environment Research, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 100–106, 2011. [Online]. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274874255_Sustainable_Energy_Challenges_for_Civil_Engineering_Management . Accessed: Mar. 8, 2026.

Reflection

When I first wrote my revised argumentative project, I put a much greater effort into the presentation of my work, but my work suffered from the research aspect, and I rushed it. After looking at the feedback given to me, I closely analyzed my sources, and after doing so, I felt very unsatisfied with where my research ended up. After taking a moment to reflect and think about how I explain the use of AI in the field, it felt unnatural to talk about in context to the sources I used within the other aspect of the website. So with this revision, I have completely re-done the research portion of the paper, more closely pulling direct quotes and statistics stated, along with introducing more information about each aspect of the project. After changing all of this information to something better suited for the website, I realized that a lot more of the sources report information about the success and adoption of clean energy systems than I initially thought. Much of the information reflects my views on the subject, and a lot of them have \some seriously great ideas for potential improvements to my proposed method of handling clean energy infrastructure, such as the SMG and RES systems.