The technology exists to "green" America's electricity grid to fight climate change — and together, the country's richest people have enough money to pay for it. In fact, they could even make a profit on the investment.

That's according to a 2019 research paper on solar energy led by Joshua Pearce, a professor of materials science and engineering at Michigan Technological University.

Burning coal, oil or gas to produce electricity creates a lot of carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change. Solar energy, meanwhile, is better for the environment and slows climate change. Replacing all carbon dioxide-generating fossil-fuel electricity with sustainable solar electricity in the U.S. would cost $1.59 trillion, a price that it would take just 79 of America's wealthiest billionaires to cover, according to Pearce's study.

Pearce, who heads Michigan Tech's Open Sustainability Technology Lab, says if a few dozen of the richest Americans (whom he identifies in his study) invested the $1.59 trillion, they could not only solve the problem but even make their money back and then some.

"With current solar technology, a remarkably small number of investors could effectively 'green' the U.S. electric grid," Pearce tells CNBC Make It. "The bottom line is: Solar costs have dropped so radically and wealth is now concentrated to such a degree, that only a few wealthy Americans could green the U.S. electric grid by making targeted investments in solar energy."

Each billionaire would, in Pearce's hypothetical calculation, invest all of their wealth except $1 billion, which they would keep to live on, Pearce says. Pearce's list of multibillionaires include a slew of technology inventors and executives such as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Michael Bloomberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jim Walton, Elon Musk, Laurene Powell Jobs, Ray Dalio and Eric Schmidt.

"To be clear, we analyzed the potential investment, not charity," Pearce says in a written statement from Michigan Tech.

The 79 billionaires would get a return on their investment because the electricity generated by the solar panels would be sold to a consumer or electricity reseller, Pearce tells CNBC Make It. "Sun shines, electricity is produced, buyer pays for it and the investors gets their money back with a handsome profit," Pearce tells CNBC Make It.

It's hard to predict when the investors would be paid back, though.

"It will be highly location dependent," Pearce tells CNBC Make It. "Here in Michigan it would vary between only a few years to about a dozen years for a payback period."