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Engineers Develop Roadmap To Get The US To Run on 100% Renewable Energy By 2050 | IFLScience

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Engineers Develop Roadmap To Get The US To

Run on 100% Renewable Energy By 2050

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Environment

June 10, 2015 | by Aamna Mohdin

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A new study suggests its entirely possible for the U.S. to run on 100% renewable energy in
just 35 years. The radical plan outlines what each state needs to do to achieve this
ambitiousgoal. Whats the main barrier to making this happen? Political willpower.
Mark Z. Jacobson, from Stanford University, and his research team outlined the changes in
infrastructure and energy consumption that each state hasto undergo to achieve this
transition to clean energy. Jacobson points out in astatementthat its technologically and
economically possible to successfully achieve this large scale transformation.
Researchers have even created aninteractive mapthatshowcases their plans.
The study, published in the journalEnergy and Environmental Science, first analyzed the
current energy demands of each state and then calculated how these demands are likely to
change over the next 35 years. They divided energy use into four sectors: residential,
commercial, industrial and transportation. For each sector, researchers analyzed the energy
consumption and looked at the source of this energy, seeing whether it was coal, oil, gas,
nuclear or renewables.
Researchers then calculated the demand for fuel if it was all replaced with electricity.While
running literally everything, including cars and home heating, on electricity seems like a
daunting task, researchers suggest there would be significant energy savings in using this
electric grid.
"When we did this across all 50 states, we saw a 39 percent reduction in total end-use
power demand by the year 2050," Jacobson said. "About 6 percentage points of that is
gained through efficiency improvements to infrastructure, but the bulk is the result of
replacing current sources and uses of combustion energy with electricity."

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Jacobson and his team looked carefully at how each state can power this electric grid. For
some states, solar was the clear answer, while wind power or geothermal energy makes
more sense for others. Overall, researchers looked at how wind, solar, geothermal,
hydroelectric, and even small amounts of tidal and wave, could contribute to the
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Using this information, researchers laid out a clear plan for each state to make an 80%
transition to renewable energy by 2030, and reach 100% by 2050. The transition is going to
be much more achievable for some states than others. Washington, for example, already
powers up 70% of electricity from existing hydroelectric sources, and both Iowa and South
Dakota generate 30% of their electricity from wind power.
Researchers admit that the initial cost for this transformation would be pretty high, but
suggest thatover timethe overall price would roughly equal the cost to the current fossil
fuel infrastructure.

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"When you account for the health and climate costs as well as the rising price of fossil
fuels wind, water and solar are half the cost of conventional systems," Jacobson said. "A
conversion of this scale would also create jobs, stabilize fuel prices, reduce pollution-related
health problems and eliminate emissions from the United States. There is very little
downside to a conversion, at least based on this science."
Read this next:China's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Peak Within 10 Years

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