What would it take to switch the country’s entire energy
infrastructure to renewables like wind and solar by 2030?
According to National Geographic, about 4 million massive
wind turbines, 90,000 solar plants and a four-fold increase in
production of a rare earth metal that is a major component of key
renewable energy technologies.
The magazine
outlined the findings of new research on the question of
transitioning to an all-renewable energy economy by 2030 as part of
its
energy policy series.
Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobson, professors at the University of
California-Davis and Stanford University, have developed a roadmap
of sorts for moving away from coal and oil.
The roadmap is largely theoretical; lawmakers are struggling to pass
legislation that would require 20 percent of the country’s
electricity to come from renewable sources, and efforts to pass a
broad climate bill have collapsed. But the team’s research has
provided one of the first pictures of exactly what it might take to
rely fully on renewable energy.
Despite the hurdles, they say it’s possible. "Technically you can do
it. It really depends on will power,” Jacobson told National
Geographic.
But "will power," as Jacobson put it, may prove tricky to find this
year. The report comes as Congress is struggling to address a
variety of important energy issues and the renewable industry says
it is struggling to grow without consistent policies.
At the same time, U.S. lawmakers are growing increasingly worried
about the role China is playing in clean-energy technology. The
issue is expected to be a
major topic of discussion during Chinese President Hu
Jintao’s visit to the White House this week.
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