Can renewables supply 100% of world's power by 2050?
A global low-carbon energy economy is not only feasible - it could
actually double electricity supply by 2050, while also reducing air and
water pollution, according to new research. These positive findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Edgar Hertwich and Thomas Gibon, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Energy and Process Engineering. Whole-life costs of key energy sources They and international research colleagues report that they have made - as far as they know - the first global life-cycle assessment of the economic and environmental costs of renewable and other clean sources of energy in a world that responds to the threat of climate change. Other studies have looked at the costs in terms of health, pollutant
emissions, land use change or the consumption of metals. The Norwegian
team set out to consider the lot. But they tried to consider the whole-life costs of solar power, wind power, hydropower and gas and coal generators that used carbon capture and storage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They took into account the demand for aluminium, copper, nickel and steel, metallurgical grade silicon, flat glass, zinc and clinker. They thought about the comparative costs of 'clean' and 'dirty' power generation. And they considered the impact of greenhouse gases, particulate
matter, toxicity in ecosystems, and the eutrophication- the overwhelming
blooms of plankton - of the rivers and lakes. Then they contemplated two scenarios: one in which global electricity production rose by 134% by 2050, with fossil fuels accounting for two-thirds of the total; and one in which electricity demand in 2050 rises by 13% less because energy use becomes more efficient. Continue reading at ENN affiliate, The Ecologist. Renewable energy collage image via Shutterstock. 2014©. Copyright Environmental News Network |