Can every U.S. State transition to 100 percent renewable energy in the next 35 years?
Some don't even seem to be trying. Others have set targets to do so. California, for one, plans to be 50 percent electrified by renewables by 2030. Hawaii is shooting for 100 percent of its electricity to be powered by renewable energy by 2045. But given the political and practical hurdles, a 2050 target for the nation sounds ambitious, even unrealistic, to some observers.
Yet a recent study by civil and environmental engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson shows how each of the 50 states has the technical means to reach that goal, for both their existing electricity needs and their fuel usage.
In a paper published in the online Energy and Environmental Sciences, Jacobson and his colleagues analyzed the current energy demands of each state by looking at usage in the residential, commercial, industrial and transportation sectors. They determined how much energy would be consumed if all fuel usage were replaced with electricity, and then calculated how to sufficiently power each state's grid using renewable energy currently available or attainable in that state. The sources included wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and tidal and wave. In every state, according to their analyses, it was possible.
"I feel optimistic about it," says Jacobson, '87, MS '88. "I think a lot will be done by 2050."
The benefits? Preventing roughly 63,000 early deaths related to air pollution annually in America, and saving trillions of dollars on fossil-fuel production by slashing greenhouse gases.
And why 2050? From an air pollution and climate change perspective, Jacobson said, the need to change our energy usage is immediate.
"The 2050 is basically just a drop-dead date," he says. "We really can't wait that long to solve this problem, not just in the U.S. but on a worldwide scale."
