Do people think you're starry-eyed and gullible about a renewable energy future?
Show them NREL's new report that finds cutting climate pollution from America’s electricity system by 80% – in line with what science says we need to do to avoid climate catastrophe – is completely within our capacity.
Rhys Roth, Director of Strategic Innovation
By Rhys Roth
Climate Solutions
You
ever talk with someone who thinks you’re starry-eyed and gullible because you
think a renewable energy future can work? I’ve got your answer.
Three remarkable things to note about the new the Renewable Electricity Futures
Study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:
1)
Cutting climate pollution from America’s
electricity system by 80%
– in line with what science says we need to do to
avoid climate catastrophe – is completely within our capacity. There has
never been a more comprehensive study than this of the challenges and
constraints involved in moving to a system powered by 80% renewable energy
resources by 2050. Including only technologies already commercially available,
nothing futuristic, NREL found a wide range of renewable resource mixes can get
us to 80% “while balancing supply and demand at the hourly level.”
2)
A renewable energy-powered future is –
surprise! – our secret weapon in the coming water wars. NREL found
the 80% renewables future cut water use in the power sector roughly in
half. According to the Union
of Concerned Scientists, power plants are consuming as much of our precious
– and increasingly scarce – fresh water as America’s farmers do to grow food,
and four times as much as all our homes put together.
3)
Building our 80% renewables future will
require a much bigger renewable energy workforce. While the U.S.
added 9 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity on average in 2009 and 2010, in
the study’s scenarios the rate climbs to 32-46 gigawatts per year by the
2040s. But NREL found, “No insurmountable long-term constraints to
renewable electricity technology manufacturing capacity, materials supply, or
labor availability.”
If
nothing else, sitting your skeptic friend down with this tome – Volume 1 weighs
in at 280 pages and there are four volumes
– will keep him or her busy for a
while. Meanwhile, the rest of us need to get busy advocating, promoting,
informing, and building a renewable future for our country and our kids.
