Stanford University researchers in a study calculated how to meet the new power demands of each of the 50 US member states with renewable energy alone
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Renewables: the United States moves towards 100% renewable energy. By 2050, the whole territory of the States can be powered only by alternative sources.
It is the hypothesis advanced by some researchers at Stanford University that in one study with the ambitious title "The solution project”They calculated how to meet the new power demands of each of the 50 US member states with the use of only renewable energies - wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric and small quantities of tides and waves - available for each state.
To understand how to do it explains, state by state, the same team of stars and stripes engineers developing a piano for this song for a real one green turn, economically sustainable and based on the use of already existing technologies, with a view to a single objective: to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions deriving from the abuse of fossil fuels.
The scholars thus analyzed the current consumption of each American state, including the energy mix, and the specificities of the individual territories. They examined thesun exposure, how many south-facing roofs and unshaded could accommodate solar panels and wind maps to determine where offshore wind turbines might be an option. They then established that geothermal is feasible at sustainable costs only in 13 states and that in general no new dams are needed for hydroelectricity but it is only useful to make those already built more efficient.
In short, a thorough and unique investigation of its kind that follows an onerous but not impossible aim: "by showing that it is technologically and economically possible, this study could reduce the barriers to a large scale transformation", says Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and project coordinator.
Thanks to the processing of that data, the researchers then created an interactive map of the US territory to offer a customized profile of each individual state, from the perfect energy mix to new jobs, from savings in health care costs to those on the bill, from the timing of the economic return on investments to avoidable air pollution deaths. The Eldorado in a map!
La green turning Made in the USA and the conversion to 100% of renewablesIn fact, according to the study, it would save 63 lives a year, create new jobs in every state and require no more than 0,5% of the land to be allocated to photovoltaic panels or wind turbines. Otherwise, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels would cost the world $ 3.300 trillion annually between now and 2050.
Unfortunately, these are pure hypotheses. The 100% renewable US is just a wish and not a concrete forecast. And there is still a long, long way to go.
Germana Carillo
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