Is it physically and economically possible to run the entire world, including transportation, off renewable energy by 2030?
According to Stanford University civil and environmental engineering Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and University of California-Davis researcher Mark Delucchi, most of the technology needed already exists – it’s just a matter of planning, political will and of course – bucks.
Jacobson and Delucchi projected that if the world’s current mix of energy sources is maintained, global energy demand at any given moment in 2030 would be 16.9 terawatts, or 16.9 million megawatts.
But if no combustion of fossil fuel or biomass was used to generate energy, and just about everything was powered by electricity, the demand would be only 11.5 terawatts. That’s only two-thirds of the energy that would be needed if fossil fuels were still in the mix, due to fossil fuels being very inefficient in useful energy conversion – much of it is wasted as heat.
The energy saving would be the equivalent to eliminating the need for 13,000 new or existing coal plants.
But what about the balance that would need to be produced?
Analysing only on-land locations with a high potential for producing energy, the researchers discovered even if wind power were the only method of power production, its potential is 5 to 15 times greater than what is needed to power the entire world. For solar power, it could produce about 30 times the amount needed.
Between wind turbines and allowing for the required amount of space between them which could also be used for crops or grazing and various non-rooftop solar power installations; altogether about 1.3 percent of the Earth’s land surface would suffice for the vast majority of humanity’s projected power and transportation needs.
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