While New York mulls over an approval for controversial gas fracking within the state, Cornell University, University of California-Davis and Stanford University researchers have come up with a plan that could see the state totally powered by renewables.
The study states that while the “Wind, Water, Sunlight” (WWS) approach may substantial capital costs, this would be more than offset over time through fuel cost elimination and reducing New York’s end-use power demand by about 37 percent; plus create manufacturing, installation and technology jobs as nearly all the state’s energy would be produced within the state.
If complete conversion to WWS occurs, the 2030 NYS (New York State) power demand for all purposes (just electricity) could be met by:
– 4020 onshore 5-MW wind turbines (providing 10% of NYS’s energy for all purposes)
– 12,770 off-shore 5-MW wind turbines (40%)
– 387 100-MW concentrated solar plants (10%)
– 828 50-MW solar-PV power plants (10%)
– 5 million 5-kW residential rooftop PV systems (6%)
– 500,000 100-kW commercial/government roof-top systems (12%)
– 36 100-MW geothermal plants (5%)
– 1,910 0.75-MW wave devices (0.5%)
– 2600 1-MW tidal turbines (1%)
– 7 1300-MW hydroelectric power plants (5.5% – most of these are already in place)
The WWS plan would see air pollution–related deaths decline by about 4,000 annually and savings of around $33 billion would be gained in related health costs every year.
“That savings alone would pay for the new power infrastructure needed within about 17 years, or about 10 years if annual electricity sales are accounted for,” states a related article on Stanford University’s web site.
In addition to hydro electricity (much of which is already in place), wind and solar farms; all vehicles would be battery-electric powered and/or use hydrogen fuel cells. Natural gas and oil based heating and cooling would be replaced by electric air conditioners, ground-source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, heat exchangers and backup electric resistance heaters. Hot water would be provided via air and ground-source heat pumps and traditional solar hot water systems.
The full plan examining the feasibility of converting New York State’s all-purpose energy infrastructure to one using wind, water, and sunlight can be viewed in full here (PDF).
