Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, say a new study proves low-cost solar energy can replace coal-fired power stations and supply up to a third of all energy needs in the American West by 2050 – providing targets under the Department of Energy’s SunShot initiative are achieved.
The UC Berkeley team mapped the West’s electric power grid using a computer model called SWITCH (Solar, Wind, Hydro and Conventional generators and Transmission). SWITCH was developed to study generation, transmission and storage options for the United States west of the Kansas/Colorado border along with northwest Mexico and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.
They found that a successful SunShot outcome – cutting the cost of generating solar energy to around $1 per watt, or about 6 cents per kilowatt hour; on par with fossil fuels – combined with carbon taxes or caps, would provide the region with over a third of its energy requirements and would remove the need for costly and ineffective carbon abatement measures such as sequestration.
The goal of the SWITCH model is to study the effects of the transition to a renewable energy-based electric grid employing more sources of intermittent power such as solar and wind as the nation moves towards a low-emission economy.
Study leader Dan Kammen, Distinguished Professor of Energy in UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, said solar power would alleviate the cost impost of CO2 reduction incentives such as carbon taxes, saving ratepayers 14 percent, or $20 billion, on their electricity bills annually by 2050.
“Given strategic long-term planning and research and policy support, the increase in electricity costs can be contained as we reduce emissions,” Kammen said. “Using such a comprehensive strategy could substantially reduce the actual consumer cost of meeting carbon emission targets.”
“Saving the planet may be possible at only a modest cost.”
