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Beyond Fossil Fuels

Every day Ipsun Solar is involved in the battle against fossil fuels, trying to make its contribution to global issues such as climate change, natural resources exploitation and environmental global injustice.

Electrification is a key related concept and it seems to be the direction to take in order to meet the new goals. By the comparison between 1950 and 2018 what emerges is that the use of electricity increased, but at the same it is clear that we need to speed up the changes.

In 2018 the 46% of the total energy consumed by an average home was by electric sources, while in 1950 it was just 6%. In the industrial field the percentages change sector by sector. In 2018, 12% of the total energy was electric energy, while in 1950 it was just 3%.

CSIS panel on Electrification pathways to 2050

Friday, November 8, the CSIS, Center for Strategic International Studies, hosted the event “Electrification Pathway to 2050”. Experts with scientific backgrounds presented the outcomes of their research.

The key point is the importance of the reduction of CO2 emissions. In the range of 45 years, since 2005 to 2050, the goal for U.S. is to reduce Carbon Dioxide by 5 Gigatons. “It is not a forecast, it is an outcome of energy system modeling” says Arshad Mansoor, Senior Vice President Research and Development of EPRI, Electric Power Research Institute.

In the 2005 U.S. emissions were equal to 6 Gigatons. Currently, those have dropped to 5 Gigatons. Mansoor says it is plausible that reliably and affordably we can reach 4 Gigatons in 2030 and 1 Gt in 2050.

How to do that?

First of all, to undertake more significant steps toward this direction we need to continue to do energy efficiency. Replacing your gasoline car with an electric vehicle could be an example of an energy efficient product. Any energy efficiency process need to be fuel neutral. However, technology progress will help for sure, but we need a parallel support through commitment from industries, organizations, customers of electric utilities and state with its policy makers, about both federal and local laws.

Furthermore we need to continue to clean our electric sector. A cleaner electric sector implies definitely more wind, more solar, and also carbon free nuclear sources.

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G20 Decarbonization

The other ingredient to get to 4 Gigaton in the 2030 is electrification. According to Mansoor’s studies, an economically feasible electrification process requires that by 2030, 20% of the vehicles in the U.S. would be electric. It means that 4 out of 10 new cars will be electric.

The last piece of the puzzle, pointed out by Mansoor, is Low-carbon Resources. The Low-carbon resources are new energy carriers created in a clean way. Renewable sources, such as hydrogen, biogas or biofuel, will play a big role in the process.

Modernizing the grid, accelerating Electric Vehicle Adoption, making the charging infrastructures ready, expanding Low-Carbon R&D… and the list goes on.

The pathway is still long but nowadays we have the right cards to play the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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