This 2011 article in the Energy Policy journal by Mark. A. Delucchi and Mark Z. Jacobson proposes that that a 100% renewable-energy world (wind, water and solar power) is feasible and that the cost of energy would be similar to the cost today.
Jacobson has followed up on this work with a 50-state strategy to convert the U.S. to 100% wind, water and solar power by 2050. I will put information on that in the next post.
Meanwhile, this 21-page PDF document is part 2 of 2 parts, and focuses on "reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies." It is in a dense, scholarly style, but a useful reference. I haven't worried much about finding Part1, because this part is the one that deals with the most important barriers to renewables-- the issues of reliability, storage, dispatchability and such. Here is the title and the abstract, followed by the link:
Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II:
Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies
Mark A. Delucchi,
Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Mark Z. Jacobson
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4020, USA
Article history:
Received 3 September 2010
Accepted 22 November 2010
abstract
This is Part II of two papers evaluating the feasibility of
providing all energy for all purposes (electric power, transportation, and
heating/cooling), everywhere in the world, from wind, water, and the sun (WWS).
In Part I, we described the prominent renewable energy plans that have been
proposed and discussed the characteristics of WWS energy systems, the global
demand for and availability of WWS energy, quantities and areas required for
WWS infrastructure, and supplies of critical materials. Here, we discuss
methods of addressing the variability of WWS energy to ensure that power supply
reliably matches demand (including interconnecting geographically dispersed
resources, using hydroelectricity, using demand-response management, storing
electric power on site, over-sizing peak generation capacity and producing
hydrogen with the excess, storing electric power in vehicle batteries, and forecasting
weather to project energy supplies), the economics of WWS generation and
transmission, the economics of WWS use in transportation, and policy measures
needed to enhance the viability of a WWS system. We find that the cost of
energy in a 100% WWS will be similar to the cost today. We conclude that
barriers to a 100% conversion to WWS power worldwide are primarily social and
political, not technological or even economic.
Here is the link:
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