100% renewable energy for US: Fact or fantasy?

ILSR

What would it take to power the entire U.S. economy on renewable resources alone?

Three big things:

1. Only build wind, solar, or hydro power plants after 2020
2. Reduce energy use compared to business as usual by 40%
3. Electrify everything

It’s the last that may be the most complicated, since it means a complete overhaul of way we do everything from heating homes to moving people. Mark Jacobson, author of a seminal study on the transformation, doesn’t mince words about its complexity:

The recommendations — indeed, all 28 — would require coordinated action from Congress, federal agencies, state legislatures, and local officials. Together, they represent an unprecedented level of government activism, a skein of incentives, mandates, standards, and laws unmatched in U.S. history.

This timeline illustrates the challenge of electrification:

Want the whole story in short? I gave this summary presentation of the challenge to a group of clean energy allies in late August 2015.  100% renewable in 15 slides.