News
- 28.01.2011
Energy: only 100% renewable. It can be done by 2030
MILANO - In 2030 the energy produced from fossil fuels or nuclear plants will be a thing of the past. Pure utopia? Maybe. Wishing you could do, it's just a matter of economic policy. , According to a study by Mark Delucchi (University of California Davis) and Mark Jacobson (Stanford University) published in January on the journal Energy Policy. The investment would be significant because you should install 4 million wind turbines of 5 megawatts, 90 000 of 300 megawatt solar power (both photovoltaic and concentrating) and 1.7 billion kilowatt solar photovoltaic panels from 3 (basically every house in the world should have its own implanted on the roof).MIX - To complete the mix that would lead to 100% renewable, explain Delucchi and Jacobson, the overall amount of energy produced should include 4% of hydropower (not much more than the current rate) and 6% overall and from geothermal energy derived from waves and tides. A key point, however, is energy efficiency, ie low fuel consumption and cut waste. Among the renewable sources the American study deliberately ignores the energy derived from biomass and from the atom, instead contributing respectively 10% and 6% of global energy produced today.
SMART GRID - Delucchi and Jacobson in their study have obviously taken into account the availability of resources for the construction of solar panels, for example the so-called rare earths. A key point however is the creation of an electricity "smart" (smart grid), without which it becomes an insurmountable problem connecting to the network of wind turbines and solar, and especially the balance of the two resources - for definition of both variables every day during different times of day.
WILL - "We wanted to prove that the sun, wind and water are sufficient to meet energy demand," said the two California researchers. "The main problem is the political." The cost today would be prohibitive to make the transition to renewable energy total, but according to the two authors of the research by 2030 costs are expected to fall steadily, so much that by that date "prohibitive" - also for social and environmental costs - the 'idea of opening new fossil fuel power stations or nuclear weapons.
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