A World Powered By Wind, Water and Sunshine

Goodbye to scenes like this?

Two scientists from the U.S. have come up with a study that concludes the world could be run on on renewable energy alone, using current technology, by 2050.

The pair (Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford and Mark Delucchi from the University of California-Davis) have written a 2 part paper that details how this can be done on a similar spend on energy as we do today. It would involve wind and solar giving us 90% of the energy, geothermal and hydroelectric giving 4% each, and the rest from tidal and wave power.

They found that there are no technological or economic barriers to switching by 2050 and believe the only thing needed is the "societal and political will".

Yes, it would mean huge changes to the way we do things - comparison is made to the Apollo program, which put men on the Moon - but they believe it is possible.

The pay-back would be huge: To put an end to global warming; to save millions of lives lost to changing climate; kerbing air and water pollution; saving the oceans from acidification; and to bring about energy security and price stability.

Whether you agree with their conclusions or not (and I've yet to read the papers), these sort of studies take us ever closer to a roadmap for escaping fossil fuels.

More here (Look out for the links to the actual papers at the bottom of the article).