Well folks, let’s take a comedic look at how Americans use energy today. Total energy consumed in 2021, in quadrillion B.T.U. Here’s how much of that energy comes from electricity. Electricity as a percent of total energy consumed in 2021.
Now, listen up! President Biden wants us to transform the economy so that more things run on clean electricity, all to slash emissions to nearly zero by 2050. What a guy! The New York Times used data from Evolved Energy Research, an energy modeling firm, to visualize what the nation’s energy use might look like in 2050 if the United States were able to meet the president’s climate change goals, using technology available today or just over the horizon, while minimizing costs.
In this future, far more of America’s energy would come from electricity. The country would also use less energy overall, since electric devices are often more efficient than ones that burn fossil fuels. For example, a gasoline-powered car uses only about 30 percent of the energy in its fuel to move its wheels, with most of the rest wasted as heat. An electric car uses about 80 percent of its energy, folks.
By 2050, electricity would play a much bigger role. Wow! The future just got electric!
There are signs the United States is already moving in a more plugged-in direction. Sales of electric vehicles broke records last year, accounting for 5.8 percent of new cars sold, and the administration has proposed regulations to ensure they make up two-thirds of sales by 2032.
But wait, there’s more! Plugging in isn’t the only way to cut emissions. Other options include clean hydrogen fuels, biofuels or technologies that capture pollution from the air, smokestacks or machines. But for many activities, the most straightforward solution is to go electric.
“Every home is different and the costs of electrification can vary pretty widely,” said Ryan Jones, a co-founder of Evolved Energy. So, some activities, such as long-haul trucking or chemical manufacturing, are difficult to electrify.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle to electrifying industry is the lack of incentives. While the government offers tax credits for electric cars and home heat pumps, it has largely ignored the industrial sector, whose energy use is expected to keep growing in the coming decades.
To meet that demand, electric utilities would need to add staggering amounts of new emissions-free power while making sure that all those newly electrified cars, homes and factories don’t strain the system and cause blackouts. They would also have to construct large new power lines across the country, both to accommodate far-flung renewable projects and to improve the reliability of the grid.
Whew! That’s a lot of work, folks. But we find ourselves in a Catch-22 situation, if we’re going to rely on the grid for so much more of our daily life, then we better start planning now to make sure it’s a lot more resilient than it is today.
There are potential solutions. Utilities, for instance, could get better at scheduling when electric vehicles and other appliances are charged, so that they don’t all power up at the same time and strain equipment or require the construction of costly new power plants. More battery storage could help, too.
“And let there be light”, folks! Who’s with us
Serious News: nytimes
