
Lillgrund wind farm with 48-turbines off coast of Sweden. Photo by Vattenfall/flickr
Cover story of November 2009 issue of Scientific American, a preview now online.)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030
"Shifting the world to 100 percent clean, renewable energy as early as 2030 -- here are the numbers"
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/su-stw101909.php
Eurekalert: "Wind, water and solar energy resources are sufficiently available to provide all the world's energy. Converting to electricity and hydrogen powered by these sources would reduce world power demand by 30 percent, thereby avoiding 13,000 coal power plants. Materials and costs are not limitations to these conversions, but politics may be, say Stanford and U.C. researchers who have mapped out a blueprint for powering the world..."
"...Most of the technology needed to shift the world from fossil fuel to clean, renewable energy already exists. Implementing that technology requires overcoming obstacles in planning and politics, but doing so could result in a 30 percent decrease in global power demand, say Stanford civil and environmental engineering Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and University of California-Davis researcher Mark Delucchi.
"To make clear the extent of those hurdles - and how they could be overcome - they have written an article that is the cover story in the November issue of Scientific American. In it, they present new research mapping out and evaluating a quantitative plan for powering the entire world on wind, water and solar energy, including an assessment of the materials needed and costs. And it will ultimately be cheaper than sticking with fossil fuel or going nuclear, they say..."
PDF of paper: Mark Z. Jacobson: Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security†
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/PDF%20files/ReviewSolGW09.pdf
also at: http://www.rsc.org/ej/EE/2009/b809990c.pdf
"This paper reviews and ranks major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the proposed solutions, such as on water supply, land use, wildlife, resource availability, thermal pollution, water chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, and undernutrition..."
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