In April 2024, nonprofit Climate Central published a report about the United States’ renewable energy potential, based on 10 years of solar and wind power data.
The 238,181 GWh of solar generated in the United States in 2023 was more than eight times the volume produced in 2014. Wind power had more than doubled to 425,325 GWh.
Solar and wind could have powered more than 61 million average US homes in 2023. California led, with 68,816 GWh of solar energy. Texas led for wind, with 119,836 GWh, and also generated 31,739 GWh of solar in 2023.
Generation needs to be spread more evenly nationwide, however, and in an effort to advance the US energy transition, groups of young campaigners have turned to the courts.
In 2022, plaintiff Navahine F., whose surname has not been publicized, and 12 other young Hawaiians filed a case requiring the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) to take responsibility for providing a life-sustaining climate. Navahine vs. HDOT was settled in favor of the plaintiffs on June 20, 2024, in what is being regarded as the world’s first youth-led, transportation-focused constitutional climate case.
“This agreement offers a holistic roadmap for states and countries to follow around the world,” said Andrea Rodgers, co-counsel for the plaintiffs.
HDOT is now obliged to transform its transport system to achieve net-negative emissions by 2045, as requested by the campaigners.
Renewables scientist and Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson, who models air pollution and 100%-renewables transitions, was an expert witness for the plaintiffs. The Navahine case was his first legal victory.
“The Hawaii case was the third one I was involved in,” Jacobson told pv magazine. “I also testified in a previous case in Oregon where this group sued the federal government on climate grounds but that has been delayed, or thrown out. We’ve developed plans for each US state to transition to 100% renewables and I was called to testify how they can do that.”
The Oregon case is Juliana vs. the United States. The plaintiffs argued the state had violated their constitutional rights by causing dangerous carbon dioxide concentrations.
In Montana, Jacobson was involved with a case that concluded in June 2023. The Held vs. Montana case was successful in lower courts and is back before the Supreme Court after an appeal by the state. “I think it will hold up,” said Jacobson who, in early August 2024, was about to release a paper analyzing California’s path to a milestone 100 days of 100% clean power.
Uneven generation
Clean power generation is uneven in the United States with some states embracing solar, wind, and other renewable-energy resources more effectively than others.
“What we need right now is to deploy, deploy, deploy renewables and other technologies; clean, renewable energy and electrification on a large scale,” said Jacobson, discussing the action needed to bridge the gap.
Jacobson said he wants “more policies put in place to go to 100% renewables” – a requirement he will hold firm on no matter the outcome of the upcoming US election. Jacobson has been heavily involved with the Democrat party in the past but said the 100% renewables effort is “not a partisan issue.”
“I’ve always been open to working with any party,” he said. “It just happens to be that the states that are more interested in 100% renewable energy have had more Democrat governors. But, in fact, the states with the most wind for example, like nine out of the 10 states with the most fraction of their electricity from wind, are all Republican states.
“My goal is to solve problems. The solution is 100% clean, renewable energy for 100% of the people. We need everybody engaged, across party lines, internationally as well. I don’t specifically just speak with Democrats; it’s just as I said, it happens to be that that’s where most people are interested in this and open to engagement. But in fact, Republicans are also interested… it’s just, they won’t admit it.”
Like a lot of the activists he has testified in support of, Jacobson blames “Big Oil” donors for the stranglehold fossil fuels have on certain states. But what about the impact “Big Tech” has had on the climate? From data centers to greenwashing there are a lot of offenders to choose from.
Technological advances, of course, can also benefit the energy transition, said Jacobson.
“We need technology to solve problems – through electrification, through solar, wind, heat pumps, battery electric vehicles, battery storage, electric induction cooktops, and industrial firebrick technologies.”
In Jacobson’s view, technology can be a double-edged sword. “There are certain technologies that aren’t useful, such as nuclear power, carbon capture, direct air capture, blue hydrogen, electro fuels, bioenergy. These technologies are not usable,” he said. “On the other hand, there are technologies that are more energy efficient and use less energy, I mean like the LED lightbulb instead of the candescent lightbulb. And compared to gas or combustion, heat pumps use one quarter of the energy for air and water heating.
“Using technologies wisely and reducing energy use is important to energy efficiency. But we shouldn’t be afraid of technologies, we should be careful about which technologies we use.”
Jacobson’s goal for the 100% renewables movement’s future is to keep going on the same trajectory. “In terms of our own research, we want to push out a lot of studies that are policy relevant, looking at the ability to transition to clean renewable energy, and [we want to] try to focus on what really works and not focus on what doesn’t work.”
Earlier in 2024, Jacobson’s team published plans for 149 countries to transition to renewables with the aid of firebricks – bricks that can store large amounts of heat. “For that study, we started with energy data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for 149 countries and projected that forward to 2050 … We find that across 149 countries, we can transition every country, without a problem, to 100% clean, renewable energy.”
The study examined several factors. It considered electricity demand and the electrification of energy sources, including the shift from gas vehicles to electric vehicles; the number of wind turbines and solar panels required for the transition; and the cost of the transition; land usage; job creation and losses; and air pollution.
“The costs are so much better than fossil fuel systems,” said Jacobson. “The ranges don’t even matter that much because they’re all much lower. Even the high range is much less than the low range of the fossil fuel costs.”
The right technology
Close to the top of the list of solutions he is very much against is carbon capture and storage (CCS). A 2023 paper authored by Jacobson and published in “Environmental Science and Technology,” analyzed a case study of a proposal to capture and store carbon dioxide from 34 ethanol refineries in five US states and build a pipeline to transport the CO2 to an underground storage site.
“Adding carbon capture always requires energy and equipment,” said Jacobson. “You can get more carbon reductions by using it [energy and equipment] just to replace a fossil source rather than to use it to power carbon capture equipment. You’re always increasing carbon dioxide by using carbon capture. You’re misusing the energy needed for that and you could be using it to actually replace a fossil fuel source. You’re also increasing air pollution and fossil fuel mining because you can’t reduce the fossil source or get rid of the air pollution it causes,” added Jacobson.
His views are not isolated. Scientists from Oxford University published a study in December 2023 claiming that heavy dependence on CCS could be economically wasteful. Others have taken a less hardline approach, however, for fear of setting back hard-won progress.
In 2020, the IEA described CCS as “one of the key technology areas” for putting energy systems around the world on a more sustainable path. The organization also acknowledged, however, that CCS necessity was due to the lack of a better alternative.
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