Can A Country Achieve 100% Use of Renewable Energy?
If you think 100% renewable energy will never happen, think again. Several countries have adopted ambitious plan to obtain their power from renewable energy. These countries are not only accelerating RE installations but are also integrating RE into their existing infrastructure to reach a 100% RE mix.
Several countries are pioneers in renewable energy. Iceland gets 85% of the country’s electricity from earth’s heat. The country’s electricity supply is 100% renewable and depends on geothermal and hydropower. Norway is around 98% renewable and uses hydroelectric, geothermal and wind, to achieve its goal. Portugal rely on hydroelectricity for 38% to 58% electricity, wind power contributes one fifth, biomass 5% and solar around 1%.Scotland has a mandate to become 100% renewable by 2020.Paraguay uses hydropower ,to provides 90% of its electricity and 19% of Brazil’s by using Itaipu dam. The dam took 30 years to build and costs $20 billion. It now helps in displacing 67.5 million tonnes of CO2 a year. Denmark uses 30% wind and 15% biomass for its energy needs. Germany already uses 98% renewable energy.
In a recent study known as The Solutions Project, Stanford professor Mark Jacobson, has concluded that U.S can meet its 100% of energy demand through renewable by 2050 through concentrated solar power, utility-scale and rooftop PV, onshore and offshore wind, tidal and conventional hydropower and geothermal wave. Study stays to achieve its goal, conscious efforts should be made to obtain all new electricity generation by sunlight, water and wind by 2020 and U.S should replace 80% of its existing energy to renewable sources by 2030 to reach 100% renewable by 2050.
The resource mix of renewable would be different state by state, in California, Texas and Massachusetts it would be as follows-