If each household spent $0.18 more per month, America could quadruple its renewable electricity by 2030

The conclusion of a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) found that America could pretty much quadruple its renewable electricity by 2030.

That would mean 23% of the country’s power would be sourced from nonhydro renewable resources in the next 15 years.

The study comes as a follow-up to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal that America should be at 12% renewable energy by 2030. Rachel Cleetus, Senior Climate Economist of UCS, called the EPA’s goal just a fraction above “business as usual.”

In the UCS’s study, the group found that raising the target to more than 23% would cost the average household $0.18 more per month. Cleetus believes this is not only a realistic goal, but an affordable one too: “Looking at the way renewable energy is ramping up and costs are falling dramatically, there is a real opportunity to go farther.”

Currently, seven states are exceeding the EPA’s proposed 2030 goal; another 17 have existing laws that require more renewable electricity than what the EPA requires. Nine states are reporting electricity from wind and/or solar in double figures, including Iowa and South Dakota, which both top the list at 24%, and Oregon having just joined the list at 10%. 

In building a case for the revised benchmark, UCS started with what states have accomplished so far during the five years since the EPA set the 2030 goal. During this time, the national average annual growth rate in renewables has been 1% from 2009 thru 2013. The study assumes that by 2020, every state will at the very least meet the national benchmark of 1%. Some states are already at or above this level and that would continue to grow at their current rate; that being the case, maximum growth rate was set at 1.5% per year.

From here, the plan gets a bit tricky. You see, it has lower proposed targets than the EPA for four states. That’s because the EPA plan used four regionally averaged targets from state Renewable Electricity Standards (RES). Instead, the UCS proposed a much more ambitious state-by-state approach. That being the case, the lower UCS targets are necessary for states like New Hampshire, which finds itself in a region with high RES targets, which means it has too high of an EPA target. 

Also, the UCS approach would reduce power sector CO₂ emissions by an additional 10% by 2030 above the EPA’s draft plan; that would bring them 40% below 2005 levels. 

“I know that there are other groups working on strengthening other provisions of the Clean Power Plan, for example increasing the level of energy efficiency, so it may be possible to reduce emissions even more,” Cleetus said.

“Wall Street articles from Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Goldman Sachs are predicting renewable energy, particularly solar, is where the growth is going to be, it’s no longer simply about competition between coal and natural gas,” said Cleetus. “Never mind the environmental considerations, which are very important, just from a market perspective we are probably going to see a very rapid scale up in renewables. The question is, will it happen fast enough and at the scale that we need it to from a climate perspective.”

The UCS argues that while a majority of the market is already making the transition into renewables, America needs laws in place that push this growth as fast as possible. By setting in place more serious emission reduction goals, a more positive dynamic will emerge. What’s more, the group says, by the US taking its emissions reductions seriously, so too will other countries. 

“The Clean Power Plan is a significant first step,” said Cleetus. “Thus far, individual states like the RGGI states and California have been taking the leadership role, but we need to do more on a National level. This includes Congress taking action on climate and energy policy.”

“We don’t have a lot of time. The window of opportunity to keep global warming below 2 degrees is rapidly closing,” said Cleetus. There needs to be a greater level of ambition, not just from the US but worldwide, if we are to sharply limit our emissions and slow the pace of climate change.”

A study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports that by using technologies that are already commercially available today, the U.S. could obtain 80% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2050, with a majority of the energy coming from variable energy sources like wind and solar. But in order to get there, a greater investment and better decision making when it comes to the implementation of policies needs to be taken so that the country as a whole can make a move toward cleaner energy.

Via CleanTechnica