ICYMI: Clean Energy Means Fewer Blackouts

Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, the Washington Post reported that a new study from Stanford professor Mark Jacobson found that transitioning to a 100% clean energy power grid would reduce the risk of blackouts, including from extreme weather. The study also found that the transition would create millions of permanent jobs, reduce pollution-related deaths and illnesses for millions of people, and reduce per capita household energy costs by 63%.

Toplines from the study:

• Under a grid powered by renewables, no blackouts occur, even during summer in California or winter in Texas.

• Per capita household energy costs fell by 63% under a 100% renewable scenario.
• The study found that transitioning to a clean energy grid could create some 4.7 million more permanent jobs than those lost from the fossil fuel industry. 
• Transitioning away from fossil fuels would reduce pollution-related deaths by 53,000 people per year and reduce pollution-related illnesses for millions of people in 2050.

Read the highlights from the Washington Post here:

“Now, a recent study shows that electricity blackouts can be avoided across the nation — perhaps even during intense weather events — by switching to 100 percent clean and renewable energy, such as solar, wind and water.

“Technically and economically, we have 95 percent of the technologies we need to transition everything today,” said Mark Jacobson, lead author of the paper and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. Wind, water and solar already account for about one-fifth of the nation’s electricity, although a full transition in many areas is slow.

The study showed a switch to renewables would also lower energy requirements, reduce consumer costs, create millions of new jobs and improve people’s health.

[…] The team found the actual energy demand decreased significantly by simply shifting to renewable resources, which are more efficient. For the entire United States, total end-use energy demand decreased by around 57 percent. Per capita household annual energy costs were around 63 percent less than a “business as usual” scenario.

“Everything that we currently do using fossil fuels would be done using technology that is run through electricity,” said Anna-Katharina von Krauland, a co-author and doctoral candidate in Jacobson’s lab. “The amount of energy that’s needed to perform activities, basically to turn on the light or to fuel industrial processes, that would actually be decreased if you use more efficient energy supply.”