Archive:000/Decarbonize energy

How to produce enough energy (for the world) without burning fossil fuels?

Energy sources

• Scale up solar power, with energy storage - Requires innovations
• Scale up wind power, with energy storage - Not enough on its own
• Scale up nuclear power - Requires innovations

Note about other energy sourcesNote about other energy sources

• Geothermal electricity, and hydropower including tidal:  These depend on very specific geography that isn't available in most parts of the world.
• Biomass waste energy:  Supply is limited to the amount of farmed land on Earth, which can't be increased much without deforestation.

Vehicles

• EVs with sodium-ion batteries
• Hydrogen combustion vehicles - using hydrogen gas produced by surplus wind power

Note about other vehicle typesNote about other vehicle types

Things that won't work

• The status quo (mostly gasoline cars and diesel trucks)
• EVs with lithium-ion batteries (too much cobalt) (...)( This is true even when manufacturers brag about batteries having "only" 3% cobalt. Not low enough: It would have to be less than 1% - otherwise, cobalt scarcity is still the most limiting factor in scaling up EVs. See page on lithium-ion batteries for more details. )
• Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (too much platinum or palladium) (...)( Note that hydrogen gas production also needs these metals, but the fuel cells would need 7 times more on average )

Things that could somewhat work

• EVs with LFP batteries (no cobalt, lithium-based; still not as scalable as sodium-ion)

Analysis

• How much electricity would it take
• How much energy storage would it take

See also

• Energy supply solutions summary - the likely answer, but still unconfirmed