A team at Stanford University has outlined a roadmap for 139 countries to transition to 100% renewable energy (wind, water, solar) without nuclear or carbon capture and storage. Is this actually feasible? A different team from the University of Adelaide have published a paper, arguing it is not. Can energy experts please explain.

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Laurence Delina has answered Likely

An expert from Boston University in Renewable Energy , Energy Systems

Feasible in terms of what? If it's feasibility in terms of technology, it seems likely - following arguments from Stanford's Jacobson, Delucci, et al. If it's feasibility in terms of the necessary policy, financing, and institutional drivers, it is less likely, unless current political, economic, and institutional/governance systems are adequately perturbed. In my Gedankenexperiment of the lessons of rapid wartime mobilisation and its potential application as a policy model, I have shown how it could be possible in these non-technical aspects. This is of course full of caveats. If history is to be used as a basis to respond to the question, then yes, it is feasible to move towards a 100% renewable energy globally.

Answered over 7 years ago

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Laurence Delina

Verified Expert

I do research on
governance and
institutional
arrangements in the
politics and policy of
sustainability, with a
particular focus on
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Is having 100% renewable energy for a country feasible?