Building on and benefiting from that foundation, America’s 2030 target picks up the pace of emissions reductions in the United States, compared to historical levels, while supporting President Biden’s existing goals to create a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050
That means in 14 years, we need to shut down and replace the power from existing coal and gas fired electrical power production plants.
According to Wikipedia, the U.S. had 1,900 natural gas power plants, 241 coal fired plants in 2019, and 1076 oil fired power plants (all very small, with less than 1% of electrical production).
Ignoring small oil fired plants, this means shutting down 1,900 and 241 or 2,141 power plants over the next 14 years – or 12 to 13 power plants EVERY MONTH over the next 14 years. Conversely, this means building replacements for 12 to 13 power plants every month, using as yet mostly unknown technologies (e.g. grid sized batteries which could include battery tech, water or mass storage systems).
Simultaneously, electrical usage is likely to increase due to EV charging and prohibition on natural gas furnaces in new homes, and some jurisdictions discussing mandatory future replacement of existing gas or oil home furnaces with electric heating.
This seems to be a difficult goal to achieve.
[…] of electricity. So too does EV charging. Simultaneously, the Biden administration has proposed shutting down 12-13 fossil fuel power plants every month through 2035. It is not clear how that power generation capacity will be replaced – that would be building […]