Debate: Can America Get to 100% Renewable Energy?

Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Tech News, Environment, Sustainability, Innovation, Renewable Energy, Technology, Alternative Energy, Energy, News, Cleantech, Wind Energy, Business, Climate Change, Solar Energy

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2015

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2008, when Al Gore called for America to get 100 percent from its electricity from renewables in 10 years, he was widely mocked by opponents. Even supporters who understood it was a rhetorical point quietly knew how difficult it would be to achieve. But suppose the timeframe were stretched out to 2050. Would it really be that crazy? Some models show it’s possible; skeptics say the models are widely unrealistic. This week, in place of the Energy Gang, we feature a debate between two experts on the issue. Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University faces off against Eric Dennis, a senior fellow at the Center for Industrial Progress. The two men will debate the following motion: “American can, and should, get 100% of its energy from renewables by 2050.” This podcast is sponsored by Renesola, a tier-one solar cell and module manufacturer with a decade of experience in the cleantech industry. The Energy Gang is produced by Greentechmedia.com. The show features weekly discussions between energy futurist Jigar Shah, energy policy expert Katherine Hamilton and Greentech Media Editor Stephen Lacey. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Energy Gang listeners, we're off this week during GTM Solar Summit in Phoenix, and if you're there, we'll see you there looking forward to it.
0:08.0	But for those who aren't, we have a special show for you.
0:11.0	Many weeks back, I mentioned we were producing a new podcast
0:13.7	debate series called Versus and we recorded a pilot shortly after that. Now I
0:18.6	might have been a bit premature in announcing the show because after an internal review we decided to go a different
0:24.4	route and you'll get more details on that in the coming months.
0:27.9	But it didn't seem right to leave our pilot filed away on my computer.
0:31.4	So this week in place of our regular energy gang
0:33.4	podcast you'll get to listen to our first recorded episode where we debate the
0:37.4	plausibility of getting 100% renewable energy. The format itself isn't
0:41.8	totally dead.
0:43.0	This week at our Solar Summit, Shale Khan and I will be hosting a similar debate on utility ownership
0:47.8	of Solar, which we will publish on the podcast feed.
0:51.6	Even though we're not creating an entirely new show on this premise
0:54.4	we'd still love to hear your feedback. Feel free to leave comments below the show
0:58.0	notes at greentech media.com slash podcast or shoot an email to podcasts at green tech media.com.
1:06.0	Before we get into the debate, I want to remind everyone about our sponsor
1:10.0	Renusola, which is a tier one solar cell and module manufacturer with a decade of
1:15.4	experience in the clean tech industry.
1:17.4	Renusola is your complete procurement provider of clean energy solutions and the company
1:21.7	is now offering a bundled solution for residential
1:24.1	installers looking to reduce procurement costs and drive down the cost of projects.
	...

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