Editing Energy development (section)

=== 100% renewable energy ===
{{Main|100% renewable energy}}

The incentive to use 100% renewable energy, for electricity, transport, or even total primary energy supply globally, has been motivated by [[global warming]] and other ecological as well as economic concerns. [[Renewable energy commercialization|Renewable energy use]] has grown much faster than anyone anticipated.<ref name=pg11>{{cite web |url=http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/04/100-percent-renewable-vision-building?amp;buffer_share=fdc06 |title=100 Percent Renewable Vision Building |author=Paul Gipe |date=4 April 2013 |work=Renewable Energy World |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006104925/http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/04/100-percent-renewable-vision-building?amp;buffer_share=fdc06 |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}</ref> The [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]] has said that there are few fundamental technological limits to integrating a portfolio of renewable energy technologies to meet most of total global energy demand.<ref name="IPCC 2011 17">{{cite web|url=http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report/IPCC_SRREN_SPM.pdf |title=Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation |author=IPCC |year=2011 |work=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA |page=17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111081913/http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report/IPCC_SRREN_SPM.pdf |archive-date=2014-01-11 }}</ref> At the national level, at least 30 nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20% of energy supply.  Also, [[Stephen W. Pacala]] and [[Robert H. Socolow]] have developed a series of "[[stabilization wedges]]" that can allow us to maintain our quality of life while avoiding catastrophic climate change, and "renewable energy sources," in aggregate, constitute the largest number of their "wedges."<ref name=Pacala>{{cite journal|url=http://www.princeton.edu/mae/people/faculty/socolow/Science-2004-SW-1100103-PAPER-AND-SOM.pdf|title=Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies|author1-link=Stephen W. Pacala|author1=S. Pacala|author2=R. Socolow|journal=Science|year=2004|volume=305|issue=5686|pages=968–972|publisher=Science Vol. 305|doi=10.1126/science.1100103|pmid=15310891|bibcode=2004Sci...305..968P|s2cid=2203046|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150812230420/http://www.princeton.edu/mae/people/faculty/socolow/Science-2004-SW-1100103-PAPER-AND-SOM.pdf|archive-date=2015-08-12}}</ref>

[[Mark Z. Jacobson]] says producing all new energy with [[wind power]], [[solar power]],  and [[hydropower]] by 2030 is feasible and existing energy supply arrangements could be replaced by 2050. Barriers to implementing the renewable energy plan are seen to be "primarily social and political, not technological or economic". Jacobson says that energy costs with a wind, solar, water system should be similar to today's energy costs.<ref name=enpol2011>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/DJEnPolicyPt2.pdf |title=Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies |author1=Mark A. Delucchi |author2=Mark Z. Jacobson |year=2011 |volume=39 |work=Energy Policy |pages=1170–1190 |publisher=Elsevier Ltd. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616162420/http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/DJEnPolicyPt2.pdf |archive-date=2012-06-16 }}</ref>

Similarly, in the United States, the independent National Research Council has noted that "sufficient domestic renewable resources exist to allow renewable electricity to play a significant role in future electricity generation and thus help confront issues related to climate change, energy security, and the escalation of energy costs ... Renewable energy is an attractive option because renewable resources available in the United States, taken collectively, can supply significantly larger amounts of electricity than the total current or projected domestic demand." .<ref name=NRC>{{cite book|url=http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12619|title=Electricity from Renewable Resources: Status, Prospects, and Impediments|author=National Research Council|year=2010|pages=4|publisher=National Academies of Science|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327124031/http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12619|archive-date=2014-03-27|doi=10.17226/12619|isbn=978-0-309-13708-9}}</ref>

Critics of the "100% renewable energy" approach include [[Vaclav Smil]] and [[James E. Hansen]]. Smil and Hansen are concerned about the [[variable renewable energy|variable output]] of solar and wind power, but [[Amory Lovins]] argues that the [[electricity grid]] can cope, just as it routinely backs up nonworking coal-fired and nuclear plants with working ones.<ref name=lovi12>{{cite journal |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137246/amory-b-lovins/a-farewell-to-fossil-fuels |title=A Farewell to Fossil Fuels |author=Amory Lovins |date=March–April 2012 |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=329 |issue=5997 |pages=1292–1294 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707031832/http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137246/amory-b-lovins/a-farewell-to-fossil-fuels |archive-date=2012-07-07 |bibcode=2010Sci...329.1292H |doi=10.1126/science.1195449 |pmid=20829473 |s2cid=206529026 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Google spent $30 million on their "Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal" project to develop renewable energy and stave off catastrophic climate change. The project was cancelled after concluding that a best-case scenario for rapid advances in renewable energy could only result in emissions 55 percent below the fossil fuel projections for 2050.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-it-would-really-take-to-reverse-climate-change|title=What It Would Really Take to Reverse Climate Change|date=2014-11-18|website=[[IEEE]]|access-date=4 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124081052/https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/what-it-would-really-take-to-reverse-climate-change|archive-date=24 November 2016}}</ref>