How California could be 100% renewables-powered by 2050–with 50% from solar

A blueprint for 100 per cent renewables in California by 2050 – prepared by Stanford Professor Mark Jacobson, suggests that more than half of the electricity will come from various forms of solar power. 

As the graph (originally published in Greentech Media) below shows, solar thermal (or concentrated solar power) will make up around 15 per cent of electricity, about the same contribution from large scale solar PV plants.

However, roofop solar PV will likely provide 25 per cent of total generation according to this scenario, with commercial and government rooftops accounting for three fifths of this, and residential rooftop the rest.

Offshore and onshore wind would account for a combined 35 per cent, while the remaining power would come from a range of geothermal, wave, tidal and conventional hydropower.

Solutions Project California

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Giles Parkinson