Utility Dive: US can reach 100% clean power by 2035, DOE finds, but tough reliability and land use questions lie ahead
By Herman K. Trabish
Four major viable paths to a net zero emissions “clean electricity” power system by 2035 “in which benefits exceed costs” are detailed in an August study by the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL.
But it does not explain how adequate land to reach a 90% clean electricity penetration can be acquired or how reliability will be protected beyond that 90% penetration, stakeholders acknowledged.
“Multiple solutions,” will be needed to reach the 2035 goals, agreed Jacob Susman, CEO and co-founder of Ambient Fuels, which supplies green hydrogen from renewables and water, and Nidhi Thakar, vice president of policy and regulatory at Form Energy, a developer of a groundbreaking 100-hour, multi-day iron-air battery chemistry.