How to Achieve a Low-Carbon Electric World -- a AAAS Symposium. (February 21, 2012)

This year the American Association for the Advancement of Science is holding its annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. This past Sunday (Feb. 19, 2012) the Symposium Low-Carbon Innovation for an Electricity-Dependent World was held from 1:00 - 2:30 PM.

Below are excerpts from ScienceNow's Dan Ferber report of the proceedings.

Last summer, a group* of scientific experts, business and policy leaders, and young environmental leaders spent four intense days at the University of Waterloo in Canada, brainstorming what they considered the most promising technologies to replace carbon-intensive modes of electricity production. Yesterday, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, they released their findings, which present a comprehensive road map to a low-carbon electricity system by 2030.

The group’s top priorities included replacing coal for base-load power [currently] coal and natural gas provide 85% of the world’s base-load power... [T]he group recommended honing and then scaling up several relatively new technologies, such as advanced geothermal energy... developing and scaling up two types of advanced nuclear power plants: integral fast reactors and thorium reactors... [and] scaling up energy-storage efforts, because electricity from renewable sources, including wind and solar, often goes to waste between the time it’s produced and when the electricity is needed.

[One promising storage mythology] a durable but young technology called flow batteries, which store energy using two interconnected tanks of electrically charged liquid. The group also called for a series of large-scale battery demonstration projects worldwide to show that renewable energy can be stored at the scale needed... [And] to reduce electricity consumption in cities enough to make them sustainable, they recommended overhauling whole transportation systems by replacing gasoline-powered vehicles with electric ones and with electric-powered mass transit.

For the 2 billion people in the developing world who live off the power grid, the Equinox group calls for scaling up cheap solar photovoltaic films that can be easily rolled up and laid across a roof of a building, and for smart, small power grids that allow electricity to be produced and stored locally.

Mr Ferber concludes by quoting Hélène LeBlanc, a member of the Canadian Parliament from LaSalle, Quebec, who attended the session and who’s the lead official on science and technology for Canada's opposition New Democratic Party: "What I like about their approach is that they tried to see how we can interest not just the public but the business community and policymakers. I think they have been very realistic about what can be done in the short term versus the long term. I think it’s very positive."

Of course how the providers and purveyors of fossil fuel will take to the suggestions is at best a moot point. 

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*The report of the group is available from Equinox Blueprint: Energy 2030.