One of the greatest concerns facing the implementation of a 100 percent clean, renewable energy and storage system for all purposes worldwide is whether electricity, heat, cold, and hydrogen will be available when needed. In other words, can a 100 percent system avoid blackouts, which occur when the electric power grid fails because not enough electricity is available to meet demand at a given moment? Similarly, will a 100 percent system always have enough heat, cold, and hydrogen at the times needed?

The solution to global warming, air pollution, and energy security requires not only a technical and economic roadmap but also popular support and political will. In fact, the main limitations of a transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy and storage are neither technical nor economic; instead, they are social and political. People need to believe that a solution is possible, to understand what changes they can make in their own lives to solve the problems, to make such changes, and to support policymakers who can pass laws speeding a transition. Policymakers, themselves, need to take bold steps in affecting a transition. Thus, one of the most important factors leading to a change is education about what is possible and why it is possible. This textbook aims to contribute toward that education.

So far, this book has examined several components of a 100 percent clean, renewable energy and storage system. This chapter focuses on integrating the components together in countries, states, cities, and towns to provide end-point roadmaps for a transition. Such roadmaps provide scenarios for meeting all-purpose, annually averaged power demand with 100 percent WWS in 2050. Chapter 8 discusses methods of matching time-dependent power demand with supply and storage. The subjects discussed in this chapter are projecting annually averaged power demand in all energy sectors to 2050 (Section 7.1), quantifying the transition of all business-as-usual (BAU) energy in all sectors to electricity, electrolytic hydrogen, and some heat, all sourced by WWS (Section 7.2), reducing end-use power demand due to such a transition (Section 7.3), performing a renewable energy resource analysis (Section 7.4), selecting a WWS energy mix in each location to meet end-use demand in the annual average while also meeting resource constraints (Section 7.5), calculating changes in energy costs due to such a transition (Section 7.6.1), calculating changes in air pollution mortality and morbidity and their associated costs due to such a transition (Section 7.6.2), and estimating the climate-relevant emissions and their associated costs due to such a transition (Section 7.6.3). The methods in this chapter are applicable to roadmaps for towns, cities, states, provinces, and countries but are derived here for countries as an example.

A 100 percent wind-water-solar (WWS) energy infrastructure involves electrifying or providing direct heat for all energy sectors and then providing the electricity or heat with WWS. Because electricity is such a large part of the solution, understanding how it works is important. In addition, WWS technologies convert either mechanical or solar energy into electricity. This chapter provides the basic information for understanding those conversion processes, which are elaborated on in Chapters 5 (solar energy) and 6 (wind energy). This chapter discusses the basics of electricity with a particular focus on electric power. It starts by examining different types of electricity – static electricity, lightning, and wired electricity. It then covers voltage and Kirchoff’s laws of voltage and current. Next, it turns to power, resistance in series and parallel, and capacitors. This is followed by a discussion of electromagnetism, AC electricity, and inductors. Both single-phase and three-phase AC electricity, as well as generators, are then described. Finally, real and reactive power, transformers, and transmission, including high voltage AC and DC transmission, are covered.

The solution to air pollution, global warming, and energy insecurity is, in theory, simple and straightforward: electrify or provide direct heat for everything; obtain the electricity and heat from only wind, water, and solar power; store energy; and reduce energy use.

After solar, onshore and offshore wind have the potential to supply the greatest portion of the world’s all-purpose energy demand. Not only are wind resources abundant in almost every country of the world, but the cost of onshore wind energy has also declined so much in recent years, that it is, in 2020, the least expensive form of new electric power in many countries of the world. The low cost has resulted in massive installations of wind to replace fossil-fuel power plants and to provide new energy demand.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution of the mid-1700s, the world relied primarily on biomass but also on some coal for its energy, which was primarily heat. During the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing processes transitioned from artisan shops to factories following expanded use of the steam engine. The use of coal, which powered the steam engine, has grown ever since. Although natural gas was discovered accidentally in China around 500 BC, it was not used on a large scale until after the first natural gas well was constructed in Fredonia, New York, in 1821. On August 27, 1859, oil was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Worldwide, oil consumption has increased since then.

Solar and wind will make up the bulk share of a 100 percent wind-water-solar (WWS) energy generation infrastructure worldwide. The main types of solar generation are solar photovoltaics (PV) on rooftops and in utility-scale power plants, concentrated solar power (CSP), and solar thermal collectors for water and air heating. The sun produces enough energy worldwide to power the world with PV for all purposes in 2050, if all energy were electrified, about 2,200 times over. Over land, PV can power all energy about 640 times over. Needless to say, the world needs only a small fraction of this. If half the world’s all-purpose power were from solar PV, that would mean about 0.08 percent of the world’s solar resource over land would be needed. Given the large potential of solar PV in particular for powering the world’s energy needs, it is useful to understand PV panels and solar resources better. This chapter discusses both as well as how to determine the quantity of solar radiation reaching a PV panel over time and space. The chapter starts with a detailed description of solar photovoltaic cells, panels, and arrays and their efficiencies (Section 5.1). It then goes into solar resource availability and optimal tilt angles for solar panels worldwide (Section 5.2). Finally, it discusses how to calculate radiation through the atmosphere (Section 5.3).