![]() “That does not mean it will be easy to do or that we won’t have to stretch our existing capacities to make it happen,” he said, adding that the report aimed to show “what the future can look like if we are motivated to make it so”.īiden has outlined a $2tn plan to combat the climate crisis, which he has called an “existential threat” to the US. Zurofsky said the technical potential of rooftop solar comes from the federal government’s own estimates and was feasible. Issues in the supply chain and patchier generation in less sunny parts of the country would compound this challenge, Snyder added. “We would need to build an electrical generation system on top of our roofs that is the same size as contemporary US generation,” he said. Such a scenario would be difficult given the required ramp-up in solar across US towns and cities, according to Brian Snyder, an energy and environment expert at Louisiana State University. Solar is now the “cheapest source of electricity in history”, according to the International Energy Agency, with the US consuming a record amount of renewable energy last year. By taking measures such as backing mortgage-style payments for solar panels to lessen reliance upon the grid, the federal government can make it “dirt cheap” for people to switch to renewables, Zurofsky said. Much of the savings are derived from reducing the wasted energy involved in digging up and delivering fossil fuel-based power to homes. But no one is talking about the upside – we can actually make a better economy and save people money and a byproduct will be to cut emissions from residential buildings.” “Too often we are told doing the right thing for the environment requires sacrifice and costs more. “If we electrify everything, the savings are more than enough to return money to households,” said Adam Zurofsky, executive director of Rewiring America. Households would be faced with the upfront costs of installing solar panels and electric devices such as stovetops and heat pumps, but Rewiring America says strong government assistance for renewables would help deliver long-term savings. ![]() ![]() Should all of these related factors be fully electrified and sourced from clean energy, households could save as much as $321bn in energy costs, the report finds, or up to $2,500 a household a year. More than 40% of energy emissions are determined by appliances in and around the home, according to the report, such as heating, electricity, refrigeration and car use. But a new analysis by Rewiring America, an energy policy organization, finds that households would benefit financially from a complete switch to clean energy sources such as solar and wind.
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