All of California is expected to run on renewable energy by 2050

The entire state of California can—and will—get 100 percent of its energy from wind, water, and the sun in a matter of decades, according to a Stanford professor who just published an extensive report outlining the state’s renewable power potential. “There’s about a 95 percent chance that [California] will be powered by 100 percent clean energy” by 2050, Mark Z. Jacobson told me in a phone interview. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, is the lead author of a new paper published in the journal Energy that outlines how the Golden State can meet all of its energy demands with wind turbines, solar panels, tidal generators, hydroelectric dams, and geothermal power stations by midcentury. And zero fossil fuels or nuclear power. Previously, Jacobson has outlined how to do the same, in broader strokes, for the entire world. The authors propose creating in California “a long-term sustainable energy infrastructure that supplies 100% of energy in all sectors (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) from wind, water, and solar power (without fossil fuels, biofuels, or nuclear power), and hence provides the largest possible reductions in air pollution, water pollution, and global warming impacts.”