38. On the Road to Electrification
On the Road to Electrification Please note that cost estimates in this article are based on oil, gas, and electricity prices at the time of publication. (Jan 2022) Change is in the air, and it’s downright electric. Carbon-free renewables, their technology, and their economics have reached a stage that brightens our prospects for meaningful reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions that have threatened the future world of our descendents. It may actually be possible to start feeling good about something. Like, instead of fighting fossil fuels , might we try enthusing about electrification? Know this: Electrification is the key to decarbonizing the world’s energy. As we discussed in a recent column, the economics of wind and solar are on a trajectory to actually supplant fossil fuels with or without subsidies or aggressive regulation in the coming decades. A widely acclaimed paper came out of the University of Oxford in September, demonstrating abundantly that “ if solar photovolt...