If the world used just geothermal, global electricity generation emissions of CO2e would be 1/10 of Natural Gas, 1/18 of Oil, and 1/21 of Coal emissions.
Low carbon electricity is a wonderful thing, and will be a central part of tackling climate change.
In 2010 electricity generation was responsible for about 13 Gt of greenhouse gas emissions, or a little bit more than a quarter of all emissions. The rest came from industry, transport, buildings, agriculture, forestry and waste.
The thing that is exciting about electricity from a climate standpoint is that we actually have technology which can slash its emissions. To help provide some clarity and context as to the relative importance of low carbon electricity this post tests a simple idea.
What would global electricity generation emissions look like if the world used just one generation technology?
In 2010 the world generated 21,400 TWh of electricity which resulted in emissions of 13 Gt CO2e (the beige balloon) given the current fuel mix. Using the central estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s excellent meta-study of electricity generation lifecyle assessments we can estimate what these emissions would look like using just one technology.
The results are stark. Using Coal 21,400 TWh would result in 21 Gt CO2e, for Oil it is 18 Gt and for Natural Gas it is 10 Gt. In contrast Geothermal and Solar PV are 1Gt, Solar CSP is 0.5, Biopower and Nuclear 0.4, Wind 0.3, Ocean 0.2 and Hydro 0.1 Gt.
The gap between fossil fuels and the rest is a chasm.
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