The goal of powering a company, city, state, or nation with 50%, 75%, or even 100% renewable electricity would have seemed preposterous not long ago. But increasingly, a growing number of companies and governments are aim¬ing to achieve such targets.
In 2015, California established a 50% by 2030 renewable portfolio standard (RPS); Vermont a 75% RPS by 2032; and Hawaii a 100% RPS by 2045. International jurisdictions that are already 100% powered by renewable energy include the nation of Iceland, several small islands, and the states of Carinthia in Austria and Schleswig-Holstein (population 2.8 million) in Germany.
Dozens of corporations are already procuring 100% of their electrons from renewables for their U.S. operations, including Apple, Intel, Kohl’s and Voya Financial, and many more are aiming to get there in the next decade or two.
Many scientific studies have shown that 100% renewable energies regionally and globally is technically possible by the year 2050, and some scientists conclude that it can get there as soon as 2030.
According to ECOFY-WWF (2011) report, a fully renewable global energy system is possible worldwide: we can reach a 95% sustainably sourced energy supply by 2050. There are upfront investments required to make this transition in the coming decades(1–2% of global GDP), but they will turn into a positive cash flow after 2035, leading to a positive annual result of 2% of GDP in 2050.
