[font face=Serif][font size=5]Low-carbon electricity future is clean and feasible[/font]

[font size=4]A future where electricity comes mostly from low-carbon sources is not only feasible in terms of material demand, but will significantly reduce air pollution, a study published in the 6 October Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says.[/font]

[font size=3]An international team led by Edgar Hertwich and Thomas Gibon from NTNU’s Industrial Ecology Programme have conducted the first-ever global comprehensive life cycle assessment of the long-term, wide-scale implementation of electricity generation from renewable resources.

“This is the first study that has assembled and scaled up the assessment of individual technologies to the whole world and assessed technology implementation to 2050, taking the environmental impacts of production into account,” Hertwich said.

...

The researchers looked at concentrating solar power, photovoltaics, wind power, hydropower, and gas- and coal-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS). They also assumed that the production of important raw materials, such as aluminum, copper, nickel, iron and steel, for example, would improve over time.

...[/font][/font]