POWERING AMERICA’S CLEAN ECONOMY A SUPPLEMENTAL ANALYSIS TO THE 2035 REPORT ELECTRICITY

The report demonstrates that the U.S. can achieve 80% clean electricity by 2030 without increasing wholesale electricity costs or compromising grid dependability. This transition would require 950 GW of new wind and solar capacity and 227 GW of battery storage, necessitating $1.5 trillion in clean energy capital investments. The '80% Clean' scenario avoids $1.7 trillion in health and environmental damages and 93,000 premature deaths through 2050 compared to a 'No New Policy' case. The analysis concludes that such a target is feasible and critical for enabling broader economy-wide decarbonization of transportation, buildings, and industry to align with a 1.5°C warming limit.

• Achieving an 80 percent clean electricity grid by 2030 is not possible under current state and federal policies; the 'No New Policy' case only reaches 45 percent clean electricity by 2030.
• An 80 percent clean grid is operationally dependable and can meet demand every hour of the year without coal plants or new natural gas plants, relying on existing hydropower, nuclear, and natural gas capacity combined with new battery storage.
• Wholesale electricity costs in 2030 under the 80% Clean case are projected to be the same as 2020 costs (5.1 cents/kWh), though they are 6 percent higher than the 'No New Policy' case when environmental externalities are excluded.
• When accounting for health and environmental externalities, wholesale electricity prices in the 80% Clean case are 31 percent lower than in the No New Policy case for 2030.
• The 80% Clean scenario, combined with transportation electrification, avoids over $1.7 trillion in health and environmental costs and 93,000 premature deaths from the power sector alone through 2050.
• Combined power sector and transportation electrification avoid over 240,000 premature deaths and $3 trillion in environmental costs by 2050.
• To reach the 80% target by 2030, the U.S. must install 950 GW of new wind and solar generation and over 225 GW of battery storage capacity, averaging approximately 120 GW of new capacity per year.
• The transition to an 80% clean grid requires $1.5 trillion in clean energy capital investments and $100 billion in transmission capital investments, with investments spread across all U.S. regions.
• The 80% Clean case reduces power sector CO2 emissions by 84 percent relative to 2005 levels by 2030, and when combined with building and industrial electrification, reduces economy-wide CO2 emissions by 50 percent from 2005 levels.

APA

ABHYANKAR, N., PALIWAL, U., MCNAIR, T., WOOLEY, D., O’BOYLE, M., & PHADKE, A. (2021). POWERING AMERICA’S CLEAN ECONOMY A SUPPLEMENTAL ANALYSIS TO THE 2035 REPORT ELECTRICITY. Energy Innovation. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2030-Report-FINAL.pdf

Chicago

ABHYANKAR, NIKIT, UMED PALIWAL, TAYLOR MCNAIR, DAVID WOOLEY, MICHAEL O’BOYLE, and AMOL PHADKE. POWERING AMERICA’S CLEAN ECONOMY A SUPPLEMENTAL ANALYSIS TO THE 2035 REPORT ELECTRICITY. Energy Innovation, 2021. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2030-Report-FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=ABHYANKAR |first1=NIKIT |last2=PALIWAL |first2=UMED |last3=MCNAIR |first3=TAYLOR |last4=WOOLEY |first4=DAVID |last5=O’BOYLE |first5=MICHAEL |last6=PHADKE |first6=AMOL |title=POWERING AMERICA’S CLEAN ECONOMY A SUPPLEMENTAL ANALYSIS TO THE 2035 REPORT ELECTRICITY |publisher=Energy Innovation |date=April 2021 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2030-Report-FINAL.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{abhyankar2021powering, author = {ABHYANKAR, NIKIT and PALIWAL, UMED and MCNAIR, TAYLOR and WOOLEY, DAVID and O’BOYLE, MICHAEL and PHADKE, AMOL}, title = {{POWERING AMERICA’S CLEAN ECONOMY A SUPPLEMENTAL ANALYSIS TO THE 2035 REPORT ELECTRICITY}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2030-Report-FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }