The Dream of 100 Percent Renewable Energy is Viable

The dream of 100 percent renewable energy is alive and well with many nations proving that it can be done. It is not only California and Hawaii, states and territories across America are committing to 100 percent renewable energy. Washington, DC, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico are looking to go 100 percent renewable. Local and state legislators in Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, and Colorado have all passed clean-energy bills. In addition to New Mexico five other governors elected in 2018 have said they want their states to become zero-carbon (Colorado and Connecticut) or close to it (Illinois, Nevada, and Maine).

Last year renewable energy provided all of Portugal's electricity needs in the month of March and between 2016 and 2017 Costa Rica announced that the country had ran on renewables for more than 300 days. According to figures provided by Costa Rica's National Centre for Energy Control.
hydropower, wind,  geothermal, biomass and solar.  Hydrocarbons are less than one half of one percent. Costa Rica aims to be completely carbon-neutral by the year 2021.

"It really is time to debunk the myth that a country has to choose between development on the one hand and environmental protection, renewables, quality of life, on the other," the founder of renewable energy initiative group Costa Rica Limpia, Monica Araya, said. "[I]t's important to take note of what Costa Rica is doing here – their success can be ours too. We just have to want it badly enough."

In 2017 Sri Lanka announced that it would get all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050, primarily wind and solar energy. There will be 15,000 MW of wind and 16,000 MW of solar capacity with the rest coming from  hydro and biomass energy. Of course storage capacity will also need to be increased. If they succeed the country it will save the country a total of $18 billion that would have been spent on fossil fuels. Sri Lanka is one of 43 members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum who committed to produce 100 per cent of their electricity through renewables by 2050 at the Marrakesh COP negotiations.

Denmark aims to be 100% fossil-fuel-free by 2050. Chile is also looking at going 100 percent renewable by 2050. California expects to meet its conversion to renewable energy by 2045.

Other countries that are 100 percent renewable include Iceland which generates the most clean electricity per person on earth, with almost 100% of its energy coming from renewable sources In 2015 Sweden announced they were eliminating fossil fuel usage in the country. Scotland is able to produce enough wind power to export electricity. Nicaragua wants to be 90% renewables-powered by the year 2020 Uruguay is 95% renewables-powered.  Germany, USA, Kenya, China, and Morrocco also use growing amounts of renewable energy.  Taiwan plans is planning on reaching the goal of 20 percent renewables by 2025.

We are seeing massive investments in renewable energy from some of the most unlikely places. The oil producing state of Saudi Arabia plans to develop almost 10 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2023, starting with wind and solar plants in its vast northwestern desert.

Related
The New RE100 Initiative: 1000 Businesses 100% Renewable
Europe is Proving that 100% Renewables is Possible
Moving Towards 100% Renewables in the US
Renewable Energy in Africa and the Middle East
The ABCs of Latin American Renewable Energy (Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica)
Asian Renewable Energy (China, India Japan, South Korea)
Australia Can Go 100% Renewable Due to Falling Costs
Australian State Meets Energy Needs with Renewables
Australia Can Dump Coal and Adopt Renewables
Canada Could Get All of Its Electricity from Renewables
Europe Moving Towards 100 percent Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy Case Studies: Burlington Vermont and Argentina
Germany's Renewable Energy Leadership

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