Suddenly everyone wants to talk about what it would take to get
Beyond Oil in 20 Years. Today's contribution is from David
Biello in the always-smart Yale environment360 with Green
Energy's Big Challenge: The Daunting Task of Scaling Up. Like
Mark Delucchi and Mark Jacobson, Biello is trying to tease out
whether it is possible to wean the world from fossil fuels in
the near future. He concludes that it is--but at the cost of the
total transformation of the country and the globe. One thing is
certain: If the global economy does succeed in making the
transition to renewable energy, the face of the planet will be
significantly changed, with solar energy farms and wind turbines
a common feature of many landscapes and seascapes. Producing 10
percent of the energy the United States used in 2009 from wind
farms, for example, would require turbines covering an area the
size of New Hampshire. Meeting global energy demand from solar
power would mean covering 1 percent of the earth's surface with
solar panels. The probl