Sun and wind? Nice, but fossil fuels are needed to move the world. This belief is actually becoming less granitic as time goes by. “An energy system powered 100% by renewable sources is not only possible, but also sustainable from a cost point of view,” explains an analysis of 15 European scientists, including Ugo Bardichemist at the University of Florence.
The research is published in Access, the journal of the Ieee, (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers). “New methods allow us to design realistic scenarios for a future without fossil fuels,” it says. It won’t happen tomorrow and it won’t be easy. But according to the researchers it is an achievable goal even before 2050, the deadline that the European Union has set itself for zeroing its carbon dioxide emissions.
If the technical solutions exist – is the message of the study – it is up to politics to commit to ensuring that all means are put in place: sun and wind in the first place, but also tools for energy storage, electrification, district heating, up to the removal of anhydride. carbon dioxide from the air.
THE OPEN LETTER OF SCIENTISTS
For politics to act it is necessary that the voters demand it strongly. At the initiative of Green&Bluewith a letter on Republic a group of climate scientists called on politics to address the environmental crisis as a matter of urgency. The appeal has become a petition – “A vote for the climate” – which can be signed on the site Change.org. It has already reached 175,000 signatures and has the goal of 200,000 at hand.
That renewables have solid shoulders to support our society is also the conviction of the group of scientists from “Energy for Italy”, led by the great chemist from the University of Bologna. Vincenzo Balzani. “The sun – explains the group in its decalogue for the elections – provides 15 thousand times the energy that humanity needs every year”. It is necessary that “each of us is enabled to produce clean energy and share it through a reorganized electricity grid to manage 100% renewable electricity”.