The jobs required to build and run the renewable power supply would be greater than the jobs lost by closing down the fossil and nuclear power suppliers. About 0.42% of land would be covered by the generators. An additional 1.6 % of land would have wind generators spaced widely. The land in between could be used for farming or other uses.
This paper quantitates the work required to bring carbon emissions down to zero and shows that it can be done in a cost effective manner. There are few technical barriers that need to be overcome to implement this proposal. The primary issue is lack of political will.
For this paper Jacobson et al set up enough renewable generators in each of the 50 states to generate all the power needed for that state. A separate grid integration study (just accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science pending minor revisions) details the grid interconnections needed to provide 24/7 power coverage for all the states. Since renewable energy varies over the USA, a stronger grid is required to ensure everyone has enough power all the time.
Jacobson et al. have previously developed roadmaps for California and New York. This paper expands on that previous work and shows that all 50 states can generate the power they require. Jacobson et al have developed similar roadmaps for many countries and for the globe as a whole.
Read more at New Paper Shows that Renewables Can Supply 100% of All Energy (Not Just Electricity) Used in the World
Few have recognized that Phanerozoic eon (last 542 million years) temperature estimates prove CO2 up to at least six times the current level has had no effect on average global temperature. The analysis at http://agwunveiled.blogspot.com shows what to look for and discloses what actually does cause climate change (R^2 greater than 0.97 since before 1900).
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