Tags

Reinventing Fire describes an energy future markedly different from business-as-usual official forecasts. For the same level of economic activity (2050 GDP 2.58 times 2010’s), Reinventing Fire envisions an economy that uses 71 quadrillion BTUs of primary energy in 2050, 39% less than the business-as-usual-forecast or 21% below 2010’s level. Reinventing Fire shows how the primary energy needed can come from roughly one-fourth natural gas (the same share as now), and the rest from renewables rather than, as now, from oil and coal. Wind, solar, biomass, and natural gas account for 98% of primary energy used in Reinventing Fire in 2050, the rest from coal and oil. If the hydrogen shown were all reformed from natural gas, it would come half from gas and half from steam.