A new analysis by Rewiring America shows that transitioning to 100% clean energy would save Americans as much as $321 billion in energy costs each year while dramatically reducing economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions. The Rewiring America Report, “No Place Like Home: Fighting Climate Change (and Saving Money) by Electrifying America’s Households” by Saul Griffith and Sam Calisch, finds that would mean up to $2,585 per year in savings to each American household’s energy bills. The report builds on an earlier analysis by Rewiring America that shows that clean energy electrification could create 25 million new jobs. Every zip code in the country would see employment gains.
Today the average American household spends approximately $4,470 per year on heating and cooling the home, generating hot water and driving cars. Transitioning away from fossil fuels and electrifying the U.S. economy — replacing old fossil fuel-based machines with electric versions at every opportunity, and switching electricity generation from dirty sources such as coal to clean ones such as rooftop solar — would provide significant savings to every American.
“As Americans continue to struggle to make ends meet, this analysis provides an exciting and desperately needed roadmap for a brighter future,” said Adam Zurofsky, executive director of Rewiring America.“If we do it right, electrifying the American household presents a unique opportunity to create millions of jobs, save families thousands of dollars a year and dramatically slash our carbon emissions in the process.”
“Rapid electrification with renewable resources of all energy use is a critical element to beating back the existential threat we face from global climate disruption. Rewiring America shows us how to make that happen here in the U.S. while actually saving consumers money and creating jobs,” said Jon Wellinghoff, former FERC chairman & CEO of Grid Policy Consulting.
This report from Rewiring America analyzes what these upgrades would cost households in each state and under what circumstances they could expect to save money.
Key findings of the report:
- With the right policies, the average household in every state would be better off economically by electrifying. Annual savings would average between $1,050 to $2,585.
- The U.S. as a whole would annually save between $130 billion and $321 billion.
- The benefits laid out in the report are strictly economic, independent of additional benefits electrification would bring in terms of health, climate, reduced maintenance costs and more consistent performance.
- Massive industrial growth will be necessary to meet increased demand for electric machines and bring about lower costs over the longer term.
- New jobs would be created in every zip code in every state in the country.
News item from Rewiring America
Paul Scott says
In 2002, We installed a solar PV system on our house. A couple months later, we bought our first electric vehicle, a Toyota RAV4 EV. Solar back then was pretty expensive, $10/watt as I recall, but the federal and state incentives brought that down to what we considered an affordable price.
We tracked our energy costs and found that the money we saved by not buying dirty electricity from our utility, combined with the gasoline we did not buy because our car didn’t use it, together paid off the solar in 2010, about 8 years. Since then, and for the rest of our lives, we get free clean energy from the sun to power our home, cars and motorcycles. My Tesla and Zero SR/S are superior to all cars and motorcycles on the market, and they are free to operate. My life is much better because of that decision to invest in solar 18 years ago. Today, solar costs less than $1/watt, so the payoff is much quicker still.
Solarman says
There’s this guy Barry Cinnamon, who posts articles on alternative energy and energy storage from time to time and is in the solar PV business. He recently posted an article about his experience of upgrading energy efficiency of his own 50 year old home. He documented costs of items replaced and added to the home to bring it to “all electric ” operations. He upgraded the electric panel, added insulation, tightened up the living envelope, installed solar PV and replaced several appliances with Energy Star units. Total cost, about $80K, counting energy savings from (both) energy saved by Energy Star appliances and getting rid of energy costs from natural gas, he was able to save $10K a year on energy costs. He will pay for the upgrades in energy costs in 8 years. Everyone has a budget from, reoccurring costs like electricity, natural gas, internet and streaming services, insurance, taxes, groceries. After this upgrade pays for itself, there will be $10K available for ‘other’ reoccurring costs in the budget. In this guy’s case he could pay for his property taxes, maybe insurance on the home for the year, groceries etc.
Mentioned in the article is having a BEV and saving money on actual fuel costs each month. IF one builds their solar PV system large enough, and charges at home most of the time, shedding regular “fuel” costs for the year can also be added back into the budget for something else. Bottom line, energy costs going up technology costs coming down. Trying to use excuses like “doesn’t pencil out” are laughable, excuses like, I live in an apartment or condo are falling to expansion of community solar PV and perhaps wind generation projects that use available land in communities that folks can buy into to save money in the budget every month. Just 15 to 20 years ago, it was ‘easy’ to dismiss buying one’s own energy generation system for their home, now with electric utility rate spiking programs and now the PSPS that may shut off power to your home from hours to days when inclement weather fronts move through your region give resiliency a value beyond ROI.