Biden’s Plan for a Clean Energy Economy by 2050

As he begins stepping into the presidency, Joe Biden has already been making a few changes in addressing the climate emergency and developing policies that strive toward a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050.

The President-elect has released the Clean Energy Revolution, a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. According to many scientists and climate advocacy groups, it is essential to remove two billion tons of carbon dioxide per year by mid-century to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.

Biden plans to recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change. In 2017, President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the environmental agreement as a part of his America First policy—but due to the structure of the agreement, the withdrawal didn’t take effect until November 4, 2020. Biden wants to not only recommit to the agreement but also to include enforceable responsibilities that allow the U.S. to be environmentally transparent.

According to the plan, the cabinet will take action against big polluters that put communities at risk as well as ensure that communities across the country—from Flint, Mich. and Harlan, Ky. to the New Hampshire Seacoast—have access to clean, safe drinking water.

In the first year of his four-year term, Biden plans to work with Congress to develop enforcements and milestone targets starting in 2025, invest $1.7 trillion in clean energy and climate research over the next decade, and incentivize clean energy innovations. He aims to develop regional climate resilience plans in partnership with local universities and national labs. Specifically, his administration wants to provide more research and development funding in four main areas.

Though electric vehicles are better for the environment, they aren’t so great on people’s wallets. That’s why the Biden-Harris administration wants to start by driving down the cost of electric vehicles and increasing the duration of energy storage in these vehicles. By focusing on building better batteries, companies can use extremely cheap, energy-dense materials instead of lithium-ion. 

For example, Form Energy, a Massachusetts startup, has developed batteries from two different electrolytes: the catholyte and the anolyte. Both can be stored in big tanks that can be swapped for larger tanks using the same number of electrodes. Charged atoms, known as ions, carry the current through the electrolytes between the two electrodes as the battery charges or discharges. 

Another way to create a cost-effective battery is by retaining energy in the form of extreme heat or cold in a variety of substances, like underground rocks or ice blocks. Antora Energy is developing a new type of thermal storage that can keep the substance inside a tank at temperatures above 2,000 ˚C. The solar or wind farms can be used to heat the material and convert it into electricity when needed. 

Besides batteries, the Biden-Harris administration plans to invest in negative emissions technologies, including carbon-sucking machines and methods to speed up the natural process of removing carbon. The new administration also wants to allocate funding to plants that focus on bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration—the process of extracting bioenergy from biomass and removing carbon from the atmosphere.

Before the election, Joe Biden’s climate plan aimed to develop a research program to produce a clean form of gas that would be cheap enough to fuel power plants within a decade. Green hydrogen is just that, as a truly emission-free and clean version of hydrogen. It uses electricity from renewable sources such as wind or solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through a process called electrolysis. 

Green hydrogen aims to electrify some of the biggest sectors that contribute to climate change, such as aviation, marine shipping and heavy industry. Many groups are researching green hydrogen fuel cell trucks, hydrogen-powered cars, hydrogen gas networks and hydrogen generators. 

For green hydrogen to replace power plants, research groups must find a way to make the process more energy-efficient since solar, wind and nuclear power on their own are currently more economical. Solar, wind and nuclear power can produce heat with close to 100 percent efficiency or 200 to 400 percent efficiency with a heat pump. The energy can also be used in mechanical work by a motor with at least 90 percent efficiency.

Current power plants will also need to be modified, as manufacturers will need to overhaul their infrastructure to distribute, store and use green hydrogen as well as stack up fuel cells or build and retrofit power plants to use the fuel to power the grid directly.

All of these changes will take a lot of time and money.

Several research groups and startups are developing new types of nuclear reactors that promise to be smaller, safer and cheaper. The Biden plan states that Americans will have access to reliable, emissions-free energy through nuclear power.

Currently, the main issue with nuclear reactors is addressing the nuclear waste they produce such as uranium mill tailings, spent (used) reactor fuel, and other radioactive wastes. Most of the waste related to the nuclear power industry has low radioactivity on average and will decrease over time naturally through the storage system.

Nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gases during power generation, but it does require large amounts of energy when mining, extracting and enriching uranium. It also involves huge construction projects that require manufacturers to meet certain regulations and design requirements. Along with these factors, nuclear energy is associated with massive capital costs due to the preparation, manufacturing, construction and commissioning,  among other processes, involved.

On the bright side, nuclear plants generate a large amount of energy per reactor. In fact, 652 wind plants or 217 small hydro plants are equal to one nuclear power plant. Nuclear plants also require less maintenance, and have twice the capacity of natural gas and coal plants, and three times the capacity of wind and solar plants. 

Nuclear reactors are important to an emissions-free future, but more research and advancements are needed before they can reach that milestone. 

Research groups are looking into developing new ways to produce industrial heat, which usually relies on burning fossil fuels, to clean up the production of steel, concrete and other construction materials. They are looking into using biomaterial, bacteria, and even hemp.  

One example is mineral carbonation, which is a chemical reaction that combines CO2 with minerals such as serpentinite to form a solid carbonate made up of magnesium, silica and other materials. This capture CO2 right at the source. 

Researchers at the University of Colorado are using the bacteria Synechococcus to create bio-bricks. As the bricks age, the bacteria begin to colonize the gelatin binder of the brick structure, transforming the form into a solid construction material of mineralized calcium carbonate and sand. 

The Biden-Harris administration plans to fund more research into similar projects.

The plan will be paid for by reversing Trump’s tax cuts for corporations and reducing incentives for outsourcing. Biden’s proposal embraces the need to quickly combat the climate crisis and make sure that the U.S. economy complements the environment.