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Review of Solutions to Global Warming, Air
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Pollution, and Energy Security
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Mark Z. Jacobson
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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford,
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California 94305-4020, USA; Email: jacobson@stanford.edu; Tel: (650) 723-6836
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Energy Environ. Sci., 2009, doi:10.1039/b809990C
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http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/EE/article.asp?doi=b809990c
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Published online Dec. 1, 2008
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Abstract
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This paper reviews and ranks major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming,
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air pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the
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proposed solutions, such as on water supply, land use, wildlife, resource availability,
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thermal pollution, water chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, and undernutrition.
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Nine electric power sources and two liquid fuel options are considered. The electricity
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sources include solar-photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind,
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geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and storage
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(CCS) technology. The liquid fuel options include corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic E85.
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To place the electric and liquid fuel sources on an equal footing, we examine their
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comparative abilities to address the problems mentioned by powering new-technology
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vehicles, including battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
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(HFCVs), and flex-fuel vehicles run on E85. Twelve combinations of energy source-
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vehicle type are considered. Upon ranking and weighting each combination with respect
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to each of 11 impact categories, four clear divisions of ranking, or tiers, emerge. Tier 1
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(highest-ranked) includes wind-BEVs and wind-HFCVs. Tier 2 includes CSP-BEVs,
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Geothermal-BEVs, PV-BEVs, tidal-BEVs, and wave-BEVs. Tier 3 includes hydro-
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BEVs, nuclear-BEVs, and CCS-BEVs. Tier 4 includes corn- and cellulosic-E85. Wind-
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BEVs ranked first in seven out of 11 categories, includi