{"id":143806,"date":"2022-08-09T03:57:40","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T08:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/sophisticated-models-provide-a-roadmap-for-southern-africas-clean-energy-future"},"modified":"2022-08-09T03:57:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T08:57:40","slug":"sophisticated-models-provide-a-roadmap-for-southern-africas-clean-energy-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/sophisticated-models-provide-a-roadmap-for-southern-africas-clean-energy-future","title":{"rendered":"Sophisticated models provide a roadmap for Southern Africa\u2019s clean energy future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/sophisticated-models-provide-a-roadmap-for-southern-africas-clean-energy-future2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The economy of Southern Africa is rapidly developing, driving a growing demand for electricity. Efficiently meeting this demand will require balancing social, economic, geographic, technological and environmental considerations.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at UC Santa Barbara led an international team that analyzed the region\u2019s resources and <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/power+grid\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">power grid<\/a>. Using this data, they developed an <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/energy\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">energy<\/a> portfolio that most effectively meets Southern Africa\u2019s 2040 energy requirements, finding that wind and solar are the region\u2019s most cost-effective options. What\u2019s more, their model\u2019s proposal effectively freezes <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/greenhouse+gas+emissions\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> at 2020 levels while doubling the amount of <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/tags\/electricity\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">electricity<\/a> the grid can produce. A detailed analysis appears in the journal <i>Joule<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, Southern Africa\u2019s 315 million people use about 275 terawatt hours, roughly the same amount as California. \u201cHowever, Southern Africa is expected to double its electricity demand by 2040,\u201d said co-lead and corresponding author Ranjit Deshmukh, an assistant professor in UCSB\u2019s Environmental Studies Program. \u201cDeveloping the region\u2019s excellent wind, solar and natural gas resources is the least expensive option for its consumers, and can meet this demand without increasing the region\u2019s electricity sector carbon emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The economy of Southern Africa is rapidly developing, driving a growing demand for electricity. Efficiently meeting this demand will require balancing social, economic, geographic, technological and environmental considerations. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara led an international team that analyzed the region\u2019s resources and power grid. Using this data, they developed an energy portfolio that most [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,1497],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}