Clean & Renewable Energy Sources
To address climate change, the world must require higher efficiency from existing energy sources and move to cleaner power sources. Chicago homes and businesses receive power purchased from the larger regional grid of Midwest plants, which includes nuclear, coal-fired, natural-gas fired and renewable-generation plants. Some of these are a significant source of C02 emissions, especially those that use coal. Upgrading or repowering the 21 coal plants in the state of Illinois, including two in Chicago, could yield a significant reductions, Chicago's share of which would be 2.5 million metric tons of C02e. Implementation of a cap and trade system will also help achieve this goal.
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Mitigation Strategies
1. Upgrade power plants: Upgrade or repower 21 Illinois power plants = 2.5 MMTCO2e reduction*
2. Improve power plant efficiency: Raise efficiency standards for new and existing power generators = 1.04 MMTCO2e reduction*
3. Build renewable electricity: Procure enough renewable energy generation for Chicagoans to reduce electricity emissions by 20 percent = 3.0 MMTCO2e reduction*
4. Increase distributed generation: Increase efficient power generated onsite using distributed generation and combined heat and power = 1.12 MMTCO2e reduction*
5. Promote household renewable power: Double current household-scale renewable electricity generation = .28 MMTCO2e reduction*
*MMTCO2e (million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent) is the term for the quantity of any greenhouse gas, including carbon dioxide, methane and others, translated CO2 by weighing it by its relative global warming potential. A reduction of 1 MMTCO2e is equivalent to removing nearly 185,000 cars from the road.