To get to zero by 2050, Kansas must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in Kansas

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) [?] equivalent (MTCO2e [?]) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it


Kansas's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

    6% of Kansas's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps [?]
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves [?]

    ...in all of Kansas's 1.6 million buildings.

    In fact, 29% of appliances in buildings in Kansas are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 1.1 million dirty buildings in Kansas. That's around 42,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.29.23% have been electrified, and the remaining 70.77% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 6% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

    18% of Kansas's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 889,000 vehicles in Kansas and 3,000 are already electric (0.4% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 886,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 33,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.4% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.6% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 18% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

    21% of Kansas's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Kansas

    5 coal plants

    Name: Jeffrey Energy Center
County: Pottawatomie
Megawatt Capacity: 2,160
Utility: Evergy Kansas Central, Inc

    Jeffrey Energy Center
    Pottawatomie County
    2,160 MW

    Name: La Cygne
County: Linn
Megawatt Capacity: 1,599
Utility: Evergy Metro

    La Cygne
    Linn County
    1,599 MW

    Name: Nearman Creek
County: Wyandotte
Megawatt Capacity: 671
Utility: City of Kansas City - (KS)

    Nearman Creek
    Wyandotte County
    671 MW

    Name: Lawrence Energy Center
County: Douglas
Megawatt Capacity: 604
Utility: Evergy Kansas Central, Inc

    Lawrence Energy Center
    Douglas County
    604 MW

    Name: Holcomb
County: Finney
Megawatt Capacity: 349
Utility: Sunflower Electric Power Corp

    Holcomb
    Finney County
    349 MW

    52 gas plants

    Name: Gordon Evans Energy Center
County: Sedgwick
Megawatt Capacity: 904
Utility: Evergy Kansas South, Inc

    Gordon Evans Energy Center
    Sedgwick County
    904 MW

    Name: Osawatomie Generating Station
County: Miami
Megawatt Capacity: 741
Utility: Evergy Metro

    Osawatomie Generating Station
    Miami County
    741 MW

    Name: Emporia Energy Center
County: Lyon
Megawatt Capacity: 730
Utility: Evergy Kansas Central, Inc

    Emporia Energy Center
    Lyon County
    730 MW

    Name: Hutchinson Energy Center
County: Reno
Megawatt Capacity: 539
Utility: Evergy Kansas Central, Inc

    Hutchinson Energy Center
    Reno County
    539 MW

    ...and 48 more

    29 oil plants

    Name: Quindaro
County: Wyandotte
Megawatt Capacity: 388
Utility: City of Kansas City - (KS)

    Quindaro
    Wyandotte County
    388 MW

    Name: Larned
County: Pawnee
Megawatt Capacity: 29
Utility: City of Larned - (KS)

    Larned
    Pawnee County
    29 MW

    Name: Holton
County: Jackson
Megawatt Capacity: 22
Utility: City of Holton - (KS)

    Holton
    Jackson County
    22 MW

    Name: Colby City of
County: Thomas
Megawatt Capacity: 20
Utility: City of Colby - (KS)

    Colby City of
    Thomas County
    20 MW

    ...and 25 more
    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 3,000 megawatt (MW) [?] of wind power and 3,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Kansas would need to install about 1,000 turbines.

    Since Kansas already has 3,000 MW of wind and 14 MW of solar, that's 173 MW of wind power we need to build and 3,000 MW of solar power. That's around 6 MW of wind power and 118 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed Wind & Solar builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 47% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of Wind & Solar Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 21% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 21%🚗 Transport: 18%🏠 Buildings: 6%

    The last 54% of Kansas's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification [?] doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!


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