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

Emissions in Maine

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


Maine's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    29% of Maine'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 Maine's 759,000 buildings.

    In fact, 23% of appliances in buildings in Maine are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 583,000 dirty buildings in Maine. That's around 22,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.23.14% have been electrified, and the remaining 76.86% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 29% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    44% of Maine'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 356,000 vehicles in Maine and 2,000 are already electric (0.5% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 354,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 13,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.5% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.5% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 44% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    6% of Maine'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 Maine

    6 gas plants

    Name: Westbrook Energy Center
County: Cumberland
Megawatt Capacity: 564
Utility: Westbrook Energy Center

    Westbrook Energy Center
    Cumberland County
    564 MW

    Name: Maine Independence Station
County: Penobscot
Megawatt Capacity: 550
Utility: Casco Bay Energy Co LLC

    Maine Independence Station
    Penobscot County
    550 MW

    Name: Bucksport Generation LLC
County: Hancock
Megawatt Capacity: 298
Utility: Bucksport Generation LLC

    Bucksport Generation LLC
    Hancock County
    298 MW

    Name: Rumford Power
County: Oxford
Megawatt Capacity: 275
Utility: Rumford Power

    Rumford Power
    Oxford County
    275 MW

    Name: Androscoggin Energy
County: Franklin
Megawatt Capacity: 164
Utility: Verso Paper Androscoggin LLC

    Androscoggin Energy
    Franklin County
    164 MW

    Name: Eastern Maine Medical Center
County: Penobscot
Megawatt Capacity: 4
Utility: Eastern Maine Medical Center

    Eastern Maine Medical Center
    Penobscot County
    4 MW

    3 oil plants

    Name: William F Wyman
County: Cumberland
Megawatt Capacity: 863
Utility: FPL Energy Wyman LLC

    William F Wyman
    Cumberland County
    863 MW

    Name: Cape Gas Turbine
County: Cumberland
Megawatt Capacity: 35
Utility: FPL Energy Cape LLC

    Cape Gas Turbine
    Cumberland County
    35 MW

    Name: Robbins Lumber
County: Waldo
Megawatt Capacity: 13
Utility: Robbins Lumber Inc

    Robbins Lumber
    Waldo County
    13 MW

    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 1,000 megawatt (MW) [?] of wind power and 1,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Maine would need to install about 538 turbines.

    Since Maine already has 291 MW of wind and 36 MW of solar, that's 1,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 1,000 MW of solar power. That's around 44 MW of wind power and 43 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 13% 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 6% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 21%🔌 Power: 6%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    The last 21% of Maine'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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