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

Emissions in Nevada

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


Nevada's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

    11% of Nevada'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 Nevada's 1.0 million buildings.

    In fact, 35% of appliances in buildings in Nevada are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 658,000 dirty buildings in Nevada. That's around 24,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.34.63% have been electrified, and the remaining 65.37% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 11% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

    36% of Nevada'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 1.0 million vehicles in Nevada and 11,000 are already electric (1.1% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 1.0 million gas-powered vehicles. That's around 38,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.1.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 98.9% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 36% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

    31% of Nevada'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 Nevada

    2 coal plants

    Name: North Valmy
County: Humboldt
Megawatt Capacity: 567
Utility: Sierra Pacific Power Co

    North Valmy
    Humboldt County
    567 MW

    Name: TS Power Plant
County: Eureka
Megawatt Capacity: 410
Utility: Nevada Gold Energy, LLC

    TS Power Plant
    Eureka County
    410 MW

    17 gas plants

    Name: Clark
County: Clark
Megawatt Capacity: 1,566
Utility: Nevada Power Co

    Clark
    Clark County
    1,566 MW

    Name: Chuck Lenzie Generating Station
County: Clark
Megawatt Capacity: 1,466
Utility: Nevada Power Co

    Chuck Lenzie Generating Station
    Clark County
    1,466 MW

    Name: Tracy
County: Storey
Megawatt Capacity: 1,183
Utility: Sierra Pacific Power Co

    Tracy
    Storey County
    1,183 MW

    Name: Harry Allen
County: Clark
Megawatt Capacity: 745
Utility: Nevada Power Co

    Harry Allen
    Clark County
    745 MW

    ...and 13 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, Nevada would need to install about 1,000 turbines.

    Since Nevada already has 39 MW of wind and 881 MW of solar, that's 3,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 2,000 MW of solar power. That's around 105 MW of wind power and 89 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 27.5% 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 31% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 22%🔌 Power: 31%🚗 Transport: 36%🏠 Buildings: 11%

    The last 22% of Nevada'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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