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

Emissions in New Hampshire

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


New Hampshire's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    29% of New Hampshire'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 New Hampshire's 578,000 buildings.

    In fact, 22% of appliances in buildings in New Hampshire are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 448,000 dirty buildings in New Hampshire. That's around 17,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.22.41% have been electrified, and the remaining 77.59% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 29% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    44% of New Hampshire'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 461,000 vehicles in New Hampshire and 3,000 are already electric (0.6% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 458,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 17,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.6% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.4% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 44% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    13% of New Hampshire'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 New Hampshire

    1 coal plant

    Name: Merrimack
County: Merrimack
Megawatt Capacity: 496
Utility: Granite Shore Power

    Merrimack
    Merrimack County
    496 MW

    3 gas plants

    Name: Granite Ridge Energy
County: Rockingham
Megawatt Capacity: 790
Utility: Granite Ridge Energy LLC

    Granite Ridge Energy
    Rockingham County
    790 MW

    Name: Newington Energy
County: Rockingham
Megawatt Capacity: 606
Utility: Essential Power Newington LLC

    Newington Energy
    Rockingham County
    606 MW

    Name: Hampton Facility
County: Rockingham
Megawatt Capacity: 9
Utility: Foss Manufacturing Company LLC

    Hampton Facility
    Rockingham County
    9 MW

    5 oil plants

    Name: Newington
County: Rockingham
Megawatt Capacity: 414
Utility: Granite Shore Power

    Newington
    Rockingham County
    414 MW

    Name: White Lake
County: Carroll
Megawatt Capacity: 19
Utility: Granite Shore Power

    White Lake
    Carroll County
    19 MW

    Name: Lost Nation
County: Coos
Megawatt Capacity: 18
Utility: Granite Shore Power

    Lost Nation
    Coos County
    18 MW

    Name: Dartmouth College Heating Plant
County: Grafton
Megawatt Capacity: 7
Utility: Dartmouth College

    Dartmouth College Heating Plant
    Grafton County
    7 MW

    Name: Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center
County: Hillsborough
Megawatt Capacity: 2
Utility: Crotched Mt Rehab Ctr Inc

    Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center
    Hillsborough County
    2 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, New Hampshire would need to install about 513 turbines.

    Since New Hampshire already has 58 MW of wind and 22 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 50 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 4% 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 13% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 13%🔌 Power: 13%🚗 Transport: 44%🏠 Buildings: 29%

    The last 13% of New Hampshire'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!


Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

Take Action