North Dakota

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

Emissions in North Dakota

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

North Dakota's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    3% of North Dakota'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 North Dakota's 568,000 buildings.

    In fact, 43% of appliances in buildings in North Dakota are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 327,000 dirty buildings in North Dakota. That's around 12,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.42.51% have been electrified, and the remaining 57.49% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 3% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    10% of North Dakota'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 216,000 vehicles in North Dakota and 220 are already electric (0.1% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 215,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 8,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.9% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 10% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    33% of North Dakota'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 North Dakota

    7 coal plants

    Name: Coal Creek County: McLean Megawatt Capacity: 1,218 Utility: Great River Energy

    Coal Creek
    McLean County
    1,218 MW

    Name: Antelope Valley County: Mercer Megawatt Capacity: 954 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Antelope Valley
    Mercer County
    954 MW

    Name: Milton R Young County: Oliver Megawatt Capacity: 734 Utility: Minnkota Power Coop, Inc

    Milton R Young
    Oliver County
    734 MW

    Name: Leland Olds County: Mercer Megawatt Capacity: 656 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Leland Olds
    Mercer County
    656 MW

    Name: Coyote County: Mercer Megawatt Capacity: 450 Utility: Otter Tail Power Co

    Coyote
    Mercer County
    450 MW

    Name: R M Heskett County: Morton Megawatt Capacity: 291 Utility: Montana-Dakota Utilities Co

    R M Heskett
    Morton County
    291 MW

    Name: Spiritwood Station County: Stutsman Megawatt Capacity: 106 Utility: Great River Energy

    Spiritwood Station
    Stutsman County
    106 MW

    2 gas plants

    Name: Lonesome Creek Station County: McKenzie Megawatt Capacity: 303 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Lonesome Creek Station
    McKenzie County
    303 MW

    Name: Pioneer Generating Station County: Williams Megawatt Capacity: 293 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Pioneer Generating Station
    Williams County
    293 MW

    5 oil plants

    Name: Jamestown County: Stutsman Megawatt Capacity: 48 Utility: Otter Tail Power Co

    Jamestown
    Stutsman County
    48 MW

    Name: Hillsboro County: Traill Megawatt Capacity: 4 Utility: City of Hillsboro - (ND)

    Hillsboro
    Traill County
    4 MW

    Name: Kindred School County: Cass Megawatt Capacity: 2 Utility: Kindred Public School

    Kindred School
    Cass County
    2 MW

    Name: Portable Generator 2 County: Williams Megawatt Capacity: 2 Utility: Montana-Dakota Utilities Co

    Portable Generator 2
    Williams County
    2 MW

    Name: Portable Generator 3 County: Williams Megawatt Capacity: 2 Utility: Montana-Dakota Utilities Co

    Portable Generator 3
    Williams County
    2 MW

    Find the dirty plants near you

    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 2,000 megawatt (MW) [?] of wind power and 2,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, North Dakota would need to install about 716 turbines.

    Since North Dakota already has 2,000 MW of wind and 0 MW of solar, that's 308 MW of wind power we need to build and 2,000 MW of solar power. That's around 11 MW of wind power and 81 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 42% 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 33% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 33%🚗 Transport: 10%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    The last 54% of North Dakota'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

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