Worldwide Renewable Energy Would Pay for Itself, Study Says

A new study conducted by Stanford University has found that running the entire world on clean energy would pay for itself in seven years time.

The study, published in ‘One Earth,’ looked at 143 countries that are responsible for more than 99 percent of the world’s greenhouse emissions.

By the researcher’s estimates, it would cost $73 trillion to revamp power grids, transportation and other systems, worldwide. However, once up and running, the revamp would save almost $11 trillion annually, eventually offsetting the initial cost.

The savings would come not only from using higher- efficiency systems, such as wind, solar and hydro power, it would also come from ending the extraction of fossil fuels and shifting entirely to electricity.

According to one of the study’s authors, Mark Jacobson, it proves that there is “no downside” to making the transition.

(With Bloomberg inputs)