Idaho

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

Emissions in Idaho

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

Idaho's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

    10% of Idaho'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 Idaho's 942,000 buildings.

    In fact, 38% of appliances in buildings in Idaho are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 583,000 dirty buildings in Idaho. 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.38.12% have been electrified, and the remaining 61.88% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 10% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

    32% of Idaho'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 588,000 vehicles in Idaho and 2,000 are already electric (0.4% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 586,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 22,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.4% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.6% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 32% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

    4% of Idaho'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 Idaho

    8 gas plants

    Name: Bennett Mountain Power Project County: Elmore Megawatt Capacity: 393 Utility: Idaho Power Co

    Bennett Mountain Power Project
    Elmore County
    393 MW

    Name: Langley Gulch Power Plant County: Payette Megawatt Capacity: 319 Utility: Idaho Power Co

    Langley Gulch Power Plant
    Payette County
    319 MW

    Name: Rathdrum Power, LLC County: Kootenai Megawatt Capacity: 302 Utility: Rathdrum Operating Services Co., Inc.

    Rathdrum Power, LLC
    Kootenai County
    302 MW

    Name: Evander Andrews Power Complex County: Elmore Megawatt Capacity: 271 Utility: Idaho Power Co

    Evander Andrews Power Complex
    Elmore County
    271 MW

    Name: Rathdrum Combustion Turbine Project County: Kootenai Megawatt Capacity: 166 Utility: Avista Corp

    Rathdrum Combustion Turbine Project
    Kootenai County
    166 MW

    Name: Amalgamated Sugar Twin Falls County: Twin Falls Megawatt Capacity: 10 Utility: The Amalgamated Sugar Co

    Amalgamated Sugar Twin Falls
    Twin Falls County
    10 MW

    Name: Amalgamated Sugar LLC Nampa County: Canyon Megawatt Capacity: 9 Utility: Amalgamated Sugar Co-Nampa

    Amalgamated Sugar LLC Nampa
    Canyon County
    9 MW

    Name: BYUI Central Energy Facility County: Madison Megawatt Capacity: 6 Utility: Brigham Young Univ Idaho

    BYUI Central Energy Facility
    Madison County
    6 MW

    1 oil plant

    Name: Salmon Diesel County: Lemhi Megawatt Capacity: 5 Utility: Idaho Power Co

    Salmon Diesel
    Lemhi County
    5 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 1,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Idaho would need to install about 600 turbines.

    Since Idaho already has 303 MW of wind and 78 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 49 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 15% 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 4% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 54%🔌 Power: 4%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 10%

    The last 54% of Idaho'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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